Apartheid henchmen admit to attempted assassination

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Two of the apartheid era's best-known faces of government repression pleaded guilty Friday to attempting to assassinate an opponent by lacing his underwear with poison.

Last update: August 17, 2007 - 7:30 PM

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Two of the apartheid era's best-known faces of government repression pleaded guilty Friday to attempting to assassinate an opponent by lacing his underwear with poison.

Former Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok and former Police Chief Johann van der Merwe entered their pleas at Pretoria High Court, along with three lower-ranking policemen. The five were charged with attempting to kill the Rev. Frank Chikane, then a leading anti-apartheid activist, in 1989.

The poisoning made Chikane violently ill, but he survived and today serves as a top adviser to President Thabo Mbeki.

Under the terms of a deal with prosecutors, Vlok and Merwe will not serve any time behind bars if they commit no crimes for the next five years. They and the three others -- who also received suspended sentences -- must assist in any additional prosecutions that arise. Such cooperation could open the way to a fuller accounting of apartheid-era crimes.

Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, when the African National Congress took power with the election of President Nelson Mandela.

Hundreds of apartheid-era criminals won amnesty from the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, under a system where those who committed atrocities were encouraged to reveal their misdeeds in exchange for protection against prosecution.

Last year, Vlok, who has undergone a religious conversion, apologized to Chikane and washed his feet in a public act of repentance.

WASHINGTON POST

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