Boeremag: 'Blame it on Muslims'

2003-10-31 16:12

Pretoria - Rightwingers planning a coup d'etat believed their terrorist deeds would be blamed on Muslim fundamentalists, the Pretoria High Court Boeremag treason trial heard on Friday.

The main coup planners discussed on September 13, 2001 what type of terrorist deeds they needed to carry out in furtherance of their goal, police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit testified.

They opted for assassinations and bomb blasts, among other things.

Those attending the meeting said they believed the time was right for such acts, as they would most likely be blamed on the country's Muslim community, Smit said.

The meeting was held two days after the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre, which was blamed on Muslim fundamentalists.

Smit said the meeting considered ways of plunging the country into chaos to prompt blacks to rise up and attack whites, who would then be in a position to act "defensively".

Terrorist deeds formed part of this "trigger" phase of the coup plot.

He was giving evidence in the trial of 22 alleged members of the rightwing Boeremag organisation, with whom he planned the alleged coup while being a paid police informer all the time.

The men face 42 charges, including treason, murder and terrorism.

Smit said the violent land grabs in Zimbabwe made it easier for the Boeremag to gain supporters in South Africa. White South Africans were afraid they would suffer the same fate as their northern neighbours.

He also testified that a "Boerehof" (Boer court) would have been set up to try "volksverraaiers" and "volksmoordenaars" (traitors and murderers of the nation). At the top of the list were former state president FW de Klerk and former SA Defence Force chief turned politician Constand Viljoen.

Smit said the group believed De Klerk betrayed Afrikaners openly from a podium while Viljoen did it in an underhand way.

Smit gave the court details of several planning meetings involving a number of the accused during August and September 2001. Among other things, those present discussed ways of taking over military bases.

He said Giel Burger, then a colonel and second in command of the Lohatlha defence force base in the Northern Cape, undertook to ensure that all diesel bunkers and artillery vehicles at the base were filled with diesel.

Burger also took it upon himself to compile a detailed plan for the base's takeover under the guise of a military exercise, Smit said.

Burger is accused number seven in the trial.

Smit told the court that the group intended taking over the Mabalingwe nature reserve outside Bela-Bela in Limpopo and use it as a safehouse for the families of those carrying out the coup.

The trial is to be moved from the Palace of Justice next week across the road to the main Pretoria High Court building after numerous complaints by counsel and the judge over a lack of space and poor acoustics.

The trial continues on Monday.

- SAPA