E EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUTHERN AFRICA · 339 lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. 100,2·2725 c (2,2) 4n-ooee s FAX: (212) 979-1013 A founded Z2 June Z956 Jl.l77 25 Qctober 1996 R TuEsDAY, OcroBER 22, 1996 A21 TilE 1'ASHINCTON PosT -· S. African 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 their the first time that a top police official of ro&es in 40 Wllliliaeton PilOt Fcreiln Serri<e murders. Van der Menre testified has taken responsibility for any of Oil bebalC men. He not yet JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 21-0ne the state-sponsored mayhem that of the baa for amnesty, but aid today of South Africa's top apartheid-era characterized the apartheid era, ipplied that he plans to. police generals admitted today that which ended in 1994. As dramatic as clear pattern he had ordered some of the violence his admissions were, however, they A emerged today. ooly did der and sabotage committed against the touched on only a few of the abuses Not van Merwe point finger higher up the political anti-apartheid movement under believed to have been committed by the white-minority rule. security forces. daain, but the five other c6:ials 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 responsibility for the abuses tion Commission that he gave the or­ cat and mouse: He told of these inci­ they ordered or aanctiooed.. The Na­ der for police to blow up the johan­ dents today because some lower­ tional Party created apartheid ui nesburg headquarters of the South ranking police planned to spill the 1948 and enforced it with an iron African Council of Churches in 1988. beans. After the hearing, he said in fist wttil it was ousted in the 1994 He said Adriaan Vlok, who was then an interview that be will wait and ·vote. Jaw 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 Klerk, who toJd the President Pieter W. Botha. abuses can confess their crimes to commission recently during volun­ He also admitted that he ordered the truth commission in the hopes of tary testimony Oil 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 alayings, torture planning an armed attack on police. crime had a political motive. With and other abuses that characterized Th~ 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 aeriously doubt the ists died in the blasts. Van der mission has entered the high-stakes statement made by Mr. F.W. de Klerk." · Merwe said this operation, too, was phase of its hearings. 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, • TuEsDAY, OcToiiER 22, 1996 A23 As for van der Merwe, whose tes­ commission. Former president Bo­ About 2,000 amnesty applications timony provided a broad historic tha so 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 last April, but leCUI'ity offi­ deadline to apply for amnesty ap­ they feh they had to maintain, the c:ials have been slow to apply for am­ proaches, more security officials are five officers had praise. "He helped oesty. Those who have applied have expected to come forward. But the us. He stood behind us. He was the generally done 10 from jail, aeeking commission, led by retired Anglican only one; said retired Brigadier Jack to have their convictions over­ Archbishop Desmond Tutu, wants Crooje, a commander in the infa­ turned, or as a means to prevent Parliament to extend the amnesty mous Vlakplaas secret police unit. criminal 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 criminal 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 :als are to be questioned by the corn­ but their cases have been postponed post-apartheid constitution went into mission's amnesty investigators. Wltil next year. effect here, to May 1994, after the The generals are among seven, in­ Their case grew out mone 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 law and CX1 89 criminal COWltS, 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 bis detailed accounts of killing and conspiracy. SouthScan Vol.11 No.36 27 September 1996 SA POLITICS: Chikane poisoning still unsolved Police commissioner George Fivaz is personai!Y to. follow up the investigation into the 1989 near fatal potSomng of . Frank Chikane, former secretary-general of the SA ~?C'I 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 (SouthScanv4123 p170). The incident was mentioned last week at the tnal of !ormer 1\' ADII.IIIACI.OOOI-ASSOCIATID ~ Vlakplaas commander Col Eugene de Kock who cl~1med Former police commissioner Johann van cler Merwe, rt&ht, walts tor his tum the poisoning was a joint operation between the polace and to testify before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. the military. Fwaz 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 the University of Wisconsin concluded that there was •strong eviderace• that a toxin used in insecticides was used. Chikane said a statement was taken from him in 1995 but he had heard nothing sirace and feared the perpetrators may "still be in operation•. Fivaz said he shared Chlkane's concern that the perpetrators may still be in the security forces and especially the new police service. The-case THE trial was centred S Africa\ on accusations that the I fornier apartheid gov­ ernment waged a dirty war against its reels as opponents. In a seven-month trial, 16 men faced The Guardian Saturday October 12 1996 counts of murder and Malan conspiracy for a 1987 death-squad massacre . in the KwaMakutha ' black tmmship, south walks of Durban. Thirteen ' people were killed at , the home of an anti­ free apartheid activist, Victor Ntuli. verdict with rectitude, issu­ A broader "catch-all" 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 BUSI NTULI judiciary. said outside "Without confidence in the , 1986 and 1989. G€n :\ta!an tn 1980 as a top commander of the apartheid er. i the Durban courts, this society will THE DEFENDANTS 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 preventing black Inkatha's secretary-general, Tribunal in The Hague. senior apartheid-era like this: murderer-s go free." anger welling up in the wake Ziba Jiyane, accused the The 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 :VIalan case was evident opponents.