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Assassin reopens South Africa’s old wounds

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Aphrodite
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« on: August 26, 2007, 08:14:40 am »

Assassin reopens South Africa’s old wounds   


 
T he ghosts of the apartheid era have returned to stalk South Africa. There are fresh allegations that the country's last white president, FW de Klerk, was aware that police and army death squads systematically liquidated black activists in the final years of apartheid.

The most damaging claims against the Nobel peace prize winner emanate from the prison cell that houses Eugene de Kock, a former police colonel now serving a 212-year sentence for carrying out scores of assassinations and bombings. De Kock, whose reign of terror earned him the nickname 'Prime Evil', says he has new evidence which establishes that de Klerk (right) is "an unconvicted murderer".

The former president was swift to denounce de Kock's allegations. De Klerk implied he was the victim of a witch-hunt aimed at stripping him of
 
 
 
 
philip jacobson on claims that threaten to tarnish the reputation of South Africa’s last white president 
  the honour earned by the vital role he played alongside Nelson Mandela in securing a peaceful transition to black majority rule in 1994.

But reports in the South African media suggest that other former members of the apartheid regime's brutal security apparatus are preparing to challenge de Klerk's assertion that he was never briefed directly about the activities of the hit squads.

Speculation is growing that de Kock may be acting in concert with his old boss at the Ministry of Law and Order, a scary fanatic called Adriaan Vlok, to finger de Klerk.

Vlok was charged last month with the attempted murder of a prominent black cleric. Newspaper reports suggest that he wants to strike a deal with prosecutors by implicating de Klerk for authorising one particularly notorious death squad operation. It happened in 1993
 
 
 http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=8132
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Aphrodite
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« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2007, 08:16:18 am »

when five black youths, allegedly involved in terrorism against whites, were riddled with bullets while asleep.

When Mr de Klerk appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up in 1996 under Bishop Desmond Tutu to expose the truth of South Africa's dark past, he became visibly agitated under questioning about those killings.

Acknowledging that there had been a strategy to eliminate anti-apartheid campaigners, he blamed this on 'rogue elements' in the security forces and adamantly denied any personal responsibility. Documents dealing with the incident are believed to have been among a mountain of highly sensitive material that the president had shredded before he left office.

After Eugene de Kock (below) was convicted, he also testified to the
 

   
 
Only when describing in gruesome detail his killings did it become clear that de Kock was a raging psychopath 
  TRC. Like other journalists covering the proceedings, I was struck by his sheer ordinariness - slight, neatly turned out, peering through thick spectacles, "more like a librarian than a ruthless assassin" in one reporter's words. Only when he was describing in gruesome detail his many killings and the care he took to dispose of victims' remains, sometimes destroying them with explosives, did it become clear that he was a raging psychopath who enjoyed his work.

In his submissions, de Kock insisted that he had always worked to orders from above. Whether he and Vlok can fatally wound de Klerk remains to be seen, but the former president would be unwise to expect much help from the present incumbent. Thabo Mbeki noted this week that anyone guilty of still-undisclosed crimes under apartheid would have to face the consequences. 

FIRST POSTED AUGUST 8, 2007
 
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=8132&p=2
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