ブックタイトルThe Journal of Humanitarian Studies

概要

The Journal of Humanitarian Studies

Journal of Humanitarian Studies Vol. 4, 2015In 1995, to mark the fifth anniversary of his release, the Government decided to organise a ceremony onRobben Island, where“Madiba”, as his friends used to call Mandela, had been detained for 27 years, ina tiny cell. Mandela instructed his personal assistant, Mr. Ahmed Kathadra, to request the ICRC Tracingdepartment in Pretoria to help his government get in touch with some of the prisoners the ICRC had visitedin the past, to invite them at the party but, to Kathadra’s great surprise, we refused, arguing that we wouldonly give names and addresses of these prisoners if all those detained for political reasons during theapartheid regime would be invited. When Kathadra replied that it would be very costly and logistically anightmare to organise, we advised him to coordinate with the South African Armed Forces, to put them incharge, as if there would be a major disaster, requiring a mass evacuation from several places in the countryto Robben Island, as a regrouping center. Mandela liked the idea and gave the necessary orders. Thus, theArmed Forces mobilised their planes, helicopters, ships, trucks, medical teams and logistics services andorganised a huge party, treating like guests, and feeding and housing them, thousands of former detaineesthey had helped to capture during the conflict.At this occasion, our ICRC Vice-President Moreillon, who had visited Mandela many timesin his cell when he was a young ICRC delegate, was invited and I accompanied him to theceremony on Robben Island. Mandela and Moreillon agreed to re-play, in front of the cameras,the“interview without witnesses”they used to have together, whenever Moreillon was visitingthe detainees in the prison. However, when the journalists came in, they realised the cell was toosmall for the“Detainee”Mandela, the“Delegate”Moreillon and the cameraman: we had to runaround and find a scale, which is a difficult thing to find in a prison, to allow the cameraman to film theinterview through the barred window of Mandela’s cell, from the outside…Later on, once everybody had gone and Mandela’s security detachment had left the prison, as I had theimmense privilege to be in that place at that particular moment, I stayed behind, alone, to see Mandela’scell quietly and reflect on the moral and physical strength that this great man must have had to endure sucha long imprisonment and go out with a forgiving smile on his face…Suddenly, I heard somebody in thecorridor and I looked out…to see President Mandela, alone also, coming back to his former cell. He wasas surprised as me to find someone there and he asked my name. When I told him I was the ICRC delegatein charge in Pretoria, he had a big smile and thanked me for what we had done for him and his friends inthe past. Then, he asked me not to tell anyone he was there, having escaped from his security apparatus, tohave some moments, quiet, where he would go back in his thoughts, to remember the incredible path hehad followed from his youth, fighting apartheid, to this prison and, finally, to the presidency of his belovedcountry.I could not say anything more and I got out, without a word nor a noise, leaving behind a man, deeply inthoughts. My immediate preoccupation was then to get out of the prison, to join my Vice-President, withoutbeing spotted by the security services. When one agent saw me and asked me if I had seen PresidentMandela, I had a brief hesitation, then I remembered the old man in his thoughts, in his tiny cell, and Ireplied negatively. The agent sighed and went around the crowd, to check if the President was among hisfriends, celebrating joyously the fifth anniversary of his release. Nobody else knew, at that time, that theirPresident was back in jail…(1)The Bicesse Agreement : art. 1 Cease-fire, al. 3.“The cease-fire entails the release of all civilian and military prisoners who were detainedas a consequence of the conflict between the Government of the People’s Republic of Angola and UNITA. Verification of such release will beperformed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.”26人道研究ジャーナルVol. 4, 2015