This report focuses on the grave abuses of human rights of many South Africans which took place outside South Africa and for which the ANC was directly responsible. In October 1992 ANC president Nelson Mandela published the report of an internal commission of inquiry into torture and ill-treatment of prisoners in ANC custody. It found that prisoners held in Angola, Zambia and other frontline states were ill-treated and tortured. However, the commission’s terms of reference prevented it from investigating other issues, e.g. “disappearances” and executions of prisoners or establishing the identity of ANC officials responsible for the executions. In most of the cases which AI has documented, the victims were members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s military wing.
