Eugene de Kock

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Eugene de Kock, 2016

Eugene Alexander de Kock (* 1948 ) is a former highly decorated colonel in the South African police force during the apartheid period . As head of the secret task force C1 (formerly C10), known as Vlakplaas and also known as the death squad , from 1985 he was jointly responsible for fighting the resistance against the apartheid regime, especially against the leading resistance movement , the African National Congress (ANC ). In this capacity de Kock was responsible for the murder of many people and was convicted for it.

Professional path

As a constable he was accepted into the South African Police in January 1968. De Kock received nine months of training at a police academy as part of his early career. He was then sent to Rhodesia , where he worked as a border guard officer in a tense time : Rhodesia had declared itself independent and was largely boycotted by the international community. In 1978 he came to the SAP Security Branch in Oshakati in what was then South West Africa , which was then occupied by South Africa , from where he switched to the newly created Koevoet unit on January 1, 1979 ; this operated under the umbrella of the South African Police . Because of his effective participation and leadership in this unit, he was selected to carry out a bomb attack on the ANC headquarters in London . For this he received the highest award of the South African police, the Star for Outstanding Service .

Revelations

When after the end of apartheid from around 1994 the crimes of the regime in the suppression of the black population in particular were dealt with, De Kock came to the fore because of his key role as commander of the Vlakplaas unit. De Kock's statements about the government's so-called “ dirty war ” against the opposition, especially the secret political murders of black opposition activists, shocked the public and became known beyond South Africa. In particular, the cruel procedures and the hitherto completely unimagined nature and scope of the crimes described by de Kock attracted considerable attention. For example, people were regularly executed with explosive belts strapped on, the corpses were dismembered by repeated detonations in order to make them unidentifiable and to facilitate their disposal. He also reported that towards the end of apartheid, his unit was abused by reactionary forces in the government to sabotage the inter- ethnic dialogue initiated by Frederik Willem de Klerk and Nelson Mandela . To this end, the Inkatha movement, which was in opposition to the ANC from Mandela, was supplied with weapons in order to stir up conflicts within the black population. This conflict alone has claimed 15,000 victims since 1985 in the most affected province of Natal .

According to de Kock , his unit tortured and murdered, moved weapons in large quantities, instigated conspiracies , forged documents, fabricated evidence and planted bombs at home and abroad. In 1987 an explosive device destroyed the headquarters of the black ANC-affiliated umbrella union COSATU in Johannesburg . According to de Kock, this was done on the direct orders of the then President Pieter Willem Botha . In 1988 a bomb destroyed the Khotso House, the seat of the opposition South African Council of Churches .

During his trial, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and later during his imprisonment, de Kock made extensive statements about who had ordered his unit to proceed and who knew about the murders of resistance members or who in some cases had ordered them directly. In doing so, he weighed heavily on several police generals and leading politicians, including de Klerk, the last white president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize . De Klerk was Mandela's vice-president in the new, black-majority government. De Kock's statements, however, did not lead to legal consequences for those affected. He was bitter about this fact and described himself as a kind of pawn sacrifice , while those in charge and those actually responsible went unpunished.

Sentencing and imprisonment

After the end of racial segregation in 1994, he was tried and sentenced to two life sentences plus 212 years for multiple murders and crimes against humanity ; he was serving the sentence in a maximum security prison in Pretoria . The South African press referred to him as "Prime Evil" ( English , for example: "The Urböse" or "Supreme Criminal") , after his nickname among colleagues. His extensive statements were instrumental in clearing up illegal covert operations by the former white government at.

Personal repentance and release

During his detention, de Kock was visited several times by the South African psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela , who was also a member of the Truth Commission. She wrote a much-noticed book about these interviews, in which she discussed, among other things, how de Kock, as an actually highly moral person, could become a mass murderer. According to her, two widows of men whom de Kock had killed forgave him after personal conversations because of his perceived repentance . In her book, Gobodo-Madikizela expressed the view that she might recommend that the government pardon de Kock. At the end of January 2015, de Kock was released early on parole after 20 years in prison . According to Justice Minister Michael Masutha , this was done “in the interests of state building and reconciliation”.

Works

  • Eugene de Kock: A long night's damage. Working for the Apartheid State. Contra Press, Saxonwold 1998, ISBN 0-620-22198-4 .

literature

  • Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela: The Legacy of Apartheid. Trauma, memory, reconciliation. Budrich, Opladen 2006, ISBN 3-86649-025-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2003: The Former South African Government and its Security Forces. P. 184 ff. ( Memento of May 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF file; 468 kB)
  2. ^ Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2003: The Former South African Government and its Security Forces. P. 219 footnote ( Memento from May 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF file; 468 kB)
  3. ↑ Yolandi Gronewaldstraße, Tumi Makgetlavlok: My role in dirty was. Mail & Guardian, September 8, 2006
  4. ↑ Bob Drogin: South African Policeman Found Guilty of Five Murders. Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1996
  5. ↑ a b c Bartholomaeus Grill: The fighting dog sings. Die Zeit, issue 40/1996
  6. ^ South African History Online : SA judge jails former state assassin Eugene de Kock for more than 200 years . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  7. ↑ I forgave apartheid's chief killer. The Age, February 21, 2004
  8. ^ South Africa: Apartheid mass murderers released on parole . Spiegel Online, January 30, 2015, accessed on the same day
personal data
SURNAME Kock, Eugene de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prime Evil; Kock, Eugene Alexander de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African police officer during apartheid, convicted of political murders
DATE OF BIRTH 1948