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Operation Zero ZeroExplanation It was decided that South Africa would hire mercenaries recruited and led by Hoare to pull off a coup to oust René and put Mancham back in power. At this stage, according to Dolinschek, the operation fell under the control of the National Intelligence Service headed up by Dr Niel Barnard. The aim of the operation was to recruit her as soon as possible as an informer and to send her back to Swaziland immediately. Much success has been achieved with this method in the past. She still did not want to cooperate. After consideration and weighing all options Maj Gen Steyn gave Gen Taylor ... The only way of understanding the suspension of armed operation, comrade Sisulu has gone further to explain, that it means that we are not going to take initiative, but we are going to defend ourselves if we are attacked. One of the reasons why the operation went smoothly was because there was no popular support. There was no spontaneous reaction from the population. I suspect that everything is calm by now. appear that you in fact succeeded in doing so. What do you say about that? // After we set up the original ambush for them we then withdrew from the operation. Thereafter they shot at us first, they attacked us and we must have been a lot more successful in actually countering this attack. ... Then you went back to Vlakplaas where you gave orders to Martinus Ras, Snyman and Vermeulen to prepare for the operation. What precisely did you tell them? // I can’t give you specific details, but the gist of it was that people would be killed and specifically that policemen would be killed. // ... The operation was the brainchild of General Johan van der Merwe and approved at the highest level of the then National Party government. // General van der Merwe gave the express instruction to use the hand grenades and to make these available to activists in order to eliminate them. It was a ... In this quest to reclaim the land the amnesty applicants formed an APLA unit in Botshabelo and executed their first and last operation at Wesselsdal farm. // When we arrived there I knocked at the door together with my comrades and a white lady came, that is the wife of Mr. Smith. We asked her ... ‘On 2 December 1988, New Hanover police Captain Brian Mitchell ordered the elimination of a group of UDF members. The operation went wrong. Eleven people attending a night vigil were killed.’ // It was just I think the driving force behind it, behind the motives of the security establishment ... ... we know has a long history of helping Vlakplaas cover up their legal problems and Johan van der Merwe was involved in at least one Vlakplaas operation. The head of the ANC’s legal department, Mathews Phosa remarked afterwards that De Klerk sat in Pretoria and knew everything that went on ... Mamasela is a self confessed killer. He’s one of the Vlakplaas operatives who took part in the Pebco Three operation. He has not applied for amnesty but will testify before the Truth Commission once all the amnesty applicants have been heard. He has a very different account of the killings. Casselton set up his European operation with this man, Major Craig Williamson. The two men rented a luxury flat in North London from where they ran their spy network. ... targeted by the Defence Force, I cannot say how their thoughts went, she could have been an innocent bystander. I cannot say. If I had executed the operation I would also have killed her. // I understood that the two were together and that both were shot. I cannot explain why she was shot but ... But for those instances where civilians were hit, Mbeki expressed the ANC’s deep regret. He named a list of operations that did not go strictly according to ANC rules. The first was an operation that was never intended to be. Firstly, he was in charge of the operation and then secondly, when the Goniwe Four were taken, Van Zyl took Goniwe, in other words physically during the kidnapping. If I have to explain the language used, I would be pleased. He was surprised because of the resistance offered by Goniwe. // Is that ... ... years? And above all, they must be able to tell the Truth Commission whether politicians like Adriaan Vlok and PW Botha knew of and ordered certain operations. General Engelbrecht was known as the Vlakplaas sweeper. He was the policeman who had to cover up police death squad operations ... ... He also showed remorse for the murder of two children during the raid on the house of Sam Chand in Botswana. I still have a problem with this operation. I think of the children who were shot and I don’t live comfortably with this ... ... that has been adduced before us. We know that we are not approaching this as we would approach a trial, we don’t have the advocarial system in operation here. So, we take part in the investigation, we call for information that we think might assist us or might assist an applicant and we ... I think you probably get damaged and you probably start becoming a devious person intrinsically and I won’t recommend it. But I was effectively in operation for only just over a year and that still took me some recovering from, because I was hiding my true nature from my Defence Force employers ... The clearest element about the Gugulethu Seven massacre is its murkiness. What we do know is that of the 22 police involved in the operation, some have taken responsibility for some of the deaths. But whether police shot and killed the young men has never been the issue. The question is whether the ... |
