ABOOBAKER ISMAIL
Mr Chairperson, I believe there is a very great need to desensitise all people that have been involved in the war, on all sides.  The Department of Defence has actually undertaken programmes to work towards bringing all of the integrated members closer together.  One of the important aspects would be to make people not be politically partisan, I know that the old SADF had the approach of saying there were a-partisan, but I don't believe anybody is a-partisan, I think people always have political views, etc.  But you can make them non-partisan or ensure that they do not do anything that will further or hinder any political party.
	In the furtherance of that, the Department of Defence as part of its transformation programme had actually embarked upon a civil education programme which we had sought and had suggested at some point, that the Minister of Defence put to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in fact a letter was written to the Archbishop Tutu, suggesting that we present this to the TRC, that programme is ongoing, it teaches all soldiers about the political life of the country, it talks about the constitution, it talks about what is democracy, it deals with the whole question of civil military relations, it goes on to deal with the law and armed conflict, it then deals with the whole question very thorny issue of cultural diversity, bringing people from different walks of life together, and lastly then the whole question of military professionalism.  In fact we have produced a booklet of guidelines for that purpose.  I in fact was the Chairperson of the work group that worked on the guidelines for it, this was a multi-faceted work group set up by the Minister of Defence, some two and a half, three years back, that has since produced the guidelines and I am currently the Chairperson of the Monitoring Committee that is looking at the implementation of these programmes inside of the Department of Defence.   
	I believe that this serves our purpose well, we go through a very difficult integration process and when tensions rise, I believe that the people will act in one way or the other, people also read certain things into certain actions of one person or another, and unfortunately we have seen the latest examples of it at Tempe.  I believe much more needs to be done, a greater impetus needs to be given to programmes like these, where we can bring people together.  I also believe that many of the people have not necessarily overcome the stresses of the past, and perhaps much more needs to be done in that regard.  A psycho-social support I believe needs to be set up in order to help people overcome the traumas of the past.