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Africa Policy E-Journal
South Africa: Apartheid Debt & Reparations, 1 Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for Africa at http://www.africaaction.org +++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Southern Africa SUMMARY CONTENTS: A suit was filed today, November 12, in the New York Eastern District Court against 8 banks and 12 other companies in six Western countries for apartheid reparations, on behalf of the Khulumani Support Group and individual "victims of state-sanctioned torture, murder, rape, arbitrary detention, and inhumane treatment." This posting contains a press release from the Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign, a statement from the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, a list of the companies that are the defendants, and a profile of the Khulumani Support Group. Another posting distribued today contains excerpts from the stories of individual plaintiffs who are parties to the case. For additional background from the Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign, see http://www.africaaction.org/action/adrc0211.htm +++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PRESS RELEASE FROM APARTHEID DEBT & REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN
Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign EMBARGO: 11h00 (South Africa) Tuesday, 12 November 2002 Major Apartheid Reparations Suit Filed in US Court
For comment in South Africa please contact: For comment in other countries, please see list at end of media statement.
The full text of the filed complaint and other background
information is available at
After four years of failed attempts to get multinational banks and businesses that propped up the apartheid state to account for their odious profiteering, the Khulumani Support Group and Jubilee South Africa's Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign today announced that a major complaint for apartheid reparations was filed last night in the New York Eastern District Court on behalf of victims of state-sanctioned torture, murder, rape, arbitrary detention, and inhumane treatment. "The corporations aided and abetted a crime against humanity whose persistent social damage requires urgent repair," Jubilee South Africa said in a statement issued today. "They made massive profits while the suffering of the victims of apartheid intensified. The banks and businesses have consistently ignored our attempts to engage in discussion about their role in supporting broad social programmes for the reconstruction and development of affected communities and in compensating specific individuals for the damage that the corporations made possible." Thandi Shezi, one of the claimants from the Khulumani Support Group, said: "Today we lay claim to our right to redress from the banks and businesses that enabled gross violations of our human rights." "This is the only route left open to us to ensure that the truth is known about the extent of corporate complicity in apartheid abuses and that justice is delivered to those who suffered. The victims cannot be left to pay for their own suffering. Multinational corporations must be put on notice that complicity in crimes against humanity does not pay," said the Khulumani Support Group. The Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign, in consultation with its international partner campaigns, instructed its lawyers, Michael Hausfeld (USA) and Charles Abrahams (SA), to file the legal complaint in the United States of America on behalf of the Khulumani Support Group, a coalition partner organisation in Jubilee SA. Khulumani is an organisation of about thirty-two thousand victims of gross apartheid human rights violations. The complaint names eight banks and twelve oil, transport, communications technology, and armaments companies from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, the United States, Netherlands, and France, calling on them to contribute towards healing the damage caused by their profiteering from apartheid by paying compensation to the victims and reparations that will be used for reconstruction and development programmes. The Apartheid Debt & Reparations Campaign said: "In this claim, we express our commitment to the future of apartheid's victims, to the protection of human rights, and to the rule of law". "This suit has been filed after extensive international consideration of its legal and factual basis, and after thorough consultation amongst key organisations. Further complaints of similar weight in regard to other aspects of apartheid crimes will be filed in coming months." <ends> For comment please contact: South Africa: Neville Gabriel, Spokesperson: Jubilee SA, cell. +27 83 449 3934; Ntombi Mosikare, Secretary General: Khulumani Support Group, cell. +27 11 403 4098; Charles Abrahams, Legal Adviser: Jubilee SA, cell. +27 82 560 7152 Germany:Dieter Simon, German Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation & Reparations / Koordination Suedliches Africa (KOSA), tel. +49 521 986 4851; Anna Jung, German Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation & Reparations / Medico International, tel. +49 69 944 3827; Gottfried Wellmer, German Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation & Reparations, tel. +49 228 69 4792 Switzerland:Mascha Madoerin, Swiss Camapign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation & Reparations / Aktion Finanzplatz Scweiz, tel. +41 61 693 1700; Joe Elsener, Swiss Campaign for Apartheid-Caused Debt Cancellation & Reparations / Bethlehem Mission, tel. +41 41 375 7223 USA:Salih Booker, Director: Africa Action, tel. +1 202 546 7961; Bill Fletcher, Director: TransAfrica, tel. +1 202 223 1960; Michael Hausfeld, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll PLLC, tel. +1 202 408 4600 Britain: Euan Wilmshurst, Director: Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), tel. +44 20 7833 3133; Aditi Sharma, Campaigns Manager: Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), tel. +44 20 7833 3133 Netherlands:Peter Hermes, Director: Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA), tel. +31 20 520 6210 Note: The text of the complaint includes brief descriptions of the human rights violations and damages suffered by each of the named plaintiffs.
LIST OF DEFENDANTS 1. 20 Corporations and banks are cited as defendants in the Complaint. These defendants are all foreign corporations and banks. In alphabetical order they are:
2. The above corporations and banks are divided as follows into the various countries of origin:
3. The aforesaid corporations are divided into the following industries:
STATEMENT BY COHEN, MILSTEIN, HAUSFELD & TOLL
Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll November 12, 2002 Khulumani et al. v. Barclays et al. Today the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. along with other firms in the United States, joins with the South African firm, Abrahams Kiewitz, in filing a complaint that seeks to hold businesses responsible for aiding and abetting the apartheid regime in South Africa in furtherance of the commission of the crimes of apartheid, forced labor, genocide, extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual assault, and unlawful detention. The world community recognized apartheid itself as a crime against humanity and a violation of international law. Apartheid could not have been maintained in the same manner without the participation of the defendants. The lawsuit, Khulumani et al v. Barclays et al., was filed late this afternoon in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. The suit is based on common law principles of liability and on the Alien Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. 1350, which grants U.S. courts jurisdiction over certain violations of international law, regardless of where they occur. Twenty-two businesses, representing six industry types, have been named as defendants in the suit. The complaint seeks to hold those businesses, which the suit claims aided and abetted the apartheid regime, responsible. For example: IBM and ICL provided the computers that enabled South Africa to create the hated "pass book system" and to control the black South African population. Car manufacturers provided the armored vehicles that were used to patrol the townships. Arms manufacturers violated the embargoes on sales to South Africa, as did the oil companies. The banks provided the funding that enabled South Africa to expand its police and security apparatus. Recent historical evidence demonstrates that the involvement of companies in the key industries of mining, transportation, armaments, technology, oil, and financing were not only instrumental to the implementation of the furtherance of the abuses, but were so integrally connected to the abuses themselves that apartheid would probably not have occurred in the same way without their participation. Michael D. Hausfeld, the lead counsel in the suit said, "Apartheid was an institutionalized system of racial disenfranchisement, forced labor, and criminal domination. It sought to and did exploit and degrade the black South African population for a criminal purpose, through criminal means. Our complaint seeks a measure of justice from those entities which aided or abetted the commission of this atrocity."
About Khulmani Support Group Organizational History Our organization, the Khulumani Support Group works to assist victims of apartheid-era violence. Through victim empowerment and direct aid, we support victims in their struggle for personal and community reconciliation, thereby restoring their dignity and integrating them into mainstream society. Khulumani (meaning "Speak Out" in Zulu) is a national organization with its national headquarters located in Johannesburg. Initially, Khulumani was created as a subsidiary of South Africa's Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Although we maintain very close ties with CSVR, since 1999 we have officially and practically functioned as an autonomous organization. Our eight-member fulltime staff, work both in the national office and within all nine provinces. Over half of the staff are survivors of apartheid-era violence. Additionally, we have an active eight-member board, whose members represent various human rights groups. There are approximately 32,700 members of Khulumani. In order to meet the needs of our widespread membership, we operate by supporting over 70 community-based chapters in all nine of South Africa's provinces. These chapters vary in size, ranging from our smaller groups of 10-15 to larger groups of up to 120, as well as in active involvement in our programming Khulumani was established in 1995, by the survivors and families of the victims of the political violence that ensued during the apartheid era. KSG was first formed in response to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Our primary purpose was to ensure that the victims had the support they needed in order to speak out about their personal experiences with the human rights atrocities that were committed during the apartheid regime. Throughout the TRC process KSG helped victims obtain and fill out applications and appeals, coordinated meetings with TRC officials, provided individual and group counselling for victims throughout their testimonies in order to utilize the official process of truth telling for survivors to reclaim their victimization and their dignity. Khulumani also advocated the government on behalf of the victims to give them a voice throughout the creation and implementation of the TRC. In addition to working alongside the TRC process, we also strived to create innovative programs to broaden victim's personal reconciliation processes beyond the scope of the TRC. Once the TRC stopped taking statements in 1998, these programs became the main focus of Khulumani's work and have continued to drive our organization. Some of our most successful achievements have been the implementation of the following programs, which we also continue to implement even after the life of the TRC:
Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
available on the Africa Action website: To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list, write to e-journal@africaaction.org. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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Africa Policy E-Journal
