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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) |
南非前总统纳尔逊·曼德拉曾经历了漫长的监狱生活，他在狱中的两本日记在被没收（多年）后，终于物归原主。
这两本写于南非种族隔离时期的日记包括了曼德拉从1969年到1971年在牢房中写的信件的草稿。
在曼德拉生平陈列中心的揭幕仪式上，前狱警唐纳德·卡德将日记本物归原主。
曼德拉因为反对种族隔离制度而在监狱里度过了27年。
他曾经被囚禁在臭名昭著的流放地罗宾岛，这两本日记就是那个时候记下的。
1964年，曼德拉和他的同伴被指控“企图以暴力推翻政府”，卡德就是当年作证指控曼德拉和他同伴的狱警之一。
卡德说他等了33年才把日记物归原主。他是在1971年受命检查政治犯物品时没收了这两本日记的。
在仪式上，曼德拉向他表示了感谢，并说：“你们刚才看到的情景可以描述为一位老人把两本很老的日记归还给另一位老人。”
曼德拉说日记本“不仅仅是一个囚犯的劳动记录”，它还代表了“一种希望：我们可以借此回顾在种族隔离政权压制下的一些记忆和故事”。
曼德拉说：“我们国家历史的特点是，太多的历史被遗忘了。”现年86岁的曼德拉补充说，他的高龄已经“迫使他和遗忘成为朋友”。
曼德拉号召其他为当时的南非政府工作过的人贡献出他们可能拥有的任何有价值的文件和纪念品。
（中国日报网站译） |
Updated: 2004-09-23 10:18