[Itse]

As much as I think that Nelson Mandela was indeed a great man, there's also a good reason why Amnesty back in the day wouldn't consider him a "prisoner of conscience".

As the head of the ANC*s terrorist wing he had a lot of innocent blood on his hands, something he never denied or renounced. His foreign policy record as a president wasn't exactly stellar either, with all the chumming up to dictators and stuff. Really the combination of his personal history, his vision and his legacy (which is largely yet to be seen) is what makes him such an interesting character.

(Not really so much unlike some other historical figures actually; like Lenin for example. It's interesting how some people become vilified and some revered for essentially the same things.)

That said, I have long believed that people who know themselves to be capable of violence are the ones who best understand what it takes to steer away from that path. It's not his fighting but his vision of peace that sets him as one of the great freedom fighters of history.

I guess my point is mostly that remembering what Nelson Mandela was and what he became goes a long way in understanding why you can't just label someone a terrorist and call it a day. Life is so much more complicated. Being capable of terrible things and truly great things have often gone hand in hand.