Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-11-17

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: As I explained just now, I was of the impression that there were witnesses saying that I had conspired to murder these people and this is actually just a mistake on a piece of paper.  I did this on the spur of the moment, that I just wrote "conspiracy to murder".  I was advised to do that by my former legal representative after we had traversed the whole issue and afterwards we realised that it was not actually conspiracy to murder.  So, it was a technical, legal point where I made a little mistake.

MR B WILLIAMS: I will not burden you with that issue any longer, Captain.  Now, the planning of this particular operation itself, am I correct that you say that you came down to Cape Town upon the instruction of then Colonel de Kock, if I am I correct, in February of 1986.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Mr Chairman, I think it was late January, the beginning of February 1986.

MR B WILLIAMS: In other words, you were in Cape Town for four weeks before this incident happened?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: It could have been the first week or the second week in February or the last week in January.  I cannot specifically remember.  It was normal practice that we would be at headquarters or at Vlakplaas for the last month in January.  It could have been ten days or 14 days before the time.

MR B WILLIAMS: All right, I am not going to try and hold you to a day.  Captain, do I understand you correctly, also, to be saying that prior to February you had not been involved in the infiltration of cells, MK cells in the Western Cape?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, Mr Chairman, not before I came here, except late in 1991 I was here when we were busy with the sabotage investigation at Koeberg.  This is not related to this incident.

MR B WILLIAMS: And you are saying that you were also not involved in the handling of Jimmy Mbane and Eric Maluleka prior to you coming to Cape Town?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: The immediate period before that I was not involved.  In January 1986 I was doing a course for three weeks.  There were other people, I think Beeselaar and Roelf Venter were involved in that matter.

MR B WILLIAMS: All right.  So, you say that you have come to Cape Town in February and that is when you get involved in the infiltration or the ordering of the infiltration that was, at that stage, quite unsuccessful by Jimmy Mbane and Eric Maluleka.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct Mr Chairman.

MR B WILLIAMS: I want to quote to you a document and, perhaps, we can just hear your comment on this.  Sorry, if I can just ask one further question.  You say that you have never received a commodation for this particular incident itself, no medals, no money, no trophies?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Not as far as I know.  I was praised in my files, but nothing more, no medals.

MR B WILLIAMS: All right.  If I can just refer you to a document, unfortunately it is a bundle that has been handed to us by your legal representatives.  Mr Chairperson, I am sorry, I do not have a copy of this.  It has been handed to me by Mr Bellingan's council and, unfortunately, it also does not have page numbers.  If I can just try and get a heading on this.  The document ... (intervention).

JUDGE MILLER: I think we have a bundle of documents here, Mr Williams.  I do not know if it is the same.

CHAIRPERSON: What is the front of the ... (intervention).

JUDGE MILLER: Is it dated the tenth of ...

MR B WILLIAMS: Sorry, the front of this document is called "Top Secret - How many Askaris were there?" and it is quite a substantial bundle of documents.
	All right, if I can just quote from one ... (intervention).

CHAIRPERSON: Is that from the second page?

MR B WILLIAMS: I do not have ... (intervention).

CHAIRPERSON: The bundle we have (...indistinct) from the first page (...indistinct) has attention (...indistinct).

INTERPRETER: The speaker's mike is not on.

CHAIRPERSON: We have been given a bundle, the first page of which is dated the tenth of November 1997, it is a letter from van der Merwe and Bester.  On page two is the document, "Top Secret - How many Askaris were there?".

MR B WILLIAMS: Thank you Mr Chairperson, that seems to be the bundle which I have and I am referring to a section of the document.  It, unfortunately, the photocopying is very bad.  Let me just ... (intervention).

CHAIRPERSON: Well, before you go any further, we have a large bundle which we should, perhaps, call Bundle A, we have a second bundle which is a follow-on to that which should be, sorry, the large bundle is Volume one, the second one is Volume two.  We have now got the new bundle, should that be called Volume three?

MR B WILLIAMS: Thank you Mr Chairperson, may I proceed?

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MR B WILLIAMS: Thank you.  I am on the, what would be my 16th page and, probably, your 17th page of that bundle.  It says "uiters geheim" and it has a number five at the top, it looks like page five of that particular document.  If I could just quote to Captain Bellingan from the second paragraph of that document.  It reads as follows,
"The member in this period, he did many brave things in the combatting terrorism.  In one case he did the total planning regarding the activities during a period of months.  The members associated with other branch received the Cross for Bravery for this actions.  This member was responsible for the planning, he was shot and he got no remuneration."
I do not want to go any further at this stage, but it would seem to be that, and it seems to be signed by a Lieutenant-Colonel Baker.  You know that individual?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, I can comment on this document.  It is the fifth of August, 15th of August, Colonel Bakerveld and we knew or we felt that the generals were leaving us in the lurch and when we see, we foresaw Nurenberg Trials and he said he was going to apply for the members.  He took this document to the Commissioner of Police, but nothing realised afterwards and we received no medals afterwards.  Nothing was, were issued to us.

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, the question is not that, the question is not that, you have missed the point, the question is not the medals.  Lieutenant-Colonel Baker would have extracted this information from your official records, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I assume so, yes.

MR B WILLIAMS: Right, now the point that he makes here is that you were involved in the planning of this operation for months and that is the question that I asked you.  According to you, you were involved in the planning of this operation for four weeks prior to it happening.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, there is a problem with this document.  I was only involved for a few weeks, not for months.  I think the idea was from Baker to obtain recognition for the members.  I think at that stage our personal documents had very little in them at headquarters.

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, but you do not know that?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, I do not know.

MR B WILLIAMS: All right.  So, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Baker you say that he is incorrect.  He says that you were involved in the planning of this operation for months, you say, no, you were involved in the planning of this operation for four weeks only.  Correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR B WILLIAMS: In that four weeks that you were in Cape Town you were having regular contact meetings with Jimmy Mbane and Eric Maluleka, the two askaris whom you were handling at the time, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR B WILLIAMS: And those meetings took place twice weekly, thrice weekly?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I cannot say whether it happened every week, it depended whether we could find Jimmy on the radio tracer and then we would meet at a safe premises.

MR B WILLIAMS: But you were down here specifically for this operation, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: We did not come down for the Guguletu 7, we had to infiltrate to find freedom fighters.