Amnesty Hearings — Johannesburg — 1992-05-12

MR DORFLING: Mr Chairman, with reference to the Shell House inquest record, I would like to put to the witness the question that was posed in the Attorney General's letter and then have regard to the response and see whether that was a fair response and accurately and truthfully reflects his position.
	Now the first supplementary affidavit makes mention of the letter of the Attorney General dated the 23rd September 1996 and that is contain at page 17 of the application and paragraph 6 thereof.  In the letter by the Attorney General the following question was put to you Mr Kruser, to respond to via your legal representatives:  "During the course of the above mentioned meeting, we request an urgent consultation with Mr Gary Kruser to enable us to clarify and or obtain additional information with him as a result of his statement."  That's now as a result of your first statement and then in paragraph 5 it reads:  "When were any armaments issued on the day in question, to whom and were the details recorded in a register, if not why not?"  That was the question that was put to you to respond to by way of a supplementary affidavit, do you agree?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I have to agree, I don't have the letter in front of me.

MR DORFLING: That was put to you by Mr Justice Nugent at the inquest proceedings and you agreed to that?  Your response?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I have to concede, I don't have the documents, I accede it could have been put to me.

CHAIRPERSON: Anyway, the question has been read out to you.

MR DORFLING: And the response is recorded as follows in your supplementary affidavit:  "I have no independent recollection of details concerning to whom firearms were issued and when they were issued.  To the best of my knowledge, all available registers and allied documentation have been supplied to the office of the Attorney General."  It does not only refer to the actual register, it also referred to allied documentation, in other words a possible note as you perceived it to have been in existence at that point in time.  A note somewhere else.

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I think the statement reflects that all the documents which was in the possession of the armoury which concerns firearms, the dates of receiving firearms, how they were issued - everything relevant to that which was in the possession of Quest Dlamini who was doing investigation on behalf of the ANC was handed over to the Attorney General, that was the ANC's request.  So everything which was in the armoury which was under my possession was given to the Attorney General I think via the attorneys, not via me.  So all the documents was given then.

MR DORFLING: But Mr Kruser, why didn't you make reference of the so called, what you perceived to be a note somewhere else at that point in time which would reflect the information?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: As I stated, we gave all the information which I handed over at the time of the investigation of the ANC to Quest Dlamini and he was instructed to give all that information to the Attorney General.

MR DORFLING: It goes even further than that Mr Kruser because the Attorney General addressed a further following up letter to you dated the 15th October 1996 trying to clarify the position and I make reference to the extract from page 2709 of the record of the inquest proceedings, Mr Chairman.  The Attorney General in it's letter to you records the following:  "Only one firearm register was furnished to this office together with loose documentation.  A copy thereof is attached hereto.  Brigadier Kruser must be requested to peruse it and confirm whether this is indeed the register he is referring to in paragraph 5.  He must set out who kept this register and what were his orders in this regard."  And then the important part:  "He must also set out whether any further documentation was kept, he must state whether the register can assist him in adding anything to this statement."  In other words, you're specifically requested to supply particulars of any further documentation that was kept pertaining to the issue of firearms to specific guards and then we turn to your response to that question - if the Honourable Committee would just bear with me for a second please, Mr Chairman.  It's at page 26 of the Amnesty Application proper - your response is:  "To the best of my knowledge two registers have been furnished to the office of the Attorney General.  They are the only registers of which I am aware and to which I have referred.  I was the person who kept these registers.  I do not believe that the registers can assist me in adding anything to my statement."  Why didn't you disclose the fact of the existence of what you perceived at that point in time, not to be a register but some other documentation that would reflect these particulars?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: Mr Chairman, I think I said all the documentation which was available to me on the armoury was handed over to Quest Dlamini for the ANC investigation and he was instructed to give all those documentation to the Attorney General and I think I tried to state that in my statements.  I did not give the documents or fax the documents, he was instructed by the ANC by the attorneys to hand over all this documentation to them.  I did not see or participate in the hand over of all those documents.

MR DORFLING: But sir, to say in your response "I do not believe that the registers can assist me in adding anything to my statements" is an untruth.  It could at that stage have assisted you to get the names of the security guards concerned and the firearms concerned.

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I think I stated earlier, I was under the impression that it was not written in the firearm register, I think that's my evidence.  But you were invited by the Attorney General to - if it's not in the firearm registers proper to refer him to other documentation.  Why didn't you refer the Attorney General to the other documentation then?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: All the documentation available was handed to the Attorney General, all our documentation in the armoury.

MR DORFLING: Are you maintaining that those answers in response to the letters of the Attorney General is true?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I think it reflects what happened.

MR DORFLING: I want to put it to you sir, that that is in conflict with your evidence at the inquest proceedings.  At the inquest proceedings you agreed that they were simply untrue.

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I think I agreed they were untrue based on the explanation I gave earlier and I said earlier the judge did not want to give me a chance to explain and I think I explained earlier to the Committee why I thought and I still think today that the fact that it was in the firearm register when I wrote it, it was not my impression - it was the manner in we wrote was not the normal procedure which we followed and I thought it was written somewhere else.

CHAIRPERSON: This ground has already been covered.

MR DORFLING: It has been covered, I had to revert to it to get the questions to put in the right perspective on request of one of the Committee Members, Mr Chair.
	Mr Kruser, can we deal with the injuries sustained by the people outside Shell House and I'm specifically referring to the people that died on the said day.  You make mentioned of a person that was shot from the front with an AK47, is that your evidence?

GARY JOHN KRUSER: I've been informed by my legal representatives.

MR DORFLING: I want to put it to you that that is not the true position, that only one person in the vicinity of Shell House on the medical evidence, one of the deceased was shown to have been shot with an AK47.  It reflects that he sustained two bullet wounds, one in the upper leg from behind with an exit wound in the front of the leg and another wound with an AK47 entering from his right side and with the bullet eventually being lodged on the left side of his neck.  Do you accept that proposition?