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Defence force 'looks foolish'
17/01/2005 08:18 - (SA)
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| Richard Henry and Susanne Blendulf stand in front of a cannon in the war museum. (Johann Hattingh, Beeld) |
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Marthinus van Vuuren and Borrie la Grange , Beeld
Johannesburg - If it happened in any other country, the minister of defence would have resigned because of the embarrassment.
This was the reaction of Helmoed Römer-Heitman, military expert of Jane's Defence Weekly, to the "ridiculous" arrest of two curators and the director of the military museum in Saxonworld, Johannesburg, for the "possession of suspicious, stolen military vehicles".
"Every government wants to control its weapons, but to invade a military museum is medieval. It makes the defence force looks like a bunch of fools. I cannot believe for one second that a senior military commander approved such a thing. The entire affair puts the South African Defence Force in a very bad light. But I doubt whether the officer who planned it will lose his job."
He believes the military police - probably because of an administrative error - overreacted when making the arrests and in the way they handled the matter.
A family member of major John Keene, curator of the museum, said on Sunday that Keene might need a follow-up operation to his right eye in six weeks' time. Keene underwent an emergency operation to his retina shortly after his arrest on Friday morning.
Keene had undergone a retina replacement operation on Wednesday and was discharged from the Pretoria Eye Institute shortly before his arrest on Thursday.
The military police allegedly refused to allow Keene to take his antibiotics and eye drops while he was being kept in the cells. He later had to undergo an emergency operation.
"He is better, but we are still very angry. The follow-up operation might not have been necessary," the family member said.
Keene, Richard Henry and Susanne Blendulf were arrested on Thursday after military police confiscated four armoured vehicles.
According to defence force records, the vehicles had been destroyed, but in actual fact they had been maintained and displayed at the museum.
There is apparently still a possibility that the military police could confiscate more armoured vehicles and weapons on Monday.
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