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Nelson Mandela
takes the journals from ex-policeman Donald
Card | |
Two notebooks confiscated from former South African
president Nelson Mandela during his long imprisonment have been returned
to him.
The apartheid-era journals contain the drafts of letters Mr Mandela
wrote from his prison cell between 1969 and 1971.
They were handed back by former policeman Donald Card at a ceremony
marking the inauguration of an
archive of Mr Mandela's life.
Mr Mandela spent 27 years in prison for opposing the apartheid
administration.
The notebooks date from his incarceration
on the infamous Robben Island penal colony.
Mr Card was one of the policemen who gave evidence against Mr Mandela
and his fellow accused when they were tried for sabotage in 1964.
He said he had waited 33 years to return the notebooks, which he
acquired in 1971 when he was employed to inspect political prisoners'
belongings.
At the ceremony, Mr Mandela thanked him, saying, "What you have just
witnessed could be described as one old man giving another old man two old
notebooks."
He said the notebooks were "more than just the working documents of a
prisoner" and represented "the hope that we can recover memories and
stories suppressed by the apartheid regime".
"The history of our country is characterised by too much forgetting,"
Mr Mandela said, adding that his advancing age - he is now 86 years old -
had "forced him to make friends with forgetting".
Mr Mandela appealed to others who had worked for the South African
authorities of the time to come forward with any valuable documents and
mementoes they might still own.
(Agencies) |
南非前總統納爾遜·曼德拉曾經歷了漫長的監獄生活，他在獄中的兩本日記在被沒收（多年）后，終于物歸原主。
這兩本寫于南非種族隔離時期的日記包括了曼德拉從1969年到1971年在牢房中寫的信件的草稿。
在曼德拉生平陳列中心的揭幕儀式上，前獄警唐納德·卡德將日記本物歸原主。
曼德拉因為反對種族隔離制度而在監獄里度過了27年。
他曾經被囚禁在臭名昭著的流放地羅賓島，這兩本日記就是那個時候記下的。
1964年，曼德拉和他的同伴被指控“企圖以暴力推翻政府”，卡德就是當年作證指控曼德拉和他同伴的獄警之一。
卡德說他等了33年才把日記物歸原主。他是在1971年受命檢查政治犯物品時沒收了這兩本日記的。
在儀式上，曼德拉向他表示了感謝，并說：“你們剛才看到的情景可以描述為一位老人把兩本很老的日記歸還給另一位老人。”
曼德拉說日記本“不僅僅是一個囚犯的勞動記錄”，它還代表了“一種希望：我們可以借此回顧在種族隔離政權壓制下的一些記憶和故事”。
曼德拉說：“我們國家歷史的特點是，太多的歷史被遺忘了。”現年86歲的曼德拉補充說，他的高齡已經“迫使他和遺忘成為朋友”。
曼德拉號召其他為當時的南非政府工作過的人貢獻出他們可能擁有的任何有價值的文件和紀念品。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-09-23 10:18