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- 1992 - 1994 (Creación)
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The EMPSA head office in Johannesburg closed its doors shortly after the 1994 General Elections (1994/27 April). The programme was launched in September 1992. International monitors working in successive teams monitored events up to and including the 1994 General elections
Sketch of the Ecumenical Monitoring
Programme in South Africa:
EMPSA was established as a result of a call by the South African Churches - the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) to the international church community to send teams of monitors to address the question of violence.
The structure, policy and vision of the programme was agreed at a meeting with EMPSA's international partners in Geneva in August 1992. EMPSA was established with a three-fold mandate: to monitor violence, the political transitional process and elections
A group of eminent international church leaders, the Ecumenical Eminent Persons
Group (EEPG), launched the programme in September 1992.
The programme's international coordination was provided by the World Council of Churches in Geneva, in conjunction with the Vatican's Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace. Recruitment, screening and initial selection of monitors proposed from countries all over the world was done in consultation with the EMPSA national office.
Programme coordination within South Africa was done from the Johannesburg head office, which had both national and international staff, and was responsible to a National Coordinating Committee representing participating churches and church agencies in the regions, the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and national independent monitoring organisations
Participants in the EMPSA programme developed working structures in their own countries which represented interested church denominations and relevant non- governmental organisations. These committees/forums undertook a more systematic approach to recruiting, screening, selecting and proposing monitors, raising funds to cover fares, allowances, insurances etc., and lobbying and information work with returned monitors. More recent participating countries tended to have a weaker infrastructure in this regard and operated on the basis of a single church, organisation or even individual.
EMPSA monitors, deployed in successive teams to various priority areas, engaged in a wide range of activities, from monitoring marches and rallies to facilitating meetings between groups to resolve conflicts, to intervening with police and government officials. Victims of violence were visited and contact was established with the police, all the main political and community players, peace committees, local churches and businesses. EMPSA was at an advantage because it worked closely with church networks as well as non-governmental organisations. Monitors did experience problems with the length of their stay (approximately six weeks). They needed time to familiarise themselves with the situation in which they found themselves. They also needed to follow up on cases. However a good handover between successive teams and a growing network of local contacts was able to sustain a level of continuity.
Monitors worked under difficult conditions and frequently found themselves in dangerous situations. In one particular incident, EMPSA monitors Joyce Cashmore and Pieter van Reenen were detained by Bophuthatswana police sparking a local and international outcry. It is generally agreed that the presence of EMPSA monitors together with other monitoring structures contributed to a relatively peaceful electoral process
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The Geneva office of EMPSA, responsible for recruiting, screening and selecting international monitors for the purposes of the programme, could then forward names to EMPSA South Africa for a final decision and endorsement. In practice, given the urgency of the situation, much of the liaison took place directly between international partners (church bodies; non-governmental organisations) and EMPSA South Africa.
Correspondence, lists, profiles on monitors and application forms resulted from this 'recruitment drive' and they are included in the collection.
The Johannesburg based EMPSA head office was responsible for coordinating the programme within South Africa. It provided the base from which monitors were deployed to various regions. Minutes, reports, correspondence, press statements and publications generated by this office are included.
Detailed reports, each with its own distinctive character, submitted by successive monitoring teams deployed in priority areas such as KwaZulu Natal, the Eastern Cape and the PWV make up the bulk of this collection. It should be kept in mind when reading the reports that some of the monitors, unfamiliar with the circumstances in which they found themselves and given the shortness of their stay (approximately six weeks), experienced difficulties in adjusting to the many demands that were placed upon them during the course of their work. Thus certain reports might represent events in a 'subjective light'.
This in no way invalidates their relevance as social documents attempting to convey the intensity of events as they unfolded. Daily and weekly reports (this includes correspondence) supplements the monitors regional final reports. During the approach to the elections, and the elections themselves, the EMPSA monitoring presence was increased. Election teams were grouped under specific areas in a particular region and their reports can also be found under daily/weekly reports.
Monitors were handed background information packs at the start of their programme. They were also issued with a uniform which served to identify the programme. These items are to be found in the collection.
EMPSA worked closely with church networks and established links with other non-governmental organisations, both nationally and internationally. Some of these records are reflected in the collection, notably the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Independent Forum for Electoral Education (IFEE), the National Peace Accord, the Network of Independent Monitors, the Panel of Religious Leaders for Electoral Justice, Media Monitoring Projects and other observer missions to South Africa.
Other topics in the form of background documents are also included. They include education/youth, election monitoring and observing, policing, negotiations and violence.
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Copyright Historical Papers Research Archive, The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Compiled by Claire Kruger, 1996