E/CN.4/1999/15/Add.1 page 8 over 1 000 people implicated in cases of large-scale human rights abuse, ranging from maltreatment to murder, and including torture and abduction. Although some people are inclined to denigrate the Commission and to describe it as a “circus” 5/, this ad hoc institution plays a vital conciliating role, defusing resentments and making a clean break with the past so that fraternal relations can be established between the different elements of South African society. 25. A further aspect of the policy of unity and reconciliation has been to entrust the media with the task of broadcasting a message of unity and conciliation. Thus, the South African Broadcasting Corporation has produced a slogan which is also a leitmotif :“Simunye-We are One”. All the races living in South Africa now appear on its television screens, reflecting the concept of “Rainbow Nation” created by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 26. The effects of the policy of unity and reconciliation on South African society have been mixed. The Commission has not received cooperation from the Inkatha Freedom Party which accuses it of conducting a “witch-hunt” among its members. None of this party’s leaders has requested amnesty for his actions, despite its involvement in political violence and the assassination of antiapartheid militants. Likewise, the National Party ceased cooperating with the Commission after former President of the Republic F.W. de Klerk was severely criticised for refusing to accept his party’s responsibility for the human rights abuses which occurred during the apartheid era. This party has refused to give evidence about the system of repression (the National Security Management System) established secretly during the early years of apartheid to smash the ANC and the opponents of apartheid. Moreover, the white judiciary and businessmen on whom apartheid depended for its continued existence have also refused to collaborate with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 27. Nevertheless, the Commission – which has completed its work and submitted its report on 29 October 1998 - has partly satisfied South Africans’ desire for the truth and their resolve to understand apartheid from inside, just as it has also come up to expectations regarding the nature of the offensive waged by the anti-apartheid forces and the errors they committed. During its sessions, the interaction between victims and perpetrators of human rights abuses, although painful, helped to calm heads and to dispel the perception that the perpetrators were exempt from punishment, through a process of catharsis. This exchange, without justifying their actions, humanised some of those who committed human rights abuses, giving them the opportunity to appear as hostages of a system they could not control and to obtain the direct forgiveness of survivors, victims and parents of victims. Thus, South Africans learned from the lips of Dr Daan Goosen, the leader of the project, that the former Government had initiated a scientific research programme aimed at developing a bacterium that would kill only Blacks or make them sterile. Furthermore, the dignity of victims has been restored and the compensation they will receive, even if it cannot make up for the disappearance of a loved one and the after-effects of maltreatment, 5/ The former President of the Republic, Pieter Botha, invited to testify to the Commission, treated it as a “circus” and refused to appear before it. The Commission then lodged a complaint against Mr. Botha for contempt of court.