South Africa:  “Dr. Death” Found Not Guilty on All Counts

Wouter Basson, the former head of apartheid-era South Africa’s chemical and biological weapons program, was found not guilty today of 46 criminal charges, including the murder and attempted murder of anti-apartheid activists (see GSN, April 10).

“I find the accused not guilty on all the charges,” said Judge Willie Hartzenberg before the crowded Pretoria courtroom.

Whites in the audience applauded at the judge’s decision to acquit Basson, dubbed “Dr. Death,” according to Reuters.  State prosecutors said they would go to court on April 29 to obtain permission to appeal the verdict.

The audience at Basson’s trial included both prominent former officials from South Africa’s apartheid government and residents of a nearby township, Reuters reported.

“It seems very unfair to me,” said Sidney Maladzhi.  “Many people died and the judge did nothing about it.  There was so much evidence against him.”

“Justice has been done and the judge was very fair,” said Constand Viljoen, a former general in apartheid-era South Africa’s military (Sue Thomas, Reuters/Yahoo.com, April 11).

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CWC:  First-Ever Special Session to Convene April 21

Members of the Chemical Weapons Convention will hold a special session April 21 at The Hague, according to an announcement yesterday from the treaty’s administrative body, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (see GSN, April 1).

The OPCW yesterday announced that one-third of its members have agreed to a request for a special session, which will probably last three days (OPCW release, April 9).

The organization is holding the session to vote on a U.S. motion to oust Director General Jose Bustani (see GSN, April 4).  During a meeting of the OPCW Executive Council last month, the United States — which has accused Bustani of mismanaging the organization’s finances —brought and lost a motion to remove Bustani.  It then obtained agreement to call the special session, the first such meeting since the OPCW was created.

Observers expect the U.S. resolution to be a strongly worded demand that Bustani be removed as director general, a post he has held since the OPCW was created, said Gordon Vachon, a Bustani adviser.  To remove Bustani, two-thirds of the OPCW membership must approve the resolution, he said.

“It is not at all sure that they are going to achieve that,” Vachon said (Associated Press, April 9).

The United States also has criticized Bustani for attempting to bring Iraq into the OPCW and to begin chemical weapons inspections there, according to the Chinese agency Xinhua (see GSN, March 19).

The United States has said Bustani’s attempts were no substitute for U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein readmit U.N. weapons inspectors.  Bustani made overtures to Iraq’s U.N. delegation in accordance with the goals of the CWC, said a Bustani spokesman (Xinhua, April 9).

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South Africa:  “Dr. Death” Awaits Verdict for Apartheid-Regime Crimes

Wouter Basson, the former head of apartheid-era South Africa’s biological and chemical weapons program, could be convicted tomorrow on charges including murder and attempted murder of anti-apartheid activists.

If Basson, dubbed “Dr. Death,” is found guilty of 46 charges — including more than 12 murders — covering the Project Coast program from 1982 to 1992, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment, the London Evening Standard reported.  Basson, who has denied responsibility for any assassinations, has said he only followed orders from senior South African officials.

Among the operations conducted by Project Coast was an attempt to kill South African anti-apartheid activist Frank Chikane with poisoned underwear, according to the Evening Standard.  The attempt failed when Chikane unexpectedly visited the United States where doctors were able to save his life.

In 1987 Basson allegedly ordered delivery of a poison-tipped umbrella to London for use in killing two senior members of the African National Congress, the main anti-apartheid group in South Africa.  The assassination attempt was canceled, however, when the scientist who developed the poison traveled to London to demonstrate its use and almost killed himself with it, the Evening Standard reported.

Other devices used in assassination attempts included walking sticks that hid injectors and syringes altered to look like screwdrivers, the Evening Standard reported.  Anthrax and cyanide were among the weapons used in the missions.

“The most frequent instruction was for the development of a compound which would kill but make the cause of death appear to have been natural,” said a former Project Coast scientist (Keith Poole, London Evening Standard, April 10).

During Basson’s trial, which lasted more than two years, he testified that South African soldiers were used in 1989 to test the narcotic drug Mandrax and a new form of tear gas.  He also said he had bought a zoo to test whether animal hormones could be used for crowd control.  Witnesses during the trial testified that Basson and other Project Coast scientists attempted to create chemical weapons that would sterilize or kill only blacks.

Basson and Project Coast scientists also developed a plan to poison Nelson Mandela with the heavy metal thallium, which can impair brain function, according to Agence France-Presse.  The chemical was to be placed into Mandela’s medication before he was released from prison in 1990.

Former South African soldier Johan Theron testified that Basson had provided him with deadly muscle relaxants to use on captured guerillas from the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) in South Africa-controlled Namibia.  The captured SWAPO soldiers were administered the muscle relaxants so they would suffocate before the apartheid military tossed them from aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean, Theron said.  Basson denied the allegation and the court threw out the charge on technical grounds, AFP reported.

Basson’s trial began in 1999, following a hearing by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was investigating crimes committed under the apartheid regime.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who headed the commission, called the Project Coast program “diabolical” (Jan Hennop, Agence France-Presse, April 10).

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U.S. Response:  Facility Could Train More First Responders, Ridge Says

The U.S. Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama might double the number of emergency personnel it trains to handle a chemical weapons attack, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday (see GSN, April 9).

Each year, 10,000 first responders — including police and firefighters — train at the center to learn ways to respond to attacks involving chemical weapons, explosives and radiation, according to the Associated Press.  Up to 5 million people nationwide could be called on to respond to an attack involving weapons of mass destruction, Ridge said.

“You could ramp this thing up to 15,000 or 20,000 and you’re never, ever going to be able to (train) everyone who’s a first responder,” he said after visiting the facility.  No decision is expected, however, until officials complete a final homeland security plan in July (Jay Reeves, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, April 9).

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United States:  Umatilla Depot Lacks Emergency Necessities, CDC Says

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found a significant lack of communication among emergency responders in the area around the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon, the Associated Press reported Monday (see GSN, April 3).

Lack of communication between fire, police and depot officials and hospital personnel is a “significant problem,” the officials said.

“The information we get is not adequate.  Hospitals are repeatedly left out of the loop,” said Ken Franz, manager of emergency services at an area hospital.

In a mock emergency in January, the emergency management team did not call Franz until an hour and a half after a mock explosion at the depot, he said.

Unclear Coordination

Communication between Oregon and Washington health officials is also unclear, CDC evaluators said.  That is a problem because patients might require transportation to nearby Washington hospitals, and other residents would also probably flee across the state line, according to the CDC.

Washington health officials are very willing to work with Oregon authorities to care for patients in the event of a chemical accident, said Mark Clemens, spokesman for Washington’s Emergency Management Division.  Emergency planners, however, have never had a “focused discussion” about the need to move patients across the state line, he said.

“We’re ready to help out,” Clemens said, but added, “Oregon and Washington both have felt like they could take care of their own patients.”

Bad Antidote?

Another problem the CDC noted is an antidote for sarin gas stored at Umatilla that has passed its expiration date by 12 years, the AP reported.

The U.S. Army provided the antidote, called atrophine, to the Good Shepherd Medical Center near the depot and has said the atrophine is still usable.  An Army letter to the CDC said the antidote “is tested annually by the manufacturer, and the stability test date is evaluated by the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration).”

The CDC, however, expressed skepticism.  Expiration dates exist because medicine’s potency decreases with time, said CDC spokeswoman Susan McClure.

“We would not recommend using expired medicine in any case,” said McClure.

“I just don’t know why the Army doesn’t replace this.  It’s so cheap,” said Franz.  The antidote costs $3 or $4 per vial, according to the AP.

Army Report Overdue

Meanwhile, the state of Oregon last week said the Army had missed a March 25 deadline for conducting an independent engineering study of the depot’s incinerator, where the Army plans to conduct a test burn on May 25.

Rick Kelley, a spokesman for the Washington Demilitarization Co., which built the incinerator, said the company was not aware any deadlines had been missed.

The Army plans to burn nontoxic material in the test before beginning the incineration of 4,000 tons of nerve gas and mustard agent next February (Associated Press/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 8).

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