EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a :REE SOUTHERN AFRICA -E 339 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. 10012·2725 C (212) 4n .(Joee FAX: (212) 9 79 -1013 S A #94 15 December 1989 - TOWARD A DEMOCRATIC FUTURE The Conference for a Derrocratic Future on 9 December in Johannesburg brought 4600 delegates of over 2000 organizations together to concentrate on building a new South Africa out of its present shambles. Here are voices of participants:

,Mr. De Klerk, your back is to the wall. When you raise your eyes now, you can look only in one di­ rection. In so doing you meet the eyes of the peo­ ple. There is much in our steady gaze that you must envy. You see our unflinching commitinent to the cause of liberty, justice and equality. This is a noble cause, sanctioned by the world community. Like us, you must long for these things. Yet, you have excluded yourself from them. ... .

'Come stand on the floor of a conference like this. Like the rest of our delegates, bring a mandate from those who want you to represent them. Subrnit to the processes of derrocracy. _It is true that you will be only one am:mg many delegates. But you will not be lonely. Come and feel the power The AN(' le.dn. Waller Silliulu. addruH5 rlw Con(erenn (ur .. I)rmocnlfir FU'u~. of unity and action with the people of South Af­ rica, instead of agaInSt them. ' THE INDEPENDENT Monday 11 December 1989 - ANC Leader WaLter SisuLu, in the keynote ad~ss

'We have suffered too long under . We want to break the present log jam between the forces of social progress and peace- and those who represent the violence of apartheid. Intensified international pressure will operate decisively in favour of the forces of so­ cial progress and peace. There is today a new climate of peace and friendship in the world. We welcome that because we have seen that historically our struggle against apartheid is ultimately a struggle for peace and justice. If the regime is serious about nego­ tiations they should create the climate for free political activity as put forward in the OAU Declaratio!! adopted iI1 Harare and w:hich represents t1-"le views of the ove:nolhel.rrLi ng major­ ity of people in South Africa....The delegates (to the Conference for a Derrocratic Future) were united in their comrnitrrent to isolate and destroy apartheid. The Conference resolved to intensify the struggle to transform our country. ' - Jay Naidoo, GeneraL Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, at the United Nations, L2 December L989

'Informal repression, falling outside the official controls of formal security legislation,is assuming increasing importance for the apartheid regime. Its rrost open form, the National Se­ curity Managerrent System, recently downgraded but largely intact, serves to gather information on the ground, feed this to the and carry out instructions for the neu­ tralising of political activists and organisations. Lower down in profile are sponsored vigi­ 1ante groups who violently prop up apartheid-created structures of homeland governments and black local authorities, by eliminating their opponents and creating the image of black-on­ black violence. At the bottom of the scale are the shadowy hit squads, several of which have recently been shown beyond doubt to be police and army-based structures operating through a line of corranand which may very well emanate from the top. ' - Dr Max CoLeman of the Human Rights Corrmission, Johannesburg, at the United Nations, L2 December L989 · d 'The goveT'YllT1ent has fun confidence that the tried and respected prose- cution mechanisms of the state win be sufficient to bring the accused m U r er before the court~ impartially and objectively. ' - President F. W. D= Klerk, 7 D=cember 1989

The protective cover is being peeled away from one of Pretoria's most closely guarded secret and gruesome - weapons in its effort to survive. Outright of opponents of apartheid and minority rule is a feature in South Africa and c3JIDng exile corranunities throughout the world. Over 100 anti-apartheid activists have been killed inside the country in the past 10 years and other South Africans abroad have met the same fate. At home the South African Po­ lice have been assigned to investigate and have yet to solve one of these 'mysterious' deaths. South Africans struggling for a free society have long assumed the existence of officially pro­ tected and sanctioned hit squads.

On the eve of his scheduled hanging for killing a white farmer, a 32-year-old former policeman, Butana Alm::md Nofomela, confessed in writing that he had been a member of a security police assassination squad. Nofomela reasserted his innocence in the farmer's murder but related in great detail his work with the hit squad since 1981. He told how security police brass visited him while he awaited sentence to urge him not to reveal infonnation about the murder unit and that they would 'help me out of this problem'. The death sentence came down and his security police visitors told him 'that the instruction from Major D= Kock was that I should take the pain'. Nofomela sent for Cl lawyer and a stay of execution ensued. Nofome1a says late in 1981 he was briefed in Pretoria by a Brigadier Schoon and his squad corranander, Captain Johannes 'to eliminate a certain Durban attorney, Griffiths Mxenge'. Nofomela and three other squad members stopped the prominent civil rights lawyer along a road, took him to a near­ by stadium and beat and stabbed him to death.. 'we carried on butchering his body'. Following Coetzee's orders the four cops took Mxenge's money and valuables 'in order to simUlate a rob­ bery'. Back in Pretoria each of the murderers was given 1,000 Rand.

Soon there was confinnation of Nofomela's 19 October affidavit. VRYE WEEKBLAD, an ­ language newspaper, published the confession of Captain Dirk Coetzee, who revealed further details of the operations of his and other Askari killer squads. From exile, he named names ­ of generals. Coetzee tells how he and another officer put poison in the drinks of two captured ANC suspects, poison supplied by General Neethling, who averred that 60 grarranes would suffice. They didn't. 'We increased dosage to 360 grarrnnes, but nothing happen­ ed'. A sleeping potion was then applied and the two confused men were then shot and their bod­ ies burned. Neethling asked for careful notes on the effect of the soporific. Lt. Gen. Lothar Paul Neethling is head of the Criminalistics branch of the South African Police and in charge of the SAP laboratory in Pretoria. Then Brigadier Neethling spent the years 1959-1963 study­ ing in the United States and since has made repeated visits to this country.General Neethling claims he has been defamed, he is unable to travel in South Africa and surrounding countries because he is in rrortal danger, his family is imperiled, and is suing VRYE WEEKBLAD.

Pnother USA connection crops up in Coetzee' s lengthy confession. A plan to murder a South Afri­ can activist in exile in Pngola was to have involved use of a special weapon. 'Genl Johan Coet­ zee received a Scorpio machine pistol fn:>m the Americans as a preSe!1t. He donated it to secur­ ity. The machine pistol fitted with a silencer, was built into a black briefcase. The barrel was hidden with a sticker and a container was built in into which the empty catridges had to fall. It was fired with a trigger mechanism outside the case.' General Johan Coetzee, then head of the security police ,went on to become Corranissioner of Police. Now retired, he has been a frequent visitor to the United States.

A third hit squad member, David 'Spyker' Tshikalange, also having fled South Africa, affirms his participation in the Mxenge murder. He explains how he was taught to turn the knife after having stabbed someone. 'Apparently one leaves a bigger hole then. Pnd when I slit a throat I had to cut until I felt the bone. Then someone was stone dead.' Pretoria says it.will seek to extradite Dirk Coetzee, said to be hiding in Europe. Almond Nofo­ mela has pled gullty to Mxenge' s murder; his testirrony - if he makes it to the witness stand ­ should be explosive. South Africans have called for a judicial inquiry, even an international tribunal. President D= Klerlc is trying to keep the murder squad issue c3JIDng the lower ranks and within controllable depa.rtrrental confines - lest the trail of blood is revealed all the way to the generals - and beyond.

ecsa dec 89 1. The struggling people of our motherland stand at the threshold of a new S.A. Centuries of struggle against the forces of evil and oppression are now bearing fruit. We are certain of our future and. through our concerted will~ SA will be free and democratic.

2. We~ the thousands of representatives of organi~ations from throughout SA~ gathered here in Johannesburg to plan the Aext steps of our march to freedom~ find our country in a chaotic state in tha t: * The minority rulers hold onto power against the will of the majority. * They perpetrate violence against our people. * 1he economv is in total ruin. * The suffering of our people increases daily unemployment~ low wages~ high rents~ high cost of living. .,. ._1 • Our people have made it clear that: * No minority government is acceptable . * Apartheid must be completely dismantled. * On 1y a un i ted. democ ratic ~ non-I~aciaI SA is acceptable .• * We will continue to resist apartheid. even defy and actively dismantle it~ whatever the cost.

4. Despite its total isolation~ the de Klerk reoime is fighting back. r t has launched its own offensive aqainst our people. movements and our allies abroad.

5. The strategic objective of the regime r.mains that of reshaping apartheid to make it palatable to th~ South African people and the international community. More importantly~ the clear intention is to protect the privileqes of the white minority.

6. We are convinced that the de Klerk government is not interested in creating a democratic SA~ nor is it interested in genui~e negotiations. Clearly~ de Klerk . is buying time to re-order the forces of minoritv domination and win over some of our' people to his fraudulent.schemes.

7. De ~::.lerk is presenting proposed "reforms" as his great beginning and calls on us to de-escalate our struggle and to end international isolation.

8. We ask our people and the world community to note that the security forces of the de Klerk regime continue their merciless assault on our unarmed people: * The "hi t squads II rema.in in tac t and have been given a mandate to continue the elimination of our I eadel~s activists.

1 * Ove~ 3000 pat~iots are serving sentences in de I

* More than 70 await De Klerks' hangman on Death Row. * Over 600 remain under De Klerks' restriction orders.

9. The oppressed people of SA shall be masters of their own history - not de Klerk. The campaigns of mass action by our p~ople have inspired millions of South Africans ~ both Black and white. We have broken the shackles of the State of Emergency: * Ou~ gallant detainees won their release through the hunger strike. * Our marches have challenged de Klerk to restrain his "dogs of war".

10. The campaigns of mass action has attracted thousands of new people into the fold of the anti-apartheid forces. The moral appeal of the democratic movement has never been greater. This moral appeal has even been extended to the police force where the number .of policemen and policewomen~ who refuse to be used against 'their own people~ will increase.

11. We want to end apartheid and exploitation as soon as possible. We want democracy as soon as possible. If De Klerk can convince us that he is serious about genuine negotiations on the creation of a democratic SA~ and he has created the necessary conditions for negotiations, we are ready to talk about t~e creation of a democratic SA.

12. De Klerk has done nothing which convinces us that he 'is genuine. There are no actions to back up his vaque promises.

13. We cannot and will not wait until de Klerk is ready. Our struggle to dismantle apartheid and exploitation and to build a democratic future will go on: * We will continue to galvanise ever~ section of our society - Black and white into united action against apartheid. * We will build the maximum unity among all anti apartheid forces. * We will continue to demand that the international community intensify its efforts to isolate the de Klerk government.

14.. We have put the question of poIitica I powe~ first on the agenda today. Today we will jointly map out a prooram to intensify our struggle against apartheid and e:·:p I oitation ~ un i te our people as never before.

We will not rest until all the people of SA - Black and white ­ govern in a non-racial~ democratic and united South Africa.

Johannesburg 9 December 1989 ..

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MDM S ATEMENT ON DEATH SQUADS - 27/11/89

nlC Mtus Dcn~{3ric Movement fiCl\uy believe~ that the identification or It few individuals invQlvw in d~o1th ~'lui1d ~C'tivtlies will not SlOp the u!le of violence and terror Agllinst opponents or apnnhcid. We lxlicvc thai i\ic-ranging Mld drosti~ Action is necessary to put an end to these upal1h~hJ (;liml,;:1 We an; uccply cunl.·crncu thar, if this is not done, a few individuals will be made 5COpCeOQn. whH the biSSC~1 criminDJs •.tho!le in command. will be able to continue "busine:ls as usual" .

11'\ this lighr, the MOM ca.l1s tor the institution of seven (7) step:!' whic.;h will go a long way to trQdlc~dl\g this f, rm of ~r~t~ ttl'l'("u'i~m which has been "UII1JalJl under lhc Natiunalist Government. In ceuling for these ~ctions. we are not motivated by the desire for ravense • nOlhil1S C:lII com~nsuu= the comrades and lov d ones (or the loss of those who have txcn ~o brutally murdered.

RAther we Il~ p' arily concerned (0 put an end. once and tor 411. to thiS s[QCc·SQJ1~tl(')l1ed and IUlU:­ ~pun:wrciJ muru'r ur ap,trthciu's uppuncIHs. w~ call on all dCtuocrcule (\')r~~~. 10.; •• 11)' aUlY internationally, t suppon us in pressurisin~ the Souch African and olhtr gnvemrnencs to act on the seven ~(ep5 prop sed below: 1. Charging f the Death Squads and lhos~ re:)ponslble at the top.

All those illlpHca cd in tJle activilic:s of lhe dc:~uh '''luaus mu~t be charged or made to account (or theIr compllcity. It m st not only be tho~ who pullt'd the triggers. but also their controllen (those who aimed the ¥un:s). ho are brought to book. All those who are implic3led by vinue of their position of :JulhQrlty, such a Louis LeOrange. Adriaan Viole, Johan Coetzee, General VD Merwe etc. should also be invesdS:lt d.

The iftvCStigluio should go beyond the security police a.nd include olher a~encics which ate Implkat~cJ. e!lpce ally the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the State Security Council (~~<.;).

Moreover the cnl re government. riGht up to Pl'e:sidelll Dc:Klc=rk, :shOUld be mttde to account. R.ecenl circumstand111 evi. nee tends to conflml our belief thai there has been iovemment compliCity Qt every level in the opera ion of these Death Squads. We do not believe that without such compliCity, these - J..,alh st{uaiJ~ wou UIUlve bt:cn able tu upcmtc with such impunity and to such deva.l\tating effect.

2·. An Indep ndent full-scale Judicial Commission of Enquiry must be instituted.

1'lnu¢pl;mJcm": \1 • majority uf pc=uple in our l:ountry do not see the South Africl1l1 judichuy as beIng Independem fro the apartheid ~lntc. In (act. in some inst:\nces. jUdges hllve !een tt') be colluding in ilCl14 of l'tute tt!llorleg lh~ Ebrahim trial where the trill! proceeded despitt the ruct that Ebrahim had been. ille¥alJy abducted· from a nelghbouring suue, and one Of his comrades murdered by a death squall

To ensure that n j djci~ commjs~ion into death squads is imkpcuW:fll frum the influence of rhe state. and secn to be su we :luggC)! that the Int,emntio al Con lission of Jurists be requested to send one or more top hut national juri:lHS to patlh,;ip"l~ In the cummillsion. Funllcrnlore we propose thut incJependent Sou h African legal ex~rtS with a high reputation be incluc.1C!cJ in the C~llnmission. A body like Lawyt. . rur Hun1an RightS coull! be requested f() nomjn~te these c:xpens.

"Pull·scale·'; to 3unch:l proper inveStigation, the CommIssion mUSl have full power to subpoena reICVR.IH state rc ords and witness~~. The State President must waive restnctions which prevent informatioll from! being provided on th~ grounus of "

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No limil;'ulons sh uhJ be placed on the Con'Uniuions access to witness«'s. "'is jllclul,jes rul1laC;C;C:~~ to All unit$ in the s wilY (orces. No{olllcia ShOLtld not be C::~C:l.:utcd, but ~houlcJ be proouced to testify in public. Where n ccsstlry, a's with CO«:t%ce and Tshikalangc, the Commission should heClt' ¢'Vidcll';C oUI~ide South A ·Cl). .

If President Dc 'Ierlc fails to appoint 4J\ independent Commission. we sussest thoU 3 body slJch as the: Iml~p~nul;nl 8 . u of En4uiry into Informal Repression could w:c the initiative to COII$titule 4\ Commission. as 3~ possible alonS the lines deSGribcd ilbovc.

3. The dis antllng or the State Security Counclll JMC system, the National Int lligence Service, and the Security Police.

These in:nitution .arc specific:llly designed to use legal t1Il11 illeSal n'1etUls ofevery VAtlclllO wipe OUt o"posilion to ilp held. The u~e of assassination ;lnd [k"th SquadS is an intfiTaf pan 0 this menaJ. These mea~ures on the extreme end of the cOntiJ1UUlll or StAte r~"I'~niUll ;£¥ttinst opponents of ap3J1heid. This C ntinuum SlaMS off with various lypc:S of hl1rassment, moves to tonure, 3J1<1 ends up with murtler. The e mnsures are seen as legitimate ways to defend upanheid from "revolutionu.rie~" .. 1'hc dismanl1tng t the sse, NIS and SP app:lnltuses are a vilal fust step to endini state terrorism Qgalnst the Inajo 'ty of the population. Other units of the "security forces" need [0 be continea to barrack~ or femo ed from the townships to end their reign of tenor against the people. Vigilantes.in uniform. the klrsc nst.1bels and municipal police, need to be disbanded.

Those c:h~ment~ f the pollee genu1nely dedicated [0 serving the people, like Rockman. should concentrate on co lbaning crime and refuse to collaborate in the execution ot apartheid repression.

1 4. Full co 'pen~utlun for the victims of state terl'OriSlll and th,dr families. s. Tho hnple entation of punitive measures alainst the regim~ by States on whosc tcr itor1 these illegal acts have been conuuill~d. Such punitive me~sure:s should include the expulsion or' South African diplomatic: mission~ in those cOllnaies where S uth Atric3Jl ~ovemmenr employees have committed Bets of intemtational terrorism. We ~!O believe at m~lJlbeu or the: South Arrh.:an S~t:urity rorce~ should be b~<1 from entering other cot,lI\Uiest 1 put an eml '0 lh~:jc il\c:¥WlIc.:tlS un fureign soil, and to send 11 clc3t message that the world is not prep d to tole fIne 4p:u1heid terror. 6. The laun hing of un enquiry into intcrnaliunul collaboration with South Africa death squads.

An International nquiry should be launchea into alleged collaboration between some neighbouring state!! and Weste intelligence agencies with the activities of South African death squadS. and other m~gal act:s such' . the abducdon of SA nationals. This crlflluiry should be headed by an intcmmion:u agency such as th United Nations.

7. Pressure s ould be stepped up to end all int~lIi~~nc.:e, training material 3ssistQIlCC, Q ad other coliaboralitJIl by W,-,:>tcrn agencies with apartheid security fOl· es.