TRUTH COMMISSION: re: Amnesty Application Col R Venter [Vlakplaas Unit] END OF CROSS-EXAMINATION BY LAWYERS OF FAMILY OF PEBCO 3 & READING THEIR CLOSING ARGUMENT ADVISING THAT AMNESTY BE DENIED

Record ID: 893661

  • Title: TRUTH COMMISSION: re: Amnesty Application Col R Venter [Vlakplaas Unit] END OF CROSS-EXAMINATION BY LAWYERS OF FAMILY OF PEBCO 3 & READING THEIR CLOSING ARGUMENT ADVISING THAT AMNESTY BE DENIED
  • Date: 22nd October 1996
  • Summary: TRUTH COMMISSION: re: Amnesty Application Col R Venter [Vlakplaas Unit] END OF CROSS-EXAMINATION BY LAWYERS OF FAMILY OF PEBCO 3 & READING THEIR CLOSING ARGUMENT ADVISING THAT AMNESTY BE DENIED
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  • City: JOHANNESBURG
  • Country: South Africa
  • Reuters ID: 96OCT22R05
  • Story Text:TRUTH COMMISSION HEARINGS AT JOHANNESBURG CITY HALL re: Amnesty Application Col R venter [Vlakplaas Unit] - Pebco 3

    15.58.37 COL VENTER BEING CROSS-EXAMINED BY VICTIMS LAWYERS & COMMISSIONERS
    15.59.40 PLS IDENTIFY THE OFFICERS WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE ARREST OF THE PEBCO 3? captain van Zyl, Deon Nieuwoudt, now retired general Nick van Rensburg
    16.01.23 STATION COMMANDER OF CRADOCK WAS AWARE OF THE ARREST
    16.02.39 DO I UNDERSTAND YOU CORRECTLY THAT YOU WOULD TAKE THIS PERSON OUT OF HIS AREA TO NEUTRALISE HIM AND WHEN YOU WERE THROUGH WITH HIM YOU DIDN'T CARE WHETHER HE CAME BACK?
    16.04.13 IF I DIN'T GET ANY CO-OPERATION I WOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO DETAIN HIM & CONTINUED TO INTERROGATE HIM - INDEFINITELY - WE'VE DONE IT IN THE PAST - INTERROGATED A PERSON DAY & NIGHT
    16.07.13 COMMISSIONER LISTENING
    16.08.04 DO YOU WANT US TO BELIEVE THAT AFTER HANDING THEM OVER - YOU LEFT WITHOUT BEING TOLD WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THEM?
    16.11.14 LAWYER FOR VENTER
    16.18.17 LAWYERS GOING THROUGH PAPERS
    16.18.41 JUDGE NGOEPE QUESTIONING VENTER
    16.20.17 DID YOU THINK THEY WOULD BE KILLED. DIDN'T AT THAT STAGE BUT LATER SUSPECTED IT. I KNEW AT LEAST THAT THEY WOULD BE ASSUALTED TO EXTRACT INFORMATION FROM THEM AND THAT THEY WOULD BE INTENSIVELY INTERROGATED.
    16.20.29 YOU KNEW THAT THEY WOULD BE ASSAULTED AND POSSIBLY BE KILLED? CORRECT
    16.21.18 YOU KNOW WHAT MURDER IS DON'T YOU? CORRECT
    16.21.28 AS FAR AS YOU ARE CONCERNED YOU HAVE NOT COMMITTED ANY MURDER AT ALL IN RESPECT OF THESE PEOPLE? No I did not commit murder.
    16.21.46 YOU'RE NOT ASKING FOR AMNESTY I.R.O. MURDER ARE YOU? No I did not commit murder. I was involved in the abduction but I did not kill them. I did not help to kill them.
    16.22.03 AS FAR AS YOU ARE CONCERNED - YOU SEE NO NEED FOR AMNESTY I.R.O. MURDER? As far as I'm concerned there was complicity on my part in the removal & abduction but I was not involved in their murder; I don't know who killed them, how they were killed and what happened to the bodies. But I am asking that I am being excused for murder because I was the first person who acted to remove them.
    16.27.14 COL VENTER WALKING BACK TO SEAT IN AUDIENCE
    16.27.26 WIDE OF COMMISSIONERS BEHIND TABLE [NOT TALKING]
    16.31.54 LAWYERS FOR VICTIMS...we would submit that...the application should fail for want of proper complaince with the Act. It is the family's contention further that venter's applaication for indemnity is disingeniunous, as he does not even begin to acknowledge his complicity in acts which amount to gross violations of human rights. In fact, venter has made every effort to disassociate himself with the crux of the matter, which is the death of the Pepco 3 activists.
    16.32.25 He denies that he had any part in the interrogation of the 3 or assaulting them or intimidating them. He even goes further and denies that they had suffered any injuries which were obvious to the eye. He denies that he has knowledge of any other acts committed in relation to them; he has no knowledge of the fate of the yellow bakkie which conveyed them to the airport & he bears no personal knowldge of their eventual fate.
    16.32.52 One is at a loss to understand the purpose for his application for indemnity. Venter has not furnished this Committee with any information in addition to the revelations made by the Vlakplaas operatives outside this Commission. In fact he has not even associated himself with the allegations made by these operatives...
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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