Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-10

REV XUNDU: Can I ask you to stand whilst I swear you in Mrs Doreen Rousseau.

UNKNOWN: (Sworn states)

BONGANI FINCA: I welcome you Doreen Rousseau and June Crichton will direct your questions to you on behalf of the panel.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you Mr Chairperson.  Good morning Mrs Rousseau are you comfy?

UNKNOWN: Very nervous but I'm comfortable thanks.

JUNE CRICHTON: I can see that I want you just to relax.  Your testimony will not take as long as we've hear the full story and so it won't be necessary for you to go through the whole thing except for you to add any points that you'd like make that perhaps  Mr Belling Senior and Junior left out about what happened to you.  Would you like to just tell us what happened and then we'll ask you questions at the end of that time.

UNKNOWN: On the evening of the first of May 1993 two friends and I went to the airport to fetch a fellow colleague.  From there on our way back we called in at the High Gate Hotel for a quick drink.  We went in and the four of us sat at a table at the centre of the bar.  We ordered drinks and were sitting talking, laughing and joking when we heard something like crackers going off.  Not long thereafter someone shouted, get down the hotel is being attacked.  Soon after that I heard shots being fired and looked towards the door and saw a man wearing a black balaclava with an automatic rifle firing from left to right in the bar.  I ran around the table to lie down where my friends were and I was shot in the back of the leg.  I fell down and noticed that from the top of my right leg above the knee blood was spurting out of a wound about the size of my hand.  Then someone from behind the bar fired shots back and after a while the firing stopped.  I said the my friend on my right, I've been shot and he said lie still pretend that you're dead because they may come back.  My friend on the left was lying face down.  I shook him and called his name but he lay very still.  Everybody was screaming and lying in pools of blood.  They were choking as a result of the teargas.  The blood was still spurting out of my leg and my friend attempted to stop the bleeding by putting his elbow in the hole but without success.
 I heard someone shout phone for an ambulance and the police.  I tried to slide myself into a corner thinking that the attackers may return and shoot at us again but I couldn't move my leg.  I could feel myself getting very weak as I was losing a lot of blood.  After some time the ambulance arrived and my friend and I were taken to hospital.  I was in terrible pain and the blood kept on spurting out.  I can't remember what happened thereafter.  I woke up in the ward the next morning and remained in the hospital for plus minus a month.  I underwent surgery four times.  A pin was placed in my injured leg from the hip to the knee and cannot be removed.  
 After leaving hospital I went daily for physiotherapy for a year and during that period I went for another operation, a bone graft.  I walked on crutches for two and a half years and had to depend on other people for assistance.  My life was changed overnight.  I lost my job and my medical aid.  I had to go to a psychologist for counselling and was put and medication for nerves and depression but I could not continue because my medical aid had expired.  I am still on medication after a period of four years and I still have problems with my injured leg being slightly shorter and I walk with a limp.  I still experience a lot of pain and I can't walk very far as my knee and my ankle collapse.  I also have absolutely no feeling in my foot due to the fact that the nerve had been damaged.  My right hand was also injured when I was shot and I will have to have surgery done in the near future.  My hearing in the right ear has also been affected due to the gunshots.  I am a diabetic and this has further aggravated it by the trauma of this incident.  I will be sixty one years of age in July and have no husband to support me therefore I have to depend on others for financial aid as I am only receiving a grant of Four Hundred and Thirty Rand a month.  I feel that those responsible for killing and injuring innocent people should be found and brought to justice.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you Doreen, you're saying that you still need treatment?

UNKNOWN: Yes I still need treatment.

JUNE CRICHTON: And part of that treatment will be surgery in the future.  What is the prognosis for that surgery, are they anticipating that it's going to help considerably?

UNKNOWN: Not the foot, my hand.

JUNE CRICHTON: For your hand.

UNKNOWN: Yes, I have problems here at the wrist and my thumb.

JUNE CRICHTON: And you say that you're not on any medical aid?

UNKNOWN: No, I'm not on medical aid.

JUNE CRICHTON: So how would you anticipate paying for surgery such as that?

UNKNOWN: I don't know.  I go to the State Hospital, the Frere Hospital.

JUNE CRICHTON: You say you lost your job, what kind of work were you doing?

UNKNOWN: I was working at the S.P.C.A. at the animal sanctuary.

JUNE CRICHTON: And you are not working now?

UNKNOWN: No, I can't work.  I can't stand very long on my leg.

JUNE CRICHTON: You mentioned that your attitude towards the perpetrators is very similar to that of Mr Belling, would you like to explain on that any further or add to that?

UNKNOWN: Well I just feel that innocent people were shot and injured that night and I just feel that they should be found and brought to justice.

JUNE CRICHTON: So you are saying then that if you ...  Would you or would you not like to meet the perpetrators of this event?

UNKNOWN: To meet them?

JUNE CRICHTON: Yes.

UNKNOWN: No please, I wouldn't like to meet them.

JUNE CRICHTON: What are your expectations from the Commission Doreen?

UNKNOWN: Sorry?

JUNE CRICHTON: What are your expectations from the Commission?

UNKNOWN: Well I would like help financially and I would like help with a medical aid.

JUNE CRICHTON: Did you approach any attorney at all as Mr Belling did?

UNKNOWN: Any attorneys?  I did go to an attorney but he said that he couldn't help me.

JUNE CRICHTON: Who was that?

UNKNOWN: I can't remember his name now it's such a long time ago but I can look up and let you know.

JUNE CRICHTON: If you could just give that information to our panel thank you.  Is there anything else that you wish to say about that attack that you haven't covered now?

UNKNOWN: I still have terrible nightmares.  I wake up in the night and I see this man standing in my doorway with a gun.

JUNE CRICHTON: You mentioned that you had psychological treatment but it's now completed because lack of medical aid.

UNKNOWN: Yes, my medical aid has expired.

JUNE CRICHTON: So that would be something that you would wish to continue?

UNKNOWN: Yes, I would, yes please.

JUNE CRICHTON: Thank you very much Mrs Rousseau I'm going to hand you back to the Commissioner now.

UNKNOWN: I have a photograph here but I don't if you want to see it?

BONGANI FINCA: Mr Sandi?

MR SANDI: Thank you Mr Chairman.  Mrs Rousseau I notice that in your statement you make mention of a certain group with the name APLA.  Did you know about this group before the shooting?

UNKNOWN: No I didn't.

MR SANDI: What did you know or hear about them after the shooting?

UNKNOWN: I didn't hear anything I haven't heard anything of them.  I don't know if they've been found or ... I've heard nothing.

MR SANDI: Thank you.  Thank you Chairman.