Philippe Sands

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Nelson Mandela (L) and FW de Klerk received together the Nobel peace prize in 1993

FW de Klerk, The Last white man, South Africa , apologised for "quibble" about whether or not apartheid was a "crime against humanity", but the series has shown, old wounds, writes the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding .

The Past is still raw in South Africa .

Mr de Klerk's apology was an attempt to calm Two Weeks of increasingly angry debate, after he made comments that many interpreted as an attempt to rewrite history and the seriousness of the apartheid.

In a statement, by the De Klerk Foundation, the 83-year-old expressed his regret for the "confusion, anger, and pain," his remarks may be caused.

Two Weeks ago, in an interview with national broadcaster SABC prison, the former President said he was "in agreement" with the presenter, asked him to confirm that the apartheid, the legalized discrimination against non-white People , was A Crime against humanity.

in 1992, FW de Klerk sat in a white referendum on was support for reforms to end apartheid

Mr. de Klerk, to confirm that it was A Crime , and apologizing profusely for his role in it, but he insisted that the apartheid was responsible for relatively few deaths, and that they should not be in the same category of "genocide" or "crimes against humanity".

At first, South Africa seemed to twitch.

Mr. de Klerk, the 1993 Nobel peace prize winner, Nelson Mandela shared to help, to negotiate an end to the apartheid, is a peripheral figure in the country these days, and his potentially polarizing comments seem to go unnoticed.

Julius Malema led the members of his party to get the EFF, Mr de Klerk away from the Parliament

But that changed last Thursday when, as a former head of state, he visited the Parliament for President Cyril Ramaphosa annual speech on the state of The Nation .

members of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party interrupted The President and demanded that Mr de Klerk from The Chamber .

"We have a murderer in The House ," said EFF leader Julius Malema . He said that Mr de Klerk was an "apartheid apologists with blood on their hands".

An hour-and-a-half later, President Ramaphosa was finally able to begin his speech, and the EFF is aggressive delay tactics have been unanimously Condemned by the ruling ANC and the other opposition parties as an outrageous, shameful stunt.

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it seemed As If Mr. de Klerk were own comments more or less pushed into the background.

But not for long.

In The Days that followed, the backlash against Mr de Klerk gathered a furious momentum across the country, opening the wounds and provoking deep anger. The anger was fuelled in part by Social Media and by competing political agendas, but Mr de Klerk is blunt tries to defend his views.

His own non-profit Foundation initially gave a defiant statement that explained why he believed Mr de Klerk was right to point out that apartheid was A Crime against humanity.

He argued that describing it as such was simply "an agitprop project, initiated by the Soviet Union ," and that it was "to simple" South African white painful story in a "black/white, good/evil framework".

Mr. de Klerk, his Foundation stock, was an innocent victim of EFF's "bully boy tactics. the stir up racial hatred, and call your leader or Duce'".

In a BBC interview Last Friday , Mr de Klerk, his comment about the crimes against humanity "in accordance with the (UN) security Council at the time".

This was a reference to the fact that, although the UN declared the General Assembly that apartheid voted A Crime against humanity, the United States and the United Kingdom (both permanent members of the security Council) against the adoption of this description.

But that can't conceal the fact, the United Nations repeated condemnation of apartheid and the imposition of far-reaching sanctions against South Africa ends. The Apartheid was a "crime against humanity" in the Rome Statute, the establishment of The International Criminal Court .

'shock,' in de Klerk, the ignorance

"that is apartheid, It is not vulnerable and hopeless, today they claim, and has never been, a 'crime against humanity'," said Philippe Sands , QC, professor and expert on International Law .

in order To push home the same point, another former South African President, Thabo Mbeki announced that he would send Mr de Klerk, a copy of the relevant UN Convention, after he is shocked to learn from the People that don't know its predecessor, the "actually" of his existence.

Some Voices - particularly, but not exclusively, those of white South Africans , responded to Mr de Klerk's comments by calling for People to "move on" and focus on urgent priorities such as combating corruption, fighting poverty, and the revival of a stagnant economy.

the same Voices , which suggested that the furore was deliberately, cynically exploited by the ANC and others, to deflect attention from their own weaknesses, and the relocation of the blame on the white minority.

There is No Doubt that in recent years, under the former President, Jacob Zuma , and spurred on by the EFF, the political rhetoric in South Africa has become increasingly racialized. White farmers and "white Monopoly Capital " is often blamed for the country, the slow pace of economic transformation.

People in the queue in the millions of votes in South Africa 's first democratic elections in 1994

The former leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance , Helen Zille , has regularly complained of the growth of racial nationalism, and the "identity politics", which is also the friction within their own party.

But also for many others Here - perhaps even the majority - of Mr de Klerk's comments a wider perception appeared to strengthen, that many white People have never been forced to confront, correct, the evils of The Past . This is partly, perhaps, because the apartheid ended through negotiation rather than a military victory.

"far too many white South Africans ... to continue to deny, the full horrors of apartheid," wrote constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos. "[They] refuse to admit that they or their parents supported actively or tacitly, to The System and still reap the benefits given to them by The System . "

'De Klerk should

reverse'"Unfortunately, to justify, FW de Klerk, his Foundation, and the behavior of some of our white compatriots are trying to self -..., the systemic destruction of black lives for generations, has opened old wounds in the time when many questions of the very democracy and the exemption of dividends," wrote the political commentator Somadoda Fikeni on Twitter.

"De Klerk soaked, the fame and The Money on the speaking circuit if he regretted every single day," tweeted prominent journalist, Carol Paton.

The ANC has to condemn his own statement to Mr de Klerk's argument as "a blatant whitewash [the]... flies in The Face of our commitments to reconciliation and nation building".

Getty ImagesIt is the responsibility of the former leaders of the white Community . you demonstrate Courage . the necessary contribution to social healing," Desmond & Leah Tutu Foundation

Soon after, Archbishop Desmond Tutu , the Foundation called for the De Klerk Foundation's "pull on your statement".

It is angry, the former President chided: "It is the responsibility of the leaders and former leaders of the white Community , to show, in particular, the Courage , generosity and compassion necessary contribution to social healing. "

This line showed up in a particularly difficult time. As Desmond Tutu himself put it in his Foundation, the statement that South Africa "is on an economic precipice. It is characterized by radical poverty and injustice. Those who suffered most under apartheid continue to suffer the most today. "

Some black South Africans have been made to argue that Mr Mandela was a sell-out, and that the painful and hard-fought compromises that led to the emergence of a democratic "rainbow" nation, must now be re-examined.

In his second statement, but recognition of realized his first Mr de Klerk, that his comments on apartheid was "totally unacceptable".

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Source of news: bbc.com