MR DU PLESSIS
Yes please Mr Chairman. I am going toanswer in Afrikaans to what my learned friend argued.
 Firstly, I would like to make the point that it appears to bequite clear to us that the Attorney General does not believe thatthe applicants will be granted amnesty, from that perspectiveDr Pretorius is arguing as if it is a foregone conclusion thata criminal prosecution against the applicants will in fact takeplace after these proceedings.  If anybody, therefore, is prematurewith any statement then it is Dr Pretorius himself who is prematurein his assumption that the applicants will not be granted amnesty.
 If the applicants are to be granted amnesty in respect of theirapplications then there will be no criminal 
2A prosecution/...
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prosecution and the Truth Commission will then suffer.  The truthitself will suffer as a result of that, and the whole processof truth and reconciliation will suffer in the process.  The questionwhich one must ask oneself after listening to Dr Pretorius isif one weighs up the interests at stake here which interests mustbe put in the balance according to Dr Pretorius?  The intereststo be weighed up are the discrediting of potential State witnessesagainst the withholding from the Truth Commission.
 Now the submission which I would like to make in this regardis that unless I have misunderstood it completely the interestsof this Commission and the work with which it is engaged at themoment and the truth ought to weigh more heavily than the merepotential future discrediting of witnesses.  What Dr Pretoriushas of course neglected to mention is that the possibility thata State witness will be able to put forward exactly the same versionmight not discredit him but actually be to his advantage.  
 We also find it strange that the Attorney General, and Dr Pretoriushas now confirmed that the investigation has been going on overa long period of time has regarded it  necessary in regards ofCronje and Hechter in the course of last week when it became knownthat these hearings would take place, tried to arrest BrigadierCronje and Mr Hechter, to arrest them and to bring them beforeCourt.