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137 of 222 DOCUMENTS

The Times (London)

June 22 1988, Wednesday

South Africa admits shootings of Botswana policemen

BYLINE: From MICHAEL HORNSBY, Johannesburg

SECTION: Issue 63114.

LENGTH: 1157 words

South Africa last night admitted that a group of its soldiers had shot and wounded members of the Botswana police after the Government of President Masire announced that it had captured two whites from a South African commando squad involved in a shooting at a town south of Gaborone.

Botswana said it was holding the two white commandos it said were captured shortly after five of their colleagues had attacked an unarmed Botswana police patrol on Monday night, wounding three policemen, two of them seriously.

The Botswana police identified the two captives as Corporal Johannes Basson, aged 25, of the South African Defence Force and Theodore Hermansen (no rank given), aged 30, and thought to be a police reservist. Both men were said to be from Johannesburg.

A statement issued by the office of President Masire also blamed South Africa for a second incident, an explosion which destroyed a vehicle and damaged a house in the western part of the small capital city in the early hours of yesterday.

Condemning what it called 'acts of state terrorism' by Pretoria, the President's office said the problems of apartheid would 'not be solved by cross-border raids, murder of innocent civilians and shooting at unarmed policemen in cold blood'.

In its belated response to the allegations, the SADF claimed in Pretoria that 'a patrol' had been 'gathering information in Botswana near the South African border' when it came under fire from the Botswana police and had been forced to return fire, wounding some of the policemen.

The SADF said that the two people being held by the Botswana authorities were not involved in the shooting incident. It was not prepared to comment on the allegation that the two men had connections with the South African Army or police unless Botswana supplied more details to support this claim.

Earlier, in Cape Town, Brigadier Leon Mellet, press spokesman for the Minister of Law and Order, Mr Adriaan Vlok, said neither of the captured men could be policemen as it was 'not the policy of the South African Police to get involved in cross-border raids of this kind'.

The SADF statement said that the army patrol had no hostile intent towards the Government or people of Botswana, but was aimed at controlling infiltration into South Africa by 'terrorists' of the outlawed African National Congress. Page 2 South Africa admits shootings of Botswana policemen The Times (London) June 22 1988, Wednesday

'The accusation that South Africa (had) made itself guilty of state terrorism is preposterous, especially coming from a country which allows terrorists to operate from its territory against the Republic of South Africa, ' the SADF statement said.

According to Botswana, the shooting occurred at 10.30pm on Monday (and not early yesterday as claimed by Pretoria) when an unarmed police patrol of six men surprised the South African unit, consisting of two whites and three blacks, by a railway line south of Gaborone as it was preparing 'to mount a raid' into the capital.

The South Africans fired on the police vehicle, which they then commandeered to make their getaway. The vehicle was later found abandoned near the border. Two other white men (Basson and Hermansen) drove away from the scene of the incident when the police arrived and were arrested later when they ran into a road block.

The house damaged in yesterday's explosion in Gaborone belonged to Mr Allison Seketso, initially identified as a building contractor but later as the national sales manager of a motor vehicle repair company. He, his wife and four children were sleeping in the house at the time but were not injured. He said last night he did not know why his house should have been attacked.

South Africa has made frequent commando strikes into neighbouring countries in recent years, but does not always acknowledge responsibility for them. The targets are usually houses alleged to be occupied by members of the ANC.

Botswana itself has been the target of at least seven raids or bomb attacks since 1985, including the latest incidents. On March 28 of this year, SADF commandos admitted killing four people, three of them women, in an attack on a house in a Gaborone suburb. Pretoria claimed they were all ANC insurgents, but this was denied by Botswana.

Meanwhile, black workers in South African-occupied Namibia yesterday completed a two-day 'stayaway', the traditional name here for a strike motivated by political rather than work-place grievances. The strike was called by black trade unions affiliated to the South West Africa People's Organization, which has a legal political wing as well as an outlawed guerrilla army fighting for the independence of Namibia.

Among the demands of the unions are that the South African Army and police should withdraw from bases located near schools in northern Namibia, that the police should be pulled out of black townships and that political detainees should be released.

In another development, the editor of The Namibian, a left-wing anti-government weekly, was freed yesterday after spending four days in jail in Windhoek.

Gwen Lister was arrested last Friday under security laws allowing detention without charge for 30 days after her newspaper published secret government plans to extend police powers in the territory. She was freed on the orders of the chairman of the Namibian Cabinet, Mr Andrew Matjila.

A document confiscated from the newspaper shortly before Miss Lister was detained proposed legislation comparable with the emergency powers enforced for the past two years in South Africa.

CAPE TOWN: African countries have waived a ban on overflights by South African aircraft to allow Pretoria's delegation to Angolan peace talks to fly direct to Egypt (Reuter reports).

Mr RF 'Pik' Botha, the Foreign Minister, and General Magnus Malan, the Defence Minister, will lead the South African team, which is due to leave Johannesburg today.

South African Airways aircraft are normally banned from flying over most African countries, but a special 'diplomatic corridor' has been arranged to allow the delegation to fly direct to Cairo, where three days of talks start on Friday between South Africa, Angola, Cuba and the United States, aimed at securing the withdrawal of an estimated 40,000 Page 3 South Africa admits shootings of Botswana policemen The Times (London) June 22 1988, Wednesday

Cuban troops from Angola and gaining independence for Namibia.

If a short-range aircraft is used it will stop to refuel at Lumbumbashi in Zaire and at Khartoum in Sudan.

PARLIAMENT UPROAR

Mixed-race Coloured politicians heckled a speaker from the far-right white Conservative Party and attacked its policies yesterday when South Africa's Parliament held its first multi-racial debate. It was the first time that whites had to listen to the views of non-white members.

The Rev Allan Hendrickse said: 'If they (Conservatives) are not prepared to accept the challenges of today, they have only one choice to leave the precincts of this building. I don't believe they have any contribution to make.'

LOAD-DATE: September 22, 2000

LANGUAGE: English

Copyright 1988 Times Newspapers Limited