Basson: West helped Saddam

2001-09-03 18:40

Pretoria - Chemical warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson told the Pretoria High Court on Monday that "the whole Western world helped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein create chemical and biological warfare facilities in the late 1980s".

Questioned about a 1998 newspaper report, which referred to his activities in Iraq, Basson said he was at a chemical and biological warfare facility in Felluja in 1986/87 with German and Swiss operators "as an observer".

"The British made certain inputs about security. The Swiss and Germans were also involved. The whole Western world helped Saddam to build up these things - the Americans were also involved," he said.

Cross-examination of Basson on the murder and related charges against him commenced on Monday, with Basson being questioned in detail about how he saw his work as a soldier, his relationship with the press and his involvement with the SA Defence Force's (SADF) Special Forces and the Civil Co-operation Bureau.

Basson revealed that he was not only married to the sister of a Belgian business partner to get a passport and freedom of movement, but that he also married a Russian and a Bulgarian woman in 1988/89 for the same reasons.

The Directorate Covert Information of the SADF paid all three "spouses" and all three marriages were "pure commercial transactions".

No ethical problem with operations such as kidnapping

Basson said, despite his undertaking to take care of his patients to the best of his ability, he did not have a moral ethical problem with operations such as kidnapping, where it formed part of a military operation aimed at the "enemies of the state".

He did however, have a problem where operations took place inside the country and where he could be prosecuted.

According to Basson the police mainly acted inside South Africa, with the SADF merely playing a supporting role.

He admitted on occasion supplying police operators with incapacitating drugs used in cross-border "snatch" operations, but said this was on the orders of former SADF Chief, the late General Kat Liebenberg.

"These people were a direct threat to South African society. I saved many lives. The target was not my patient - I took care of the South African population," he said.

Basson insisted that politicians had created the perception of the "total onslaught" and that he never experienced it as such in military circles. As an individual he had more freedom of movement.

"I was not part of the political game. I was a soldier with orders," he said.

Asked if it was all the same to him if a person was killed in a foreign country with a weapon or poison, Basson said the defence force was entitled to use "any weapon available to it" when launching military operations on foreign soil, but refused flatly to speculate on the use of poison, saying that no one had ever asked him for poison.

Basson involved in planning Special Forces operations

He said there were discussions that he should, apart from incapacitating drugs, also supply operators with medication causing diarrhoea, but this never happened because he could not understand the point of such a "messy business".

Basson said he was directly involved in planning many Special Forces operations, as he was in charge of medical support. He however denied ever being involved in Civil co-operation planning sessions and said he had "no idea" how the CCB worked.

Basson denied planning his court case "with the same precision as a military operation".

He said his defence team's preparations certainly did not look like a military operation. "I depend on my legal team. I'm only telling the truth".

Prosecutor, Dr Torie Pretorius, put it to Basson that he (Basson) had studied the statements of state witnesses with military precision and had worked out "innovative defences and improvised to fit the state's case and to hide his own involvement".

To this, Basson once again said he was only telling the truth as he had it.

Basson admitted that he had not told the "full truth" to a Swiss court who investigated his involvement with stolen Vatican bonds, but said he had regarded it as a military operation and had a duty to protect the security of the CBO programme.

Basson admitted that he had spoken to several members of the press, but said he was also on occasion quoted where he had not spoken a single word to some of the reporters.

He did not feel "crucified" by the press, but felt that they often reported what they heard without any real understanding or insight and without being interested in hearing his side of the story.

'I'm only telling what happened'

The only reporter he did trust was American freelancer Andrew Jones, who did a three-hour interview with him on the eve of his trial.

"It was a personal interview about my life. He was the only journalist who was interested in the facts and did not fight with me about nonsense," he said.

Basson denied trying to prevent the State from getting access to the interview through a court order, adding that he regarded the matter as "a side show", although he admitted talking to Radio 702 station chief Yusuf Abramjee about the application.

Asked about a newspaper report, which quoted him as being "unwilling to betray fellow Afrikaners", Basson said he did not know who his fellow Afrikaners were. "I do not act on anyone's behalf. I am not protecting anyone. I'm only telling what happened," he said.

Basson said he never experienced any conflict between his being a medical doctor and a soldier.

"I was a good doctor and a good soldier. None of these roles took precedence. I had to do both in order to do my work ... The chemical and biological warfare programme was an interesting challenge. It's possible that I could have said I was proud of it. Yes, I was proud of being a soldier," he said.

Pretorius also quizzed Basson about the tie he was wearing, but Basson denied that he was wearing a Special Forces tie. He said he wore a British Intelligence Service tie "on Tuesdays".

Asked about his early days in the SADF, Basson revealed that he was part of a medical team who accompanied people like former State President PW Botha to the operational area in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Asked about his relationship with Botha, Basson said: "One did not have a good relationship with him. He had a good relationship with you when it suited him." Basson revealed that he had, in his early years in the SADF, compiled a psychological profile, which enabled Special Forces to predict with 80% accuracy which persons would pass their exams as Special Forces operators.

So successful were the profiles, that he later also made it available to the East Rand police reaction unit.

As medical officer, Basson also handled South Africa's nuclear bomb project for about six years. He did not give any more details.

Asked about the evidence of former CCB operator Trevor Floyd, who said Basson had at one stage asked him to distribute drugs overseas, Basson said the he had approached Floyd on Liebenberg's orders as there were stories that certain operators, especially in the CCB, were abusing certain capabilities.

Johan Theron a 'colleague', not a friend

Basson was adamant that he would not have approached Floyd on his own, as his own overseas distribution channels were far better than Floyd's.

Basson on Monday also described his relationship with self-confessed mass killer Johan Theron as that of colleagues and not friends.

Theron, he said, was "a different kind of person". Basson has denied Theron's evidence that he on numerous occasions supplied Theron with deadly muscle relaxants and sleeping tablets used to pacify and murder hundreds of Swapo detainees and own forces regarded as a threat to national security.

Theron claimed Basson had demonstrated to him how he should inject persons and had supplied him with the deadly substances.

He claimed the bodies of his victims were usually stripped and thrown into the sea out of an airplane - allegations Basson said he knew nothing about.

The trial continues.

- SAPA