Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-26

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, as far as Region 6 was involved pertaining to Mr Maree, we could not determine what could possibly have taken place because there was never any instruction for Mr Aitchison.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Alright.  Let's start off on the premise, the hypothetical premise that if wasn't Mr Aitchison and it wasn't Mr Maree who were involved.  Now you're carrying out your investigations and you're asking yourself 'who is it that has done us the favour of eliminating our enemy on our behalf?'  To whom did the finger point?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, I don't know whether it was Mr Aitchison.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But if it was Mr Aitchison - we all know Mr Aitchison, well maybe we don't all know, but Mr Aitchison was not the kind of person who would assassinate someone without an offer of remuneration, you agree with me?

WOUTER J BASSON: Certainly.

MR KAHANOVITZ: He wanted to be paid for his work, okay.  So are you postulating that someone else, unconnected to the CCB, offered Aitchison money to assassinate Adv Lubowski?

WOUTER J BASSON: I cannot say that, Chairperson.  Once again, I don't know whether Aitchison is the guilty party, I simply know that Region 6 was not involved and no money was paid out to them, as far as I know.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Who besides Mr Aitchison - your investigations revealed the names of, I then assume, some other suspects or were the names of no other suspects revealed?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, on my level I was not aware of any other high level investigations into the incident, my involvement was with Region 6 and I'm not aware of any allegations or investigations which were conducted on any other level.  I cannot answer that question.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Mr Basson, Judge Levy, after having heard a considerable amount of evidence during the inquest, came to the conclusion that Region 6 of the CCB was involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Adv Lubowski, and you are aware that your name was one of the names mentioned in that inquest finding, as being a person who was involved in that conspiracy, correct?

WOUTER J BASSON: That is correct.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You now have the opportunity to clear your name, but in order to do so one would expect that you could come along and say "I know there is a considerable amount of evidence pointing to Region 6 and the CCB's involvement, but I want to tell you that it was in fact Vlakplaas or Eugene de Kock or this person or that person, because we made our enquiries at the time and it revealed the following."  Do you wish to make use of that opportunity?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, I cannot do so because I have no substantiation for accusing any other person, organisation or institution.  I understand the accusations to our side as a result of the handling of Aitchison, but I deny that Region 6 or I myself was ever involved in it.  I'm using this opportunity to deny it.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Why was Maree told to go and lie low?

WOUTER J BASSON: Certainly as a result of his connection with Aitchison.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But he was entirely innocent of any involvement in the Lubowski assassination, why is he going into hiding?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, I cannot answer that question.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Well I know you can't answer the question, because you agree with me you know that's the conduct of a guilty man.

WOUTER J BASSON: I beg your pardon, could you repeat that?

MR KAHANOVITZ: It's the conduct of a guilty man, do you agree with me?

WOUTER J BASSON: Chairperson, not necessarily.

MR KAHANOVITZ: I just want to put something else to you.  Mr Chairman, I'm just referring here to the reported judgment in the matter of State vs Aitchison 1991, Vol 2, SA805 in the Namibian High Court.  Now Mr Aitchison you will recall was released from arrest and detention in Namibia and no trial ever took place.  You're aware of that.

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now an application was brought for bail to be given to Mr Aitchison, and in that reported judgment they deal with the circumstances as to why the Namibian Police were experiencing problems in prosecuting, in bringing Mr Aitchison's case to court.  Now the Judge, Mohamed AJ as he then was, summarises some of the evidence that was placed before the Court.  This is at 810 next to the letter D.  He says the following.  He points out that Aitchison was served with a formal indictment charging him with the murder of Lubowski.  Paragraph 8, the Judge says the following
"On the 2nd of February 1990 and before the independence of Namibia which took place on 21 March 1990, Col Smit procured warrants for the arrest of one Burger and one Maree, who he suspected of complicity in the murder.  He could not locate these persons before the date of Namibia's independence, notwithstanding the apparent co-operation of the South African Police.  After the independence of Namibia, Burger, who is the former head of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad of the South African Police, has surfaced openly within South Africa, but has apparently taken the view that he is not amenable to the process of a foreign State."
Now you'll agree with me, one of the reasons Col Smit was unable to find Mr Maree and Mr Burger to serve warrants for their arrest, was because they had gone into hiding.

WOUTER J BASSON: Certainly it must be so.

MR KAHANOVITZ: In other words a plan was adopted to make sure that Col Smit would not be able to find these people.

WOUTER J BASSON: It must be so.  I don't know why he didn't perhaps examine other persons who may have been involved.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But these entirely innocent people, Mr Burger and Mr Maree, if I understand your version, went into hiding for several months to avoid arrest.

WOUTER J BASSON: I think that that is the reason why they did it.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Because they were innocent?

WOUTER J BASSON: Well yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: I'm moving onto a different issue now.  I want to ask you about - now this is a general question about the nature and the quality of the information that had to be received before a plan to kill somebody could be approved.  I want to ask you first about the quality of the information and I'm going to put to you a proposition that I'm just drawing from the evidence of some of the other witnesses here, and I just want to ask you whether you as a member of the inner circle and as the Co-ordinator, would agree with these propositions.
	The first one is the following.  The CCB, according to its own internal practices, could not take offensive steps against someone until the CCB was satisfied that all reasonable precautions had been taken to ensure that the intelligence it had received was both accurate and reliable.  Do you agree with that?

WOUTER J BASSON: That is correct.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So if you were going to target Mr X to burn his car, before such a plan could be approved you'd have to be sure that the intelligence which you had received about why Mr X was an enemy, was both accurate and reliable.

WOUTER J BASSON: Yes, if the information was available.

MR KAHANOVITZ: I don't understand your qualification, what do you mean "indien dit besikbaar was"?

WOUTER J BASSON: If a presentation came that a person's car, for example, had to be burnt out and this car perhaps did not belong to the person but it wasn't possible to determine this, but the person who was suspected of owning the car was confirmed as an activist, then the car could be burnt and then later it may even appear that it wasn't even his vehicle.  If you understand what I'm saying.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Let's just talk about - let's just restrict ourselves to a plan to kill someone.  You'll agree with me that the CCB would be the Judge, the Jury and the Executioner.

WOUTER J BASSON: With the necessary authorisation.