Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-11-17

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I was in the process of getting out when I heard an explosion and many, many shots.  The next moment I realise that I had been hit and there were two bullet holes in the front window of the car.  I fell down onto the back seat of the car.  I felt that my face was bleeding.  I got out, asked Captain Brazelle what was happening and he told me that my eye was bleeding, but that it did not look too bad.

MR BOOYENS: Mr Bellingan, you are just going a little bit too fast.  As you have already said, you were sitting on the back seat?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: While you were in the vehicle, somebody fired at that vehicle.  Is that correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes.

MR BOOYENS: Did you see the person who was firing at you?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I cannot say yes or no, there were too many  people at that crossing.

MR BOOYENS: In any case, this vehicle in which you were travelling, was hit right from the front?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: M'Lord, the problem is we had some colour, old colour photographs, but not negatives.  So, if I may ask permission, I will hand in as we proceed.  Unfortunately, making photocopies of these do not work too well either, but as we proceed I will hand in some photographs which become relevant, my attorney can just undo them, and if we can then just make use of the one photograph we have got.  We have got one colour photocopy, but these are extremely expensive to make as your Lordship is no doubt aware.
	Mr Bellingan, I am showing to you and we call this B1, I am showing photograph B1, it shows a yellow police with two holes in the windscreen.  Was that the vehicle you were travelling in?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: This will be B1, EXHIBIT B1.  You also mentioned that you heard the two shots and something hit you.  Did you have a weapon in your hands?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I was busy getting out of the vehicle and I held my weapon in front of me to get out.  At that stage it hit the rifle, these two shots came through the front windscreen.

MR BOOYENS: You say on page 35 that it hit the butt of the weapon, but EXHIBIT B2, and I will mark it with various circles, the holes on the magazine and where the weapon was damaged on the butt.
	Mr Bellingan, the magazine of the R1, did the bullet go directly through the magazine?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, it got stuck in the magazine.

MR BOOYENS: And that one which hit the gas chamber in the front?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, it deflected to the roof of the vehicle.

MR BOOYENS: And some of the shrapnel hit me in my left eye and the eye was hurt and it was bleeding and it went through my nose and my cheek, the shrapnel from that, the shrapnel from this shot.

MR BOOYENS: You also lost part of your sight?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I went for medical examinations and I have left 5% to 7& of the sight of my left eye because of this.

MR BOOYENS: When these shots rang, after you have got out of the car, did you see, and I refer to page 35, that there were people?  You knelt by the vehicle and tried to shoot, but only one shot rang, because the weapon had already been loaded, there was gas enough only to fire one shot and because of the damage to this weapon, you could not reload again?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: Did you then, at that stage, saw a person shooting in your direction, I refer to page 30.  Brazelle also shot in the direction of the person shooting at us?  Is that correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct, Mr Chairman.

MR BOOYENS: You are saying that somebody shot at something about, about a hand grenade, on the right-hand side of the motor vehicle somebody shouted, be careful, hand grenade and somebody carrying a hand grenade was shot dead on the left-hand side?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I did not see that incident at that stage.  I was suffering from shock and I was very worried what was going to happen on the ground and I tried to control the situation.

MR BOOYENS: Later on there was a person carrying a hand grenade found dead near this vehicle.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct, Mr Chairman.

MR BOOYENS: Is that correct, you moved forward in the direction of the crossing with a pistol in my hand?  Was there still a shooting going on?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, there was a shooting going on.  I could not see.

MR HUGO: Mr Chairman, could I ask that my learned colleague would not lead the witness regarding this aspect.  He must tell himself what was happening.

MR BOOYENS: I was not going to lead him in this case.  	Yes, you moved in a forward direction.  Please tell us step by step, you moved forwards, what happened?  You mentioned something about your eye before we were interrupted.  What about your left eye?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: The sight in my left eye was limited at that stage.  I was suffering from shock and I was thinking at that stage, I was a Sergeant, this is, was, this is my operation, I summoned the people here to arrest these  people and it was peak time on a Monday morning.  I was thinking of hostages, I was still hearing shots ringing out and while I was running in the direction of the crossing I came near a Kombi and one of the so-called people identified by the askaris, these freedom fighters, it seemed as if he had a, he was throwing a hand grenade in my direction and then I shot him from a, from near and he fell down.  What precisely happened there,  I cannot remember in much more detail.

MR BOOYENS: Referring to the Kombi, first of all, why did you think or suspect that this Kombi was involved?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: This Kombi, Jimmy Barney was driving this and somebody shouted shoot the long man and I said leave him, because he is the informer, he was running in the direction of the Guguletu Police Station.  Mbane, he jumped from the Kombi, he was driving this Kombi.  He purposefully drove into the pavement and we arranged that should something happen, just bring them up to this point where we could arrest them.

MR BOOYENS: You said that this person got out of the Kombi while you were approaching?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I think he got from the Kombi, but at, later on they found his weapon in the Kombi.

MR BOOYENS: You are referring to a stick grenade.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: It is a grenade which has a long stick and then you can throw just a part of that.  At that stage there were ammunition from Eastern and Western Bloc countries.  They ... (end of tape 1A).
	They, the liberation fighters, used all that.

MR BOOYENS: From a short distance somebody said shoot the man, how many shots?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I think two shots, Mr Chairman.

MR BOOYENS: And it seemed that at, it was not a stick grenade?  Is that correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, that is correct.

MR BOOYENS: Why did you shoot this man?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: At that stage I thought my life was in danger.  I was already injured, there was fighting and shooting going on and I wanted to prevent any other incidents and I felt my life was in danger at that stage.

MR BOOYENS: Could you confirm, is that the Kombi and the person lying there?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR BOOYENS: And right in front of the door of the Kombi is a kind of, let us say, a big nail, it looks like a stick with a knob.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: It is a big thing with a knob, Mr Chairman and that is what I am referring to.

MR BOOYENS: That will be EXHIBIT B3.  Can you just indicate the stick to which you are referring.  You have a ballpoint pen, just draw a circle.
	Mr Bellingan, while the shooting was going on, while you fired the shot, was the shooting still going on?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, it was still going on, I heard shots from my left side.

MR BOOYENS: I am going to ask you, you have already given a description, but it is very important.  It is a bit awkward, but just give us the details.  When you shot this man, what did you see, where did you shoot him?