Thoughts on forgiveness and reconciliation

Editor:

We saw the excellent staging of “Jesus Christ Superstar” produced by the University of Lethbridge Drama Department.

I was moved. Judas Iscariot was superbly acted and sung by a talented female artist. Watching to see how Judas was agonized in deciding to betray her beloved master was excruciatingly painful.

Should we condemn the Judas-like character in our life as an unforgivable devil incarnate, or should we think of him with sympathy? As a man with a few mistakes in life, I am inclined to take the latter option.

We are all in need of forgiveness. Only when we feel forgiven, can we forgive.

There is one person in my life who is someone still difficult to forgive. For several years before his real identity became public, I had thought he was a good friend working for the same cause.

I liked to hang around with him, exchanging information and learning from each other. We often enjoyed dinners together at the Japanese Restaurant “Kyoto” by Lac Leman popularly known as the “Lake Geneva.”

In 1980, he was exposed as an agent of the South African National Police spying on the activities of foreign organizations that supported the South African Anti-Apartheid movement.

He was the reason some black and white activists, including 10 of my friends, were killed by the security police. Steve Biko, Abram Tiro, Mapetla Mohapi, to name a few. Ruth First, wife of Mandela’s lieutenant Joe Slovo, was blown up by a letter bomb. Countless others were imprisoned or seriously injured.

Craig Williamson now lives in Johannesburg. Being a very smart man he became a millionaire after apartheid was dismantled. He admitted all his actions he committed as a captain in the South African police. He told all the truth but did not admit guilt. He was forgiven by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I first met him in 1976 at Johannesburg Airport. I was on the way to the neighbouring country of Lesotho to meet with some students who were active in the Anti-Apartheid movement.

By then, I was a banned person not being allowed to enter South Africa. A personnel from the Canadian Embassy escorted me every time I was in transit at Johannesburg Airport.

One day in 1971, I was surprised to be met by Craig Williamson instead of a Canadian embassy staff. Craig informed me that Karel Tip, who was the president of the National Union of South African Students, was arrested and Craig Williamson as the Vice-President of the union came to meet me. We flew together to Lesotho where we attended administrative matters.

He came to Geneva faking as a refugee a few years later. He found a job in the European organization that supported student activists. He and I became friends. Friendship lasted until 1980 when I left Geneva to come back to Canada.

He lived there until 1981 when a British journalist exposed his true identity. He had to escape back to South Africa because espionage is illegal in Switzerland where bank secrecy is the basis of its successful international banking business.

I can count at least 10 persons who lost their lives because of Craig. He said he did nothing wrong. It was a war, he said. He was a soldier fighting communism as a patriotic South African. It is easier for me to forgive Judas than the former friend who never admitted his guilt. Judas agonized over his betrayal and committed suicide.

It is the fact that the process of forgiveness through truth and reconciliation saved South Africa from possible massive bloodshed. The same process worked in Northern Ireland ending centuries of bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants. I believe they now have a Shin Fein, a former IRA, member as First Minister. Miracles can happen when truth is told and the culprits forgiven. There was no such process adopted in Zimbabwe.

Look what an almighty mess they got into. Decades long bloody conflicts in Israel and Palestine seem hopeless. Is it too late to apply the “Truth and Reconciliation” process there? Forgiving the guilty merely as the result of the admission of truth seems impossible now. The cycle of violence and revenge killings continues so long as the terrorism and genocidal war are used as the instruments of peace.

If you are interested to know more about Craig Williamson, there is a book written about him by a South African journalist in Cape Town. Jonathan Ancer, “SPY: Uncovering Craig Williamson.”

A question remains. Should Judas Iscariot be forgiven? He did not profit from his betrayal and killed himself.

Should I forgive Craig Williamson? He didn’t think he did anything wrong. “It was a war,” he says. In a war we kill each other, betray and lie as instruments for victory.” When I was in Johannesburg as a member of the International Election Observers Group in 1994, a local journalist arranged my reunion with “old friend” Craig Williamson. I chickened out. I had no confidence that I could control my temper.

The old Canadian regime of the last two centuries applied the policy to extinguish “Indians in the Indian children” as the way to create a Christian European country in Canada.

Is the truth and reconciliation process working in Canada between the Indigenous people and the settlers? Do we truly believe that Canada made a mistake? It seems like the work is a very slow process. Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui

Lethbridge