~. E EPISCOPAl. CHURCHPEOPI.E for a FREE SOUTHERN AFRICA 339 lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. 10012-2725 · c (212) 4n.ooee s FAX: (212) 979-10!3 A founded l2 June l956 iJ-177 25 October 1996 R TuEsDA'a', OcroBER 22, 1996 A21 S. Mrican Ex-General : Admits Bombing Role PIETER W. BOTHA Testimony Links President, Minister to Plan : van der Merwe's statements mark By Lynne Duke prepared to tell of their roles in 40 the first time that a top police official WllbiDct<m foot F... Senice murders. Van der Merwe testified has taken respOilsibility for any of on bebalf of the men. He bas not yet JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 21__:_one the state-sponsored mayhem that ipplied for amnesty, but said today of South Africa's top apartheid-era characterized the apartheid era, that he plans to. police generals admitted today that which ended in 1994. As dramatic as A clear pattern emerged today. he had ordered some of the violence his admissions were, however, they Not only did van der Merwe point and sabotage committed against the touched on only a few of the abuses . the finger higher up the political anti-apartheid movement under believed to have been committed by white-minority rule. security forces. d&ain, but the five otber officials also took slaps at apartheid-era politi­ johan van der Merwe, a police Like all the men in uniform who commissioner during the 1980s, told have approached the commission, -cians of the National Party for not South Africa's Truth and Reconcilia­ van der Merwe is playing a game of taking respoosibility for the abuses tion Commission that he gave the or­ cat and mouse: He told of these inci­ they ordered or sanctioned. The Na­ der for police to blow up the johan­ dents today because some lower­ tional Party created apartheid in nesburg headquarters of the South ranking police planned to spill the 1948 and enforped it with an iron African Council of Churches in 1988. beans. After the hear'.ng, he: said in fist Wltil it. waS ousted in the 1994 He said Adriaan Vlok, who was then an interview that he will wait and ·vote. law and order minister, instructed see what else comes out in truth The five police officials were es­ him to arrange the blast, in which 23 commission testimony before decid­ pecially biting in their testimony re­ people were injured, and that Vlok ing what more to add. garding the last apartheid president, said the instruction came from then­ People guilty of apartheid-era 'Frederik W. de IOerk., who told the President Pieter W. Botha. abuses can confess their crimes to commission recently during volWl­ He also admitted that he ordered the truth commission in the hopes of tary testimony on behalf of his party his men in 1985 to infiltrate a ring of winning amnesty from prosecution; that he was not aware of any politi­ anti-apartheid activists who were amnesties can only be granted if the cal orders for the slayings, torture planning an armed attack on police. crime had a political motive. With and other abuses that characterized ' The infiltrator provided the activists more and more revelations emerg- · apartheid. In a statement opening with booby-trapped grenades rigged ing in amnesty proceedings about their amnesty plea, the five officers to blow up prematurely. Eight activ­ the .actions of top officials, the com­ aaid flatly, "'We aerious1y doubt the ists died in the blasts. Van der mission has entered the high-stakes statement made by Mr. F~W. de Merwe said this operation, too, was phase of its hearings. Klerk." sanctioned from within the nation's The most sensational amnesty cabinet. hearing so far began today as five In what is viewed as a break­ police officials, including a brigadier, through for the truth commission, R TuEsDAY, {)(:roBEJI 22, 1996 A23 As for van der Merwe, whose tes­ commission. Former president Bo­ About 2,000 amnesty applications timony provided a broad historic tba 80 far has not been called. are pending. So far, only three have context of the police's mentality dur­ 1be truth commission's work be­ been granted. As the December ing apartheid and the war footing pn in Jut April, but leCUrity offi­ deadline to apply for amnesty ap­ they felt they had to maintain, the cials have been slow to apply for am­ proaches, more security officials are five officers bad praise. "He helped Dest}r. Those who have applied have expected to come forward. But the us: He stood behind us. He was the generally done 10 from jail, seeking commission, led by retired Anglican only ooe," aaid retired Brigadier jack to have their convictions over­ Archbishop Desmond Tutu, wants Crooje, a c:ommander in the infa­ turned, or as a means to prevent Parliament to extend the amnesty mous VJakplaas secret police unit. aiminal prosecution. The five whose deadline to next March. It also The stakes in the truth commis­ bearing started today are at the cen- wants to extend the date before sion's amnesty process are expected . ter of a major aiminal investigation which a crime it will investigate to climb even further later in the by an attorney general here; three of must have been committed-from week, when two more police gener­ the five have already been charged, December 1993, when a transitional ."8ls are to be questioned by the com­ but their cases have been postponed post-apartheid constitution went into mission's amnesty investigators. m1til next year. effect here, to May 1994, after the The generals are among seven, in­ Their case grew out d one of the inauguration of President Nelson cluding van der Merwe, who have many investigations spawned by the Mandela's government. been or will be subpoenaed in an at­ trial of police hit man Eugene de tempt to force them to talk. Also on Kock, who recently was convicted that list is Vlok, the former Jaw and oo 89 criminal counts, including six order minister, who would become of murder, and who held the nation the first National Party cabinet offi­ rapt for several days recently with cial to be forced to go before the his detailed accounts of killing and conspiracy. SouthScan Vol.11 No.36 27 September 1996 SA POLITICS: Chikarie poisoning still unsolved Police commissioner George Fivaz is personal~to.follow up the investigation into the 1989 near fatal poasomng of . Frank Chikane, former secretary-general of the SA Coi.!?CII of Churches and now in Deputy President Thabo Mbeki s office. Chikane claims nothing has been done aboUt the matter. He fell ill during a visit to the US in 1989 after stopping over in Windhoek in Namibia. It was suspected at the time that his clothes had been impregnated with the poison ( SouthScan v4123 p 170). The incident was mentioned last week at the tnal of !ormer 1Y-. MADLC>W-ASSOCIATtD ~ Vlakplaas commander Col Eugene de Kock who ~rmed Former police commissioner Johann v•n der Merwe, rlettt, w•lta for his tum the poisoning was a joint operation between the polrce and to testify before South Africa' a Truth •net Reconcllhltlon Commission. the military. Fivaz said in a statement he was perturbed at reports that Chikane was still in the darK as to who poisoned him. At the time the US Federal Bureau of Investigations were brought in to investigate, and medical experts at th~ University Of WisconSin con?~ded ~~there was. strong evidence• that a toxin used 1n Insecticides was used. Chikane said a statement WB$ taken from him in 1995 but he had heard nothing since and feared the perpetrators may "still be in operation•. Fivaz said_ he ~ared Chi~ne's concern that the perpetrators may still be 1n the securtty forces and especially the new police service. The case : THE ,trial was centred S Africa: • on accusations that the ' former apartheid gov- : ernment waged a dirty ; war against its reels as i opponents. ! In a seven-month i trial. 16 men faced The Guardian Saturday October 121996 : counts of murder and Malan conspiracy for a 1987 death-squad massacre . in the KwaMakutha : black township, south walks , of Durban. Thirteen people were killed at · the home of an anti­ apartheid activist, free Yictor Ntuli. A broader "catch-all" verdict with rectitude, issu­ David Beresford ing a statement accepting the charge accused the de­ in Johannesburg fendants of conspiring finding and emphasising his : to eliminate opponents respect and confidence in the · of the regime between BUS! NTULI judiciary. : 1986 and 1989. said outside "Without confidence in the the Durban courts, this society will ' ~n :\Ialan m 1980 as a top commander of the apartheid era , THE DEFENDANTS 4. supreme degenerate into private ven­ Magnus Malan: former court yester­ geance and extra-legal activi­ supporters danced and sang for another massacre in the defence minister and day: "South ties," the president said. outside the courthouse yester­ province - is now on armed-forces chief, AfriCanM law has been like this His statement was clearly day as police looked on. But attachment to the War Crimes aged 65. The most and it's always going to be aimed at pJ;"eventing black Inkatha's secretary-general, Tribunal in The Hague. senior apartheid-era like this: murderers go free." anger welling UJ! in the wake Ziba ·J:yane, accused the Th<: frustration of the official to face charges The outcome of what has of the acquittals. "Judicial KwaZulu-Natal attorney-gen­ Untouchables at the outcome linked to the killings of been described as one of findings, based on cold and eral who prosecuted the case, of the Malan case was evident opponents.