Madzikela-Mandela

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PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- Despite last-minute attempts to block the release of its controversial report on apartheid-era crimes, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Thursday released the 3,500-page document -- details from an investigation into South Africa's ugly past.

At a ceremony in Pretoria, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed the document to South African President Nelson Mandela. ( 289 K/26 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

The document's release was delayed several hours as the Cape Town High Court considered a petition -- filed by Mandela's own political party, the African National Congress -- to block the release.

The court rejected the ANC's argument that it had not had time to respond to the commission's findings that the party participated in human rights abuses during its fight against apartheid, South Africa's decades-old practice of systematically keeping whites apart from blacks and other people of color.

A similar complaint, filed earlier by South Africa's last apartheid-era president, F.W. de Klerk, prompted the commission to release its document without derogatory references to de Klerk. The commission has said it may reinstate the references after the High Court considers de Klerk's case. A hearing has been set for March.

At the ceremony in Pretoria, Tutu told the nation the commission found fault by parties on both sides of South Africa's struggle.

Tutu also emphasized that his commission did not fabricate the tales of atrocities that emerged during the commission's two-and-a-half year investigation.

"This is not a creation of the commission, this is what it was told by the perpetrators," Tutu said. ( 357 K/33 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

"Even if those who challenged the report had succeeded, it would not change the fact they killed their own people in camps in Tanzania and they bombed Khotso House," Tutu said, referring to the ANC's abuses at its camps in exile and the white government's bombing of its opponents.

Mandela said he accepted "the report as it is, with all its imperfections, as an aid the TRC has given us to help reconcile and build our nation."

The Commission called on Mandela's government to apologize for torturing and killing enemies in exile, and it appealed to whites to make gestures of reconciliation -- but the TRC did not detail how that should be done.

As expected, the TRC found the main culprits in human rights abuses were the former apartheid-era governments and their security forces.

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Without naming names, the report said the nation's highest officials meant to kill black activists when they told subordinates to "neutralize" or "eliminate" the opposition. Top ministers have always denied this, claiming the orders were to arrest or detain.

The report said ANC security officials "routinely used torture" against suspected spies and dissidents. the organization planted land mines that killed farm laborers and their families, and killed innocent civilians in bombings.

The ANC has always argued it was waging a war against apartheid, and that it was wrong to equate the ANC's actions with those of the white government.

Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madzikela-Mandela, was specifically condemned in the report.

The commission found Madzikela-Mandela knew of, and possibility participated in the killing and torture of suspected dissidents by her gang of personal body guards. The group was known as the Mandela United Football Club.

The TRC was founded in 1995, a year after South Africa's first all-race elections. The commission has the power to grant amnesty to those who fully disclose the truth and detail the political motive to crimes.

The TRC will consider amnesty applications into next year.

The South African Parliament must still decide on a final plan to pay reparations to victims of abuses.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.