Human Rights Violation Hearings — Bisho — 1996-09-11

KOBUS DU PLESSIS: Thank you very much Mr Chairperson.  It is a privilege for me to be here today and I will try my best to be as brief as possible about this event and about my involvement in the aspects as far as the ballistics are concerned and perhaps we - you know in Natal, the Zulu's use the word for ballistics experts udokutella esbamu which means a doctor of guns or a ballistics expert.  But that is how we approach our work as ballistics experts, is that we should look at a scene.  The Bisho incident was the scene for a ballistics investigation and in my opinion, it was the biggest shooting incident which ever had to be investigated by ballistics people in the world.
 I would like to proceed by referring to the report which I have compiled and I also have photo albums by post-mortems because I attended post-mortems directly after the incident and I would like to start with them, with regard to the deceased in this incident, and then I will proceed to the area plan of the scene itself.  I myself, was attached to the Ballistics Unit of the Forensic Science Laboratory from 1980 to 1992 of the South African Police and as a member of the South African Police, I conducted this investigation.   I resigned as a member of the South African Police at the end of November 1994 and I am currently in private practice as a ballistics expert.
 My investigation started on the 8th September 1992.  On the 9th, 10th and 11th, I attended post-mortems on the 28 civilians and the one soldier that were injured, who were shot and at the time of the post-mortems, a lot of exhibits were removed from the bodies.  From 12 of the deceased, bullets were removed which were fired from military firearms.  I also have an example of the 5,56mm projectiles which were used in the military firearms.  I have brought one with me.  Some of the bullets also disintegrated upon entering the bodies and only the shells of the bullets were found in five of these cases.  Then in five cases there were also very fine fragments of the projectiles which, upon impact, disintegrated totally.
 With one deceased, a piece of shrapnel was found which, upon investigation by an expert in that field, that wasn't me, although I also identified it, was identified as not originating from a bullet but that it probably originated from a grenade which exploded.  Then with six of the deceased, specific exhibits were found with regard to bullets or grenade explosives and so forth, where they had disintegrated and they could be detected in the X-rays.
 Mr Chairperson, I also made a summary of the injuries of the deceased.  I did a wound radius analysis in the documents before you and it is on the very last page.  It has been annexed to the document on the very last page and I would like to deal with the summary now.  It is divided into three.  The top section speaks about the direction of the onslaught with regard to the bodies of the deceased.  I broke it down into the direction from behind, in front, left and right.  Also the part of the body which was struck, I broke down into the head, neck, the upper body and the lower body.  The upper half of the body from the waist upwards and the lower half from the waist downwards.
 If we look at the position in which the bullets struck the bodies of the deceased, there were eight who were struck in the head.  With regards to this analysis, there were three cases which I did not take into account for the purposes of this analysis, as far as the direction of the onslaught is concerned and that is the soldier, the person that was struck by shrapnel, and there was also one person who was injured in the head, where we couldn't determine from which direction he had been struck.
 We also have people that were struck in the neck, there were two of them.  Fifteen people were struck in the upper body from the waist upwards and one person was struck from the waist downwards.  People who were struck from behind, were ten.  No people were struck directly from in front of their bodies.  There were fifteen people who were struck from the left side of their bodies and one was struck from the right-hand side.
 The second aspect is the direction in which the bullet penetrated the body.  I tried to determine whether the bullet ascended or descended the body, or whether it penetrated in a horizontal direction and there I found that there were ten cases where the bullet struck in an ascending direction.  Four bullets were in a descending direction and three penetrated horizontally.  With regards to the injuries of people that were struck in the head, as far as the moving of the neck, I did not take that into account for the purposes of the direction of whether it was ascending or descending whatever.
 As far as the direction of the penetration into the body, I am of the opinion that in the cases of the deceased, at least in 14 cases the persons were in a lying or bending position when they were struck by the bullets.  That means that if the person was standing, that the bullet would have penetrated in an ascending direction or a descending direction.  I mean the bullet would have penetrated horizontally and not upwards or downwards, and then there were 13 incidents where it was undeterminable, as far as this aspect of my investigation is concerned.
 It is very clear, Mr Chairman, that the deceased were predominantly shot from the left and from behind and so if we take into account the deceased that were struck from the left of their bodies, then it is very clear with relation to the position of the soldiers and the crowd, that these people's bodies were faced away from the stadium.  A person can then make the assumption that they were shot while retreating from the stadium, in the direction of King William's Town because the left-hand sides of their bodies were struck in the majority of the cases.
 Mr Chairman, with regard to the injury of the soldier, it is described in more detail in Annexure C before you, that the soldier was struck on the left side of his head by a bullet grazing from behind.  The bullet that was passing him at a high velocity from behind and, in my opinion, with the total disintegration of the projectile and the impact on the skull, it is very obvious that it was a high velocity projectile and, in my opinion, it was highly probable that he was struck by a 5.56mm bullet.
 I also, during research, Mr Chairman, with regard to the injuries that can be caused by the 5.56, which is the bullet that is being spoken about here, the one in question, I conducted tests in gelatine which was used as a tissue stimulant to determine at which distances these calibre weapons would disintegrate in human tissue, human body.  I would like to make the results of these tests available to you.  I forgot to distribute them just now.  In your documents it's, unfortunately I do not have a copy available for each member of the Commission.   Mr Chairman, if we may proceed, I would like to say that the upper row on the photographed projectiles, were at a distance of 120 metres from the involved calibre and it is quite obvious that the bullet would probably have disintegrated at that distance.  In the second group where it is from a distance of 90 metres, where it was quite clear that with the nature of the exhibits which were removed from the bodies, that it was completely related to the situation which we had here in Bisho, where we had this distance and where we could also come to the conclusion that these projectiles were removed from the bodies without any damage and that further distances, people at further distances that were struck, it was a bit more difficult to determine than people who were struck at close range.  It would be difficult to do a more specific distance calculation but I do not feel that it is necessary in this particular circumstance.
 Mr Chairman, furthermore I would like to move to the microscopic investigation which I conducted with the cartridge cases and the bullets which I seized.  In totality there were 404 x 5,56mm cartridge cases found on the scene.  These include the cartridge cases which were handed to me by other persons, which they had picked up at the scene and which were also pointed out to me at a later stage.  I analysed these cartridge cases microscopically and found that they were fired from 107 different firearms.
 At the time of my investigation I also test fired 338 military R4 rifles in order to get these cartridge cases so that I could compare them with the ones that I had and I positively linked 49 of them to the cartridge cases found at the scene.  I could positively link 256 cartridge cases and in essence I am saying that I could not positively identify 148 cartridge cases which were fired from 58 weapons.
 Furthermore, I had taken bullets at the post-mortem and also bullets which I received from injured persons, I analysed and I found that 13 of the bullets which were removed at the post-mortems were suitable for microscopic analysis in comparison with the tests and seven of them were suitable for investigation from the injured.  This is a total of 20 which I compared with the tests, the shootings which I conducted, and I could not positively link any firearms with the cartridges or the bullets which were removed from the deceased.  38 Weapons were tested and at this stage I wouldn't like to elaborate about the circumstances of the firearms, it will probably take a bit of time, with regard to the identification process as far as the bullets are concerned.
 Mr Chairman, I would like to go a bit further to the reconstruction of the scene and for this purpose I have an area photo of which I have made smaller copies available to you, which show us the Bisho stadium.  The northerly direction is on the upper side of this photograph which I have here.  The area I am now identifying is Jongilanga Crescent which is also in question here in connection with this incident.  Then we have the central post office in that position, and then we have Fort Hare university campus with the buildings which we are occupying today.  Then in the south we have the Parliament buildings and I am now identifying the route to King William's Town which the marchers followed.  Although it is not shown here, but the South African border at the time was along this road that I am identifying now and proceeded in that direction, and that was basically the position of the South African border.
 In this area photo plan, I also show the deployment of these lines of soldiers which I will refer to later on and line M1 is referred to as line M1 here I'm showing now, was split up into M1(a), M1 and M1(b) was deployed there.  Then line M2 was in the Fort Hare campus which I am showing to you now.  If you see there is a small building in front of the campus and they were on the right-hand side of this building in this region which I am identifying now.  Line M3 was from the corner, towards the direction of the house which I am showing to you now.  Then line M4 of the soldiers was along the main road in front here and that is the furthest corner of the university.
 Then we have line M5 which was a point that was identified as the main entrance of Parliament where there were also soldiers deployed.  Then we have line M6, that was the main road to East London which goes in the direction of the houses, the Ministerial homes, which is in this region at the bottom of this photograph.   Just to ease explanation a bit, the lampposts in the middle of the road I have marked with numbers from number one to number eight and in this insert, I'll speak about this later, there are positions which were shown where evidence was found on the scene.  There is also an insert which shows to whom traces were identified.  Mr Downing who was linked to the Director-General of the Ciskei, assisted me with the compilation of this area photo plan and there are also some relevant distances written there.
 Mr Chairman, I would like to go a bit further.  With regard to the reconstruction of the scene, I divided the incident into three.  The area with regard to Jongilanga Crescent and my observations and identifications, and then I have the area of Fort Hare, which I dealt with separately and then also the area where lines M4 and M5 and M6 were deployed, and I would like to proceed to the area in connection with Jongilanga Crescent.  
 The album which I have made available to you, I would like to refer to Annexure G.  I would like to refer you, Mr Chairman, to the first photograph, photograph one, which is an area photograph taken in the direction of Jongilanga Crescent at that stage.  Photograph two, just for orientation purposes, was taken from position M2 which, when referred to on this area photo, was in the direction of the stadium.   Then you can also clearly see the contour of the ground and see that there is a decline from the direction of Jongilanga Crescent in the north.
 Photograph number three is a photograph which was taken from the position which I am showing to you now, Y1 on the right-hand side of the stadium.  I would like to show you two more photographs, photograph number five on page five of the Annexure which was taken from the direction of the central post office and on this photograph, the stadium can be observed on the right-hand side and the buildings on the left-hand side is Fort Hare university.
 The last photograph is photograph number eight.  Mr Chairman, photograph number eight is the area which was taken from position S3, as I am showing you now, the exit of the stadium, in the direction of Jongilanga Crescent, and in the forefront you can see the damaged fence.  With regards to this area, Mr Chairman, the area I am showing to you now, there are some points I would like to indicate to you.  Position P1 is a position where a Stetchkun machine pistol is alleged to have been found.  This is a Russian manufactured pistol which has the ability to function as a fully automatic gun.  This firearm had a magazine in it with 20 cartridges.  It is the same as the 28mm Makarov.
 With regards to position G, point G, that position, there was a 37mm teargas capsule which had released teargas which can be seen on certain video material.  The following points are S1, which is the position I am showing to you now.  S3  ... end of Tape 2, side A ... grenade launchers had exploded.  Samples which were taken from the holes in the ground were identified by an expert as having been caused by a 40mm grenade launcher.
 I have a brochure available and at this stage, that is basically how the grenade launcher looks, the 40mm grenade launcher and it's magazine which can be seen at the bottom.