JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The South African government Friday granted parole to Eugene de Kock, the head of a covert unit for the apartheid state responsible for dozens of deaths, saying it is in the interest of national reconciliation. But those who knew de Kock's victims are struggling to accept his release.

Eddie Makue, who worked for the South African Council of Churches when de Kock bombed its headquarters in 1988 injuring 19 people, is ambivalent about the announcement that de Kock has been granted parole.

"It's mixed feelings, which is something we've gotten used to as South Africans," Makue told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Makue, now a member of South Africa's parliament, said he accepted Justice Minister Michael Masutha's reasons for granting de Kock parole but struggled to accept the harm de Kock and his unit had inflicted on their prisoners.

"We have seen what devastation it has caused to them and we find it difficult to understand that he got off," he said, adding that his faith compelled him to believe that de Kock had changed.

De Kock was arrested in 1994, when apartheid ended, and in 1996 was sentenced to two life terms and an additional 212 years in prison.

During his testimony to the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which recommended amnesty to those who admitted to wrongdoing during apartheid, de Kock recalled how he and the C10 police unit tortured and killed anti-apartheid activists at Vlakplaas, a farm outside Pretoria, South Africa's capital. He was pardoned for some crimes, but was convicted on murder and other charges.

"In the interest of nation building and reconciliation, I have decided to place Mr. de Kock on parole," said Masutha, who said the time and place of de Kock's release would not be made public.

In the same announcement Masutha declined to grant medical parole to Clive Derby-Lewis, the man who planned the assassination of anti-apartheid activist and leader of the South African Communist Party, Chris Hani. Derby-Lewis, who has cancer, was sentenced to life in prison, along with Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, for the 1993 shooting. Masutha said Derby-Lewis has not shown remorse.

Last year, Masutha declined de Kock's parole appeal, saying that the families of de Kock's victims had not been consulted.

During his time in prison, de Kock made contact with some of his victims' families, asking for forgiveness. Masutha said de Kock had assisted authorities to trace activists who went missing during apartheid.

Makue, who helped some of the young activists targeted by de Kock, believes that the former police colonel "has not told the whole truth, yet."