Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 1997-11-17

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, Captain Bellingan, you will recall at the time of the various trials which had taken place in this matter, that that concession was not actually very verily forthcoming, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR B WILLIAMS: In fact, yourself and your colleagues had maintained all along, who were involved in that operation, that there was still an intention to arrest people, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I believe that that is what the people thought and believed, but I knew that based on the information which I had that it would be extremely difficult to arrest them and I was actually preparing myself for a fight.

MR B WILLIAMS: So, in other words, the only elimination that was going to take place on this particular day, in terms of your Vlakplaas modus operandi, was the death of these individuals, not so?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: We did not have a modus operandi simply to shoot people.  If I wanted to shoot them then I would have found out where they lived or I could have done it in any number, one of a number of ways.  I think what is important there is what the individual thought.  It was not a Vlakplaas modus operandi.

MR B WILLIAMS: Captain Bellingan, I know that your evidence has previously been that you were not involved in some of the shootings which had taken place in respect of the rest of the deceased on that scene that day.  Am I correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: That is correct.

MR B WILLIAMS: Did you not find it strange that practically all of the deceased had head wounds?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: If you find yourself in a terrorist situation and I think also if we look at the post mortem report, there were also many leg wounds.  I actually cannot comment on that.  The policemen were possibly just, they just were better marksmen.

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, you see, it is rather remarkable that at least three of the deceased have execution style wounds behind their ears.  What do you have to say about that?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I cannot comment on that.  Each particular individual who shot must answer that question.

MR B WILLIAMS: Captain Bellingan, I actually want to put it to you, and I put this to you on behalf of the families, that you had planned, and I must agree, successfully planned to eliminate these individuals.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I could not have planned it without the approval of the other members, but I as an individual felt that if a shooting erupted then we most definitely would not have wounded people, it would have been a free for all.  So, I did not say beforehand we are going to shoot them.  Those were, some of these people were strangers to me on the force, I did not know them all.

MR B WILLIAMS: I also want to put it to you that the fact that not a single policemen, of all the policemen that were on the scene that day, was shot apart from yourself who suffered, according to you, shrapnel wounds and the fact that every single one of the guerrillas died on that day is no coincidence.  What do you say about that?

CHAIRPERSON: Is that true?  I thought we heard evidence that somebody was supposed to have run away.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Some of them did, in fact, run away.  Captain Kleyn, who is now Brigadier, he was also wounded and Mr Williams can say these were shrapnel wounds, but, perhaps, if it was just a millimetre more to the right or the left I, perhaps, I would also have been dead.  So, it was just as a result of the Lord's Mercy that I survived.

MR B WILLIAMS: If I can just respond to the comment that there was one that got away.  Will you agree that the evidence of the police, and including yourself, all the operatives on the scene on that day, has always been that no one got away?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: I cannot comment on what the other people said and how the inquest was handled, but I think today we can say that some people got away.  I think there is a statement from a former terrorist, Ditana, and he also refers to people that he met later who were involved in that incident.

MR B WILLIAMS: Do you agree, Captain Bellingan, sorry your Worship.

MR BOOYENS: I am not sure if my learned colleague is busy with ...

MR B WILLIAMS: Do you agree, Captain Bellingan, that it is strange that after 11 years after this incident, this Amnesty Committee only has one individual, one policeman who is, of 20 policeman who were on that scene, who is today prepared to concede that a person was shot who was giving himself up?

MR BELLINGHAN: I came down to Cape Town and I told each and every member there involved that I was going to apply for amnesty and they all said that they felt that they had not done anything wrong, so they were not going to apply.  So, I cannot comment on other people's actions.

MR B WILLIAMS: You maintain until this day that you did nothing wrong on that day in respect of the killing of those individuals, you acted in self-defence, do you maintain that?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, no shooting or infiltration such as that goes 100% according to plans, so whatever the allegations against me and whatever was done that was wrong, I will take full responsibility for that, whether it was the person shot in the intersection, whether it was the arms that had been brought down to infiltrate with and the whole use and method of the ajan provocateurs, I will take full responsibility for all of that.

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, but, Captain Bellingan, that, with the greatest of respect to you, that seems to be hedging your bets, hardly appropriate here.

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Please repeat that question.

MR B WILLIAMS: You seem to be hedging your bets.  In other words, you are not admitting specifically that you did anything wrong, but you are maintaining that if you have done something wrong, then you are applying for amnesty.  That remains your position?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: As I said in my amnesty application, my position is that if I shot that person unlawfully then I apply for amnesty for that, that is the man I shot in the intersection, but I was not entirely in my sound and sober senses at the time that I shot him, that I add in my application.

MR B WILLIAMS: If Mr Chairperson will just give me one moment.  I realise that we are running short of time.  If I could just have a moment to consider my notes.
	If I could just ask you, Captain Bellingan, about the, just two questions about the planning of the operation the night before.  You have mentioned in your evidence that Captain Liebenberg and Major Odendal had been involved in the planning of things on the ground.  Is that correct?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: Yes, that is correct.

MR B WILLIAMS: But is it not correct that you as the Vlakplaas operative had, in fact, taken control of the situation?

W RIAAN BELLINGAN: No, I was a Sergeant and I could not give orders to Lieutenants and Colonels.  I was part of the planning section and we also took part in the gathering of intelligence and so forth and we involved the local commanders of the various branches, but I did not have the last say.  I could not get up and say I, Bellingan, say that we are going to shoot people dead today.  That is just simply not the way it worked.

MR B WILLIAMS: Yes, but it would appear as though you hand picked all the people for this operation, not so?