THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
such events had taken place, and he said that the ANC accepted responsi-
bility for attacks carried out by its members; but he insisted that all such
actions should he condoned because the ANC had been involved in a just
war of liberation, which distinguished them from atrocities committed by
the apartheid state. The commission, led by chairman Tutu, would have
none of that. When the ANC demanded a blanket amnesty, he threatened to
resign if that was granted, and the ANC relented. The TRC endorsed the
United Nations resolution that apartheid was a crime against humanity,
but it drew a distinction between a "just war" and "just means" and
found the ANC guilty of gross violations of human rights. In his introduc-
tion to the TRC report, Tutu explained that "a gross violation is a gross vi-
olation, whoever commits it and for whatever reason. There is this legal
equivalence between all perpetrators. Their political affiliation is irrele-
vant." Nevertheless, the committee granted amnesty to thirty-seven ANC
politicians, including Mbeki.f?
From the beginning, the TRC was the recipient of much white criticism.
Whites denounced the law creating the commission and the anti-apartheid
background of most of its members. Then, as African victims poured out