Human Rights Violation Hearings — Welkom — UNKNOWN

MS BRAAM: Ja, left them behind, yes.  And there was a certain smell, but I thought it was sort of old perfume, you know how, and it was a sort of ... (inaudible) ... perfume - quite strong.  That sort of thing, that had been, you know, that's not pleasant when there's been perfume on clothing and it has been hanging for a few days, something like that.  I mean that is how the expectation.  It's actually the reason why I put them off, because then, you know, it made you realise it had been from somebody else and - so, but I had the black - now, anyway, I came there.  It was evening and I was quite cold.  It was very hot during the day and I had this sort of, you know, one of my dresses, so to say, my conference dresses.  It was not, you know - just a little thing, so -with lots of skin and I was cold - I was really cold and terribly tired, but I had to make my report, my final report for the movement, because the Dutch delegation was still there and they were going to leave, something, the next morning and they had to take this report.  Next to me in the next room was a Dutch television crew.  That means the reporter, Van der Graaff and the cameraman.  They shared a room next to me.  I didn't know that then, because I - although I knew these people there, but I came in late.  So I was tired on the jacket, that dark - the black jacket and I sat on that little table and I wrote my report.  I don't know how long I worked on it.  Maybe an hour.

DR DANIEL: You had it on for an hour?

MS BRAAM: For an hour - something like - I doubt if it has been more.

DR DANIEL: You didn't think about it?

MS BRAAM: Not at all.  I was - I'm telling you, it was like, you know.  I was so poor in those days - I'm still very poor, but it was then - and nothing was ever rewarded.  That's another psychological thing, you see, and I worked so hard, and it's fantastic to work for a good cause, you know, but it's not every minute of the day that you can remember that, you know.  So just to get a little present is, you know, it works and it reminded me, you know ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: So your reaction was, "What a stroke of luck, it's cold, I'll wear it and it's beautiful, it makes me feel good"?

MS BRAAM: Yes, and it was beautiful and there was a mirror and I'd been looking at myself and I thought, "Gee", you know, and because it was not a little cheap dress, something, but a jacket that I ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: Did you try them both?

MS BRAAM: Oh, yes, both.

DR DANIEL: Both on and you kept one on?

MS BRAAM: I kept one on because that was the woollen one, it was warm wool.

DR DANIEL: So you wore it for an hour.  You finished your report.

MS BRAAM: I finished my report and I went to bed.

DR DANIEL: So you took it off then?
/MS BRAAM

MS BRAAM: I took it off.  I didn't take a shower or anything.  I just - in bed.

DR DANIEL: Straight to bed.

MS BRAAM: Straight to bed.

DR DANIEL: And that was about eleven?

MS BRAAM: Ja, something like that and I think I woke up maybe three or four and then I - that I never checked, what time it was.  Anyway, I woke up because of my own screaming and knocks on the door.  So I must have been sleeping very deeply, but the pain must have started already, so I first had screamed in my sleep and the knocks on the door was from the television people - the Dutch television people next door, who heard me scream and I was sort - or maybe, it was as if I had been - as if I had fainted.  Now, what happened in my body was - I had a child already by then so I knew what was giving birth so I can compare the pain and it wasn't an easy birth.  So it was like, you know, contractions.  Gee, incredible pain.  The whole inside.  It would come and it would build up, you know, to a high point where it was ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: Unbearable.

MS BRAAM: And this is where I sort of - you know, fainted and I would grab in the air for - that's why I rolled off the bed a few times, you know, and then they'd hold me there because I would try to get - that's what I remember from how heavy the pain was.

DR DANIEL: So you fainted from the pain?

MS BRAAM: From the pain, yes.  I think so, yes, because I lose - and I didn't know - I only felt a terrible fear.  What was good is that I saw these faces of Jan de Graaff and the cameraman, whom I knew.  I knew what ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: They broke into the room?

MS BRAAM: No, I crawled on the floor and opened the door and - no, no, they couldn't - and they helped me on the bed.  Now, they thought that I'd been eating something wrong, you know, that my stomach was upset.  (Inaudible)  So what they said, "You must get rid of what's in you, in your stomach".  So now, they hang me over the toilet, put fingers in my, you know, and make me vomit.  So that was out.  Then, anyway, nothing happened, but they were desperate because they thought - anyway, Jan had gone to the reception to alarm that somebody was very, very, very ill.  Now - wait a bit ... (inaudible).   I know exactly, it's just that I - so ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: I mean, were you able to think that it also might be food poisoning?

MS BRAAM: I thought nothing, I just ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: You were completely out of it?

MS BRAAM: Completely out of it.  I knew that I was dying.  That is ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: Then a doctor arrived then there.

MS BRAAM: Ja, no, but that's a bit later, because what they did also, they gave me something, you know, for diarrhoea, you know, to stimulate ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: Who?

MS BRAAM: Jan and the cameraman, because Jan was really panicking, you know, because this was - it looked so terrible and he has been travelling a lot all over the world so he knows malaria, things like that and he thought that this was something else and I ... (intervention)

DR DANIEL: Jan de Graaff?
/MS BRAAM

MS BRAAM: Jan de Graaff, ja.  And so, anyway, then a doctor came.  I mean, this is now very vague for me, because here it's - I go and I'm there and all of a sudden there's a man hanging over me.  I was most upset about it that he was a stranger and it was a man with a heavy South African accent and I found that so - afterwards I thought, "It can't be.  They can't have been so stupid to send somebody with a heavy South African accent", but I don't know and the guy had a heavy South African accent and he had my - because I slept in this long T-shirt, you see.  This T-shirt was up, so I was laying naked there and he was pressing me - my - here, with his fingers and he said, "She's got an ulcer".

DR DANIEL: This is the doctor they had called?

MS BRAAM: The doctor, yes.  And he'd pulled up my T-shirt and they - anyway, Jan and the cameraman were a bit, you know, look - but I felt a strong fear, strong fear, and I just didn't do anything because, I mean, I couldn't do anything and I just thought, "This man must go.  This man must go".

DR DANIEL: Were you still having the contractions?

MS BRAAM: Yes, yes, yes, and he said - he pressed a few times and he said, "Ulcers", and he immediately produced a pot - a bottle, a brown bottle next to the bed.  These were the pills that had to be given to me and it would go, no problem.

DR DANIEL: They were pills?

MS BRAAM: Ja, ja, ja.  You know what happened is that - what's - sometimes I just - because it's here.

DR DANIEL: Could I ask one question?

MS BRAAM: Yes.
/DR DANIEL

DR DANIEL: Who selected the doctor?  The receptionist phoned ... (intervention)

MS BRAAM: Oh, yes, ja.

DR DANIEL: The doctor that they knew was the hotel doctor?

MS BRAAM: Yes, ja, well, I mean, that was the guy who came to finish the job.  I mean, that must have been - he's been waiting, because they are quickly.

DR DANIEL: Was he?