Trial Report: Nineteen

This report covers the period Tuesday 2 May to Thursday 4 May, 2000

Tuesday 2 May 2000

The trial of Dr. Wouter Basson resumed in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday 2 May 2000 after a month long recess.

The session began with an application by the State to travel to Florida, USA, to obtain the verbal testimony of attorney David Webster, who refuses to come to South Africa to testify against Basson in the trial - despite the fact that he testified to the Office for Serious Economic Offences in South Africa late in 1993. The application was opposed by the defence on the grounds that: 1. The law governing the taking of evidence on commission does not make provision for a witness who refuses to testify, only for circumstances, for example, involving serious illness or detention in a correctional facility abroad. 2. Since Basson is persona non grata in the USA, he would not be able to accompany a court team to the US, and since the accused has the constitutional right to face his accuser in person, it would be prejudicial to his case if Webster's testimony was obtained in his absence, or on video, an alternative suggested by the State. 3. Basson's absence would make thorough cross-examination of Webster virtually impossible. Resources to which the defence has access in South Africa would not be available in the US and given his involvement in sanctions-busting operations, Webster would almost certainly avail himself of his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination in "a range of criminal acts that almost guarantee him life imprisonment in his own country". The "enormous" costs involved in the proposed trip to Florida can also not be justified, Cilliers argued.
Judgement on this matter is awaited.

The prosecution brought an application to prevent the media from publishing the names or photographs of certain witnesses in order to offer some protection against possible reprisals. The application was granted and will be reviewed in 30 days. This means that the first witness can only be identified as Mr. K.

No Commission of Inquiry conducted in South Africa has ever revealed the extent of the early operations of the covert units about which evidence was led during the period under review. This report therefore contains more detail than earlier reports on the trial. Any recipients of the report requiring more detail about events in court over the period under review can contact the compiler of this report, Chandr� Gould.

Mr. K. was warned in terms of Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act that if he satisfies the court by answering all questions put to him fully and honestly, he may be granted indemnity from prosecution for his role in Charges 47-50 and 63.

Mr. K testified that he had been one of the founder members of the Selous Scouts in Rhodesia. He left Rhodesia in 1978 and joined the South African Defence Force as a member of Special Forces in 1979. In the same year he was approached by the Commander of Special Forces, Gen. Loots and the Minister of Defence, General Magnus Malan and instructed to establish a covert unit within Special Forces that would adopt the modis operandi of the Selous Scouts. To this end Mr. K. was instructed to establish a front company under which cover the unit would operate. Initially an estate agency by the name of NKJM however since none of the founder members had any knowledge of the real estate business they soon changed the name to NKTF Security Consultants. The Unit was known as Operation Barnacle.

The chief objective of the unit was elimination of identified State enemies and the carrying out of "super-sensitive" covert operations, which could include eliminations. Other objectives of the unit included: 1. the elimination of members of own forces who threatened to expose covert operations; 2. intelligence gathering; 3. ambushes; 4. combat intelligence and, 5. conducting of chemical operations. Mr K. told the court that he had not personally been involved in operations involving the use of chemicals.

Mr. K testified that during 1979 and 1980 he had recruited former Rhodesia soldiers and members of the South African Defence Force (SADF) to the unit. Due to the nature of pseudo operations carried out by the unit most of the operators recruited were black. Pseudo operations required that the members of the SADF unit infiltrate Swapo under the guise of being Swapo members.

The Barnacle unit had its own aircraft for the purposes of placing operators behind enemy lines, Mr. K. testified however that the aircraft was frequently used to dispose of corpses. He testified that when Special Forces Reconnaissance commanders and South African Police members involved in pseudo operations in SWA/Namibia began to experience "problems" with certain "turned terrorists", it was decided they should be 'quietly' disposed of by throwing the bodies into the sea.

According to Mr K's flight logbook, the first time he was involved in dumping, what he assumed were Swapo members, into the sea from the aircraft was July 7, 1979. He took part in seven or eight such operations, piloting the aircraft to remote and desolate airfields in the bush or the South West African desert, where corpses in bodybags or semi-comatose individuals would be received. He would then fly to another remote spot, land, remove the rear door of the aircraft and fly 60-90 nautical miles out over the ocean where his co-pilot, usually Johan Theron, would throw the victims into the sea from a height of about 12 000 feet. Mr. K. testified in detail about the flights he undertook to dispose of bodies.

Mr. K. testified that on many occasions the victims were alive at the time of being loaded into the aircraft. In such cases the victims were injected with a sedative before being thrown from the aircraft. The witness was unable to say whether all victims 'disposed of' in this way were dead before being thrown from the plane. He did say that they had experienced a problem in 1980 when one of the victims regained consciousness and began to struggle. This he said led him to speak to Basson about the substance provided because he knew that the sedatives were provided by the accused.

Adv. Jaap Cilliers told the court during cross examination that it was not possible that Basson had supplied the sedatives, nor that he had been approached by Mr. K in this regard because Basson was a medical student at the time. This contradicts evidence presented to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing by Dr. Basson who said that he had joined the SADF in 1975 after completing his medical studies and his internship. He told the TRC that by 1980 he had been promoted to the rank of Major within the Defence Force. Cilliers did however hand a certificate to the court which indicated that Basson had graduated as a specialist physician in April 1981.

The second witness, Johan Theron, was also a member of Special Forces. Theron was involved in all operations to dispose of bodies from the aircraft, was personally responsible for injecting victims, and in many cases responsible for taking their lives. He was also involved in Operation Savannah into Angola; support for Renamo and clandestine operations in Zimbabwe (smuggling weapons to that country) and in smuggling arms and equipment to South Africa when the United Nations arms embargo was imposed. He worked closely with Barnacle and was involved in various ultra-sensitive Special Forces operations from a security and counter-intelligence point of view.

Theron testified about the nature of pseudo operations saying that these operations had to be kept secret at any cost. If the operations were successful the Barnacle members, posing as Swapo soldiers, would capture Swapo members and interrogate them. Theron said that some captured Swapo members were turned, others useful only as a source of information. But in either capacity, once they had served their purpose, they presented a problem. There was no way they could be 'processed through normal channels' and imprisoned, as this would immediately compromise the entire pseudo operations programme. So, after "long deliberation" with Gen. Loots, Theron suggested that 'redundant' Swapo members should be disposed of "without trace". It was he who came up with the idea of dumping their bodies into the sea. Theron said that he researched the matter carefully to determine how far the bodies would have to be taken out to sea to ensure that they did not find their way back to the coastline and investigated the dangers involved in flying the aircraft without its rear door.

Theron testified there was a need at Fort Rev in Namibia for captured Swapo members to be 'disposed of' because there were 'simply too many detainees'. He told the court that the codename for the operation to dispose of bodies was Operation Dual.

Theron said that the first flight of this nature had been undertaken on 11 July 1979. Theron had been provided with a tranquilizer dart, of the kind used to subdue animals, by the technical unit of Special Forces. He told the court that the dart failed to subdue the man and who had put up a struggle. Theron ultimately strangled the man using a strip of plastic binding and a pair of pliers. It took the man 15 minutes to die he said. This method of killing victims was employed on six occasions and Theron testified that it had traumatized him. Theron discussed this with Gen. Loots and Basson. According to Theron, Basson told him he would give him Scoline and Tubarine, both used during open heart surgery to collapse the lungs, but lethal in overdose. Both drugs are Schedule 7 and Theron would have had no way of obtaining them in the military context except through Basson.

These drugs were then used on a regular basis to lethally inject victims. Theron also said that Basson gave him sleeping tablets which were given to victims, in other instances the sedative was injected into cans of cold drink or beer. Theron testified that he could not remember how many people died this way but said that it must have been hundreds. In all cases the victims were black men except for once case in which the victim was a black woman.

Theron gave evidence that Basson had flown to Namibia on one occasion to monitor how he was carrying out his task and at the same time, assess how well Theron was handling his duties from a psychological point of view. The night before the detainees were to be given lethal injections, they were taken to an interrogation room with a one-way mirror. Theron watched from outside as Basson gave the men sedative tablets and saw that as Basson left the room, the men hid the pills in the legs of their chairs. Basson went back inside, retrieved the pills and waited until the men swallowed them. When the time came to inject the men, Basson demonstrated the correct procedure to Theron while administering Scoline and Tubarine to the victims, "who were dead afterwards".

Theron said that at an advanced stage of Operation Dual Basson had informed him that the death inflicted by the Tuberine/Scoline cocktail was extremely painful and had therefore made the anaesthetic Ketelaar available to him to anaesthetize the victims before dosing them with the lethal combination.

Theron also gave evidence about the murder of one of the assassins of Renamo leader, Orlando Christina. The victim in this case had ended up in the Intensive Care Unit of 1 Military Hospital after capture by the police. When the man recovered, Basson told Theron to fetch him from the hospital. Theron, Basson and a national serviceman, Paul Heyns, went to the ward together, where Heyns was handcuffed to the alleged assassin. The four then drove in Theron's car to Zwartkop Air Force Base where a light South African Air Force aircraft was waiting for them on the runway. The suspect was handcuffed to one seat. Theron was told they were going to Bloemfontein. During the flight the prisoner was extremely aggressive, fighting hard to free himself. Basson told Theron his condition was the result of an overdose during chemical interrogation in which he, Kobus Bothma and Philip Mijburgh had taken part.

Theron told of an incident in which three victims were taken to a location in KwaZulu Natal where they were tied to a tree with a chain. Medical doctor and Special Forces member, Kobus Bothma had accompanied Theron in this instance. According to Theron the chief purpose of the trip was to "spend a day experimenting" with two different chemical substances, designed to kill - and if the victims died, they would be disposed of "in the usual way". He and Bothma spent a day smearing the men's naked bodies with the substances at intervals, wearing gloves to protect themselves. Despite this precaution, both Bothma and Theron did get some of the ointment on their own skin, but suffered no ill-effects. Nor did the victims, who remained alive. The next day, pilot, Martin Van der Linde flew to Dukuduku from Pretoria. The three victims were injected, loaded into the aircraft and with both Bothma and Theron aboard, their bodies dumped in the sea off St Lucia.

Theron gave evidence about an incident in which Basson asked him to assist in disposing of the body of a patient from 1 Military Hospital. In this case Theron and Basson had placed the corpse in the furnace at the Special Force Head Quarters, had waited for it to incinerate, collected the ashes and threw them out of a moving vehicle.

Theron told the court that Victor de Fonseca was an ex-Mozambican Civil Co-operation Bureau operator who had previously taken part in field operations as a member of Danie Phaal's team, but later did administrative tasks from an office at Special Forces Head Quarters, known as "Die Gat". De Fonseca had a brain tumour and was frequently admitted to 1 Military Hospital, where he was treated in an off-limits section "to which only Basson had access". At some point, Basson and Theron discussed De Fonseca's fate and decided he should not be "taken into the system". He was married to a South African woman and because of his serious illness, Basson and Theron felt it would be better to "accommodate" him at 1 Military Hospital. Asked what he meant by "accommodate" Theron said "Basson would treat him in such a way that he died". Theron also discussed this with Phaal, De Fonseca's counter-intelligence officer.

Two incidents resulting in the murder of members of the 5 Reconnaissance Unit who had become security threats were also dealt with by Theron in testimony.

Tuesday 4 May 2000

On 4 May 2000 the questioning of Theron related to his role as counter-intelligence head of Project Coast in 1991. Theron testified that he had difficulty in distinguishing between Basson's private interests and those of Project Coast, despite attempts on many occasions to investigate this. Theron confirmed that there were many aspects of Basson's activities that as counter-intelligence officer he should have been informed of but was not, including meetings with foreign agents.

Theron said that on a given day in 1992, he and Basson discussed a plan to distribute toxic beer at taxi ranks in the Eastern Cape, where violence was rife. The idea was to observe what effect, if any, the beer contaminated with flocculant(s) would have. The operation was not carried out because the operative chosen to conduct the experiment, Civil Co-operation Bureau counter-intelligence head, Danie Phaal, failed to collect the contaminated beer.

The cross examination of Theron began on 4 May and will continue on 5 May. Details of the cross examination and the arguments put by the defence team will be reported on in the next weekly report.

This report has been prepared by Chandr� Gould and Marlene Burger. Chandr� Gould is a research associate at the Centre for Conflict Resolution working on the Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project. Marlene Burger is monitoring the trial as part of the CCR Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project. The Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project is funded by the Ford Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Norwegian Government

Centre for Conflict Resolution, UCT, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa Tel: (27) 21-4222512 Fax: (27) 21-4222622 Email: [email protected]