Interview with F.W. de Klerk
AMANPOUR: And a final note on evolving positions. Last week on this program, I had a wide-ranging conversation with F.W. De Klerk, the former president of South Africa. We included our talk about apartheid, which he helped end, along with Nelson Mandela, 20 years ago. During the interview, he admitted again and apologized again for the terrible injustices that had been done to South Africa's black majority. But he wouldn't fully reject the underlying concept. Take a listen.</s>AMANPOUR: So you're a convert. You've just talked about trampling human rights. You're talking about profound injustice. So I'm offering you the opportunity, as the person who helped dismantle apartheid, to say whether or not you believe that it was also morally repugnant today, in retrospect.</s>F.W.  DE KLERK, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: I can only say that in a qualified way. Inasmuch as it trampled human rights, it was and remains -- and that I've said also publicly -- morally indefensible. There were many aspects which are morally indefensible. But the concept of giving as the Czechs have it now and the Slovaks have it, of saying that ethnic unities with one culture, with one language, can be happy and can fulfill their democratic aspirations in an own state, that is not repugnant.</s>AMANPOUR: We might have imagined that qualified answer we do have created the storm of controversy that it did in South Africa. And Mr. De Klerk's office immediately issued a statement saying that viewers were misunderstanding him. But today, he further clarified his views and they do seem to have evolved. He refers to his days as leader of the country. And it says, and I quote, "We concluded that apartheid was morally unjustifiable, that it could not be reformed, that the concept of separate development had led to manifest injustice and had to be abandoned." He also says now, quoting, "That it was unacceptable and offensive." We look forward to continuing this conversation, but that's all we have time for tonight. Thank you for watching. Good-bye from New York. END