Botha's death opens old wounds in 'new' S Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 6 (Reuters) The death of P W Botha this week at the age of Ninety opened old wounds in South Africa, where the former president epitomised the brutality of apartheid.

But there were no celebrations on the news, even though Botha was widely viewed to have escaped justice over the atrocities carried out under his rule.

Some observers took it as a sign South Africa is getting over its troubled, racially divided past.

''I'd say it wasn't his death but his life that exposes that ...

that he was honoured to end his life on full pension with a state provided bodyguard and, as a war criminal, never faced any danger,'' said Keith Gottschalk, head of the political science department at the University of the Western Cape.

''It's an extraordinary test of South African democracy.'' Botha was prime minister and then president from 1978 to 1989, and oversaw the murder and torture of thousands of black activists, army crackdowns and raids into neighbouring countries that backed the anti-apartheid movement.

However, politicians painted him as more than a villain and praised him for reversing some of the racist policies that his white nationalist forebears had upheld for decades.

Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994 after serving 27 years as a political prisoner, led the country in paying tribute to Botha, who died on Tuesday.

''We ... remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully-negotiated settlement in our country,'' Mandela said.

''EVIL PERSONIFIED'' Botha's death did revive lingering resentment, especially after the government offered to grant him a state funeral -- an offer turned down by his family.

''It's a travesty that South Africa's national flag is this week flying at half-mast to mark the death of one of apartheid's grand masters,'' the Sunday Times said in an editorial. ''He was evil personified.'' But South Africa's political leaders painted him as more than a villain and praised him for reversing some of the racist policies his white nationalist forebears had upheld for decades.

In the late 1980s Botha initiated secret talks with the now ruling African National Congress (ANC) -- a bold step that helped save South Africa from ''self-destruction'', Mandela said.

Aubrey Matshiqi, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, said official reactions to Botha's death underlined South Africa's commitment to the racial reconciliation that Mandela espoused, a policy that arguably steered South Africa away from a bloody civil war.

And reconciliation, he said, does not always mean agreeing, as is evident from raging debates about affirmative action and anger among whites about a decision to strip the names of several places that honour former white rulers and rename them after black heroes.

''The challenge is not to forget that there is this project in action, it's a work in progress,'' Matshiqi told Reuters.

''If we focus too much on that which makes us angry when race is foregrounded on certain issues, we might lose sight of the overall project of creating this 'rainbow nation'.'' REUTERS DKA VC0950