Trial Report: Thirty

This report covers the period Monday 25 September - Friday 29 September 2000

Court adjourned on Tuesday 19 September and was expected to resume on Tuesday 26 September to hear the continued evidence of Jan Lourens. Lourens was not available to attend and the adjournment was extended until Wednesday 27 September.

Wednesday 27 September

After an absence of almost 10 days, Charles van Remoortrere returned to the stand for cross-examination.

Defence advocate Jaap Cilliers attempted to debunk Van Remoortrere's repeated claims that he was prepared to assist Basson in the South African CBW programme only in respect of defensive equipment, by putting it to the witness that in fact, he and Jan Lourens had been involved in a deal to sell a binary weapon system designed to carry VX, a deadly nerve gas.

Van Remoortrere acknowledges being involved in negotiations to sell the system to a "German" who was interested in it, but insists that the intention was to use the system only for storage (of chemical agents) and that as soon as he became aware that in fact, the weapon was intended for offensive use, he and Bernard Zimmer withdrew from the deal and never again had anything to do with the unidentified German. Van Remoortrere says he did not know that the system was to be used to carry VX. Drawings of the proposed system were supplied to the potential client, but when he came back to Van Remoortrere and Lourens and indicated that he wished to use it as a weapon, not a storage system, they pulled out. Cilliers put it to Van Remoortrere that the system was designed for a 155mm projectile - which Van Remoortrere says he was not aware of.

Van Remoortrere says those directly involved in negotiations were himself, Zimmer and Dr Philip Coleman, and they were dealing with a Mr Muambar.

Cilliers put it to Van Remoortrere that he knew at the time, through Zimmer, that Project Coast was importing drugs (for example mandrax) to South Africa on a huge scale. Van Remoortrere vehemently denied all knowledge of drug deals saying it would have been totally against all his and Zimmer's principles to be party to such transactions.

Much of the cross-examination focussed on the structure and shareholding of companies in which Van Remoortrere had interests and loan agreements between these companies. The defence wished to show that Basson was not a beneficiary of deals between the companies.

Thursday 28 September

Cross-examination of Charles van Remoortrere continued. Van Remoortrere denied Adv. Cilliers accusation that he had been party to the falsification of documents relating to some of the companies in which Basson is alleged to have had an interest. Van Remoortrere said that Bernard Zimmer made use of his name in setting up companies on behalf of his client, Basson, and that there is nothing untoward about this practice in international business deals.

Adv. Cilliers cited the bogus agreement between Blackdale and Medchem Forschungs, which purports to deal with the transfer of technology but was actually designed to facilitate the roundtripping of R12-m in contract fees paid to Medchem Consolidated Investments by the SADF, as an example of documents deliberately created to disguise Project Coast's financial affairs. Van Remoortrere said Zimmer had carte blanche to use their joint company, Blackdale, to conduct transactions on Basson's behalf, provided such deals cost Van Remoortrere no money. The R12-m contract, he says, is "a load of rubbish".

Other questions put to Van Remoortrere included those relating to the sale of protective clothing to Belgian company, Seyntex. During this line of questioning it was suggested that Van Remoortrere had been involved in a deal to supply Unita with protective clothing. This was not dealt with in any detail.

Cilliers placed on record Basson's formal denial that he ever received any financial benefit in his personal capacity in respect of any deals made by the SADF and/or Project Coast, including deals done through Van Remoortrere, and that he had never made false representations to the SADF as outlined in charges 11 and 12 (creation of a $3,2-m performance bond for purchase of a peptide synthesiser and subsequent purchase of DNA and RNA probes and the Thymus peptide) or stolen any SADF funds.

Furthermore, in respect of companies like Charburn and Technotek and assets such as Merton House, the Tygerberg Zoo and the Fancourt lodge, Basson denies having any financial interest in any of them, or that he ever indicated to Van Remoortrere that he held such interest.

In re-examination Van Remoortrere said that with regard to the $3,2-m loan for the performance bond which Basson claims was to buy a peptide synthesiser, at some point, scientists at Protechnik had asked Jan Lourens to look into the purchase of a mass spectrometer and a peptide synthesiser. Van Remoortrere's recollection is that there were discussions between Lourens and Dr Philip Coleman on the subject, and that there was "great excitement" among the scientists as they really needed the mass spectrometer for research and development projects. The mass spectrometer was purchased but, he said he understood that the order for the peptide synthesiser had been cancelled.

The Pretoria High Court part of the trial has now adjourned until Monday, October 30, when Dr Torie Pretorius returns to present further evidence on the human rights violations charges. In the interim, the court will travel to Jacksonville, Florida, on commission, to hear the testimony of attorney David Webster and his wife, Jane, scheduled from Tuesday, October 10 to October 25.

This report has been prepared by Chandré Gould and Marlene Burger. Chandré  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]