12A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 14, 1996 NATION/WORLD Witness details covert operations used to kill dissidents in S. Africa Los Angeles Times DURBAN, South Africa - The key prosecution witness in the murder trial of former Defense Minister Magnus Malan and 19 others provided a chilling inside look yesterday at the deadly web of covert operations used by the former apartheid regime to kill black dissi- dents. In riveting testimony, Johan Pieter Opperman, a former South African in- telligence officer, described how he used code names and cover stories, secret bank accounts and other cloak-and-dag- ger techniques as commander of a Zulu death-squad created by the military. Opperman, 38, said he and otherrank- ing operatives were even issued what he called special "James Bond cards," which, like those of the fictional British secret agent, let them operate outside the law. Opperman, now in a witness-protec- tion program, identified 10 of the 20 men on trial in Durban Supreme Court as being directly involved in the plan- ning and execution ofa grisly hit-squad attack that left 13 people dead, mostly women and children, in KwaMakutha township on Jan. 21, 1987. He said intelligence had indicated that the house would be used that night for an illegal meeting of anti-apartheid activists. Instead, members of the 12 Apostles of Christ Church and their families were asleep after choir prac- tice. Opperman did not directly implicate Malan, who was defense chief from 1980 to 1991, or other top military JOSH WHITE/Daily leaders of the apartheid era also on trial, in the atrocity. But prosecutors said documents would be used later in the trial to prove the generals had authorized training, arming and deploying 206 militant Zulus to support Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party in its bitter and bloody rivalry with the African National Congress. The covert project was code-named "Operation Marion," apparently from "marionette." "The military was pulling the strings. Inkatha was the puppet," said a court official familiar with the evidence. Buthelezi, who is repeatedly cited in the indictment but was not charged, acknowledged to reporters Monday that Inkathahad chosen the men for military training. But he angrily dismissed alle- gations of involvement in hit-squad activity as ."utter poppycock." Opperman said the Zulu recruits were given special training - including "house-breaking, kidnapping, sniping and urban warfare" - in late 1986 at Camp Hippo, a secret military base in what is now Namibia. He said the re- cruits were "told they were in Israel," and that he and other instructors used false names and pretended they worked for a civilian company. Other South African camps were used for covert training of rebel forces fight- ing black-led governments in Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho, he said. After graduating, Opperman said, the Zulus were flown back to Durban and given ID cards from Omega Security Services, a fictitious firm. But he said the trainees soon demanded action and Buthelezi's chief aide, M.Z. Khumalo, complained he had "206 hungry lions on his hands." Opperman said four potential vic- tims were chosen after security police and military intelligence had confirmed they were not informants. He said Victor Ntuli, a KwaMakutha resident, 'was picked as the first target because he was "pay master" for guer- rilla operations against Inkatha. Bulletproof vests and other gear were purchased from a German arms dealer in Johannesburg, and the military pro- vided AK-47 assault rifles and a Toyota minivan. Opperman said he stole license plates for the van and hung fake posters on it for the Jabulani Disco. AP P"To A Serb family passes a poster of Bosnian President Alija izetbegovic as they pass through a Bosnian-held area of Sarajevo Reunification seems unikl f nas M usis dive,. off Serb ii Calling all interested UofMStudents... 45~~'- .$ I * i g2,k r- r4xw Contest Rules: 1. The word, "~League Underground "must be written out on the logo design. 2. The logo must be designed on a 8 1/2" by 1I" white card stock. Please send two copies. 3. The contestant's name, address, tel. no., and ID no. must be written on the back of each entry. 4. The selected logo design will become the property of the Michigan League. 5. The Michigan League, if necessary, reserves the right to modify the selected logo design. 6. The Michigan League reserves the right not to select a winner, if the judges unanimously agree that there is no single entry that is acceptable. 7. The Michigan League Programming student assistants and board members are not qualified to join the contest. 8. The selected logo design and the name of the designer will be posted on the Michigan League Programming Bulletin Board. located opposite the League Buffet entrance on April 28. 1996. Also, the winner will be officially notified. The "deague Underground" Logo Design Contest S * mfl N E 5 3355aa * Background: The League Underground located in the lower level of the Michigan League is presently under renovation and will open by July '96. The League Underground will become the student-gathering place in the Michigan League with fast food, a seating capacity of 250 and a stage area for entertainment and host for a variety of programs. Price for the Winner: $100.00 Gift Certificate from the Michigan Union Bookstore Deadline for submission of entry is April 8, 1996 at 5PM Los Angeles Times ILIDZA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Through days of arson fires and rising tension, 52-year-old Bozidar Ratkovic, a Serb, resisted pressure from Bosnian Serb gangs to abandon the farm and home he owned in this Sarajevo suburb. They threatened to kill him ifhe stayed after Ilidza switched to Muslim-Croat control. He began to tell people he planned to join the Serbian exodus, even though he had no intention of doing so. But yesterday, the day after Muslim-Croat authorities took over the hard-line Serbian district, Ratkovic watched in dismay as newly arrived Muslim gangs drove off with his farm equipment. He fully expected the belligerent youths to take the animals next, and another group demanded his apartment. Ths - Serbs who dared to heed the interna- s. tional community's plea that they stay blow to t in a capital city reunifying under the Bosnian peace accord are now being multiet- victimized by Muslims engaged in loot- ing, intimidation and death threats, charActe. NATO and U.N. international police officials said. CS raj o Many feel forced to flee, as the latest turn in Bosnia's wheel of ethnic strife - Ali sees displaced Muslims displacing U.N Serbs. It also plays into the hands of hard-line Bosnian Serb leaders like RadovarrKaradzic, who said all along that Muslims and sives. U.N. officials were especially critical of the Musli led Sarajevo government for failing to control its people. Ratkovic, the Ilidza farmer, is braver than most, vowing not to abandon the town he has called home for 35 years. "I stayed here to spite the Serbs," he said, "and now I will stay here to spite the Muslims." Others were less resilient. Men began knocking on the door of 71-year-old Lena Crkvenjas' two-story family home early Tuesday, asking if she'd be willing to give them her house. Three of the men insisted on staying the night, departing yesterday with pla bags full of clothing, a radio and other household good Crkvenjas fried them eggs forbreak. but told them that she and her 80-year-old another husband, Simo, wanted to keep theirhouse. "It was unpleasant, but you have to survive," she said, tears flushing her cheeks. "We want to stay. We are old. What can we do if we go?" Up and down Crkvenjas' street in a heavily Serb Ilidza neighborhood,home after home was in the process of being occupied or looted yesterday. Th- Kander Ivanko that had been abandoned, even temp- r Sf le Send entry to: Michigan League Programm ning O/fice 911 N. University, Ann Arbor M/ 48109-1265 For more information: call 763-4652 Sponsored by the Michigan League Programming A Division of Student Affairs Michigan League A leue of our own I 1--l- -1. - -Illilimmlmml I Serbs can't live together - and waged a war based on the idea of ethnically purifying areas by force. "This is another blow to the multiethnic character of Sarajevo," said U.N. spokesperson Alexander Ivanko. "It is a shame, really a shame, that some of the people who have come to llidza from Sarajevo are behaving in the same appalling and outrageous manner as some of the Serbs were before they left the area - intimidating and harassing law- abiding people." International police monitors received more than 100 complaints overnight, Ivanko said, with some Muslims re- portedly threatening their victims with grenades or explo- spokesperson rarily, were easy prey. Arriving Muslims had placed hand- lettered signs on the homes, stating they were now the possession of "sehid" families, the word used to describe Bosnian Muslim fighters "martyred" in the war. About a dozen young Muslim men in civilian clothes and with army-style haircuts roamed the street and took orders from a man with a notebook and expensive walkie-talkie. Confronted by reporters, the man said he worked for "civil protection" under Bosnia's Interior Ministry, a repository hard-line Muslim militancy. The men watched calmly as other Muslims openly looted homes and drove or walked away with the goods. One couple loaded a hot water tank in the back of their blue van. Some challenged the remaining Serbs who peered from their win- dows or front porches: "Who owns this house? Is it Serb?" Performa 636 8/500/CD $908 Apple 15" Monitor $397 iMacintosh 'Performna Performa 5200 8/800/CD with monitor, speakers, Performa 6214 8/1000/CD Apple 15" Monitor $397 $943 U I Tr'.~lff Mac,. . 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