Project Coast

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Project Coast (roughly: "Project Coast") was the code name of a project started around 1981 by the South African apartheid government . The aim was to arm the country with chemical and biological weapons .

history

Development and use of chemical and biological weapons

In the late 1970s, fears grew in the South African government that hostile powers might attack the country with chemical or chemical weapons. At the same time, it continued previous research in chemical-biological warfare (CBW). The project was headed by the South African cardiologist , personal physician President Pieter Willem Bothas and a member of the South African Defense Force Wouter Basson .

Initially, defense measures against chemical and biological weapons were to be developed there, but later also attack weapons, including rifle bullets with pathogens, which, as ethnic weapons, were only intended to kill black Africans. Numerous toxins have been developed and tested at Project Coast . The tear gas CR, which has a much stronger effect than normal tear gas, was produced and used in larger quantities. The weapon systems researched included chemicals such as methaqualone and MDMA , which were intended to be used in non-lethal doses to combat civil unrest, and pyridine , which, after being used in the townships, would render the local black men sterile. The use of sterile agents in the drinking water of the townships was also considered.

As a camouflage, four bogus companies were founded, which also carried out commercial projects. The Delta G Scientific in Midrand was responsible for the exploration and production of chemical weapons. In 1985 it had 165 employees, including 20 scientists. The fight against biological weapons was researched in the Roodeplaat Research Laboratories ; another company was Protechnik, which also tested chemical weapons. Infladel was responsible for managing and funding the project.

In 1982 the activities of the Project Coast led to casualties for the first time when several hundred captured fighters of the South West African liberation organization SWAPO and unreliable informants of the SADF were killed by chemicals that led to muscle paralysis in Operation Duel or Operation Barnacle . Then their bodies were thrown from airplanes into the Atlantic. In 1983 demonstrators in Dukuduku were handcuffed, smeared with a poisonous ointment, which, contrary to expectations, was not fatal, and finally killed by injecting muscle toxins. In 1985, four captured SWAPO members were injected to death, and in the following year, former Special Forces member Victor de Fonseca, who suffered from a brain tumor , was killed as a possible traitor by poisoned tea and oranges. At the end of the 1980s, a collaboration began with the secret military unit, the Civil Cooperation Bureau, founded in 1986 . Among other things, Project Coast worked with Police General Lothar Neethling on the delivery of poisons. In 1992, Project Jota was split off from Project Coast for further research in the defensive field.

In 1993 the project was closed; the weapons stocks may have been completely destroyed and the army ended its cooperation with two companies. There are doubts about this, however, and there is a possibility that individual scientists could have privately used bacterial cultures for further development. In January 1993, General Daniel Knobel ( General Doctor of SADF) informed then Defense Minister Eugene Louw about the chemical weapons program. Only a few days later, South Africa had signed the Chemical Weapons Convention .

How many people fell victim to the Project Coast is unknown.

Operations after discontinuing the weapons program

After the end of the project, the South African secret service had some former employees under continuous surveillance. Wouter Basson's employment in the SADF ended on March 31, 1993 as a result of the report by Chief of Staff Pierre Steyn to the then President on the structures of the military secret service. Basson then maintained close relationships with offices in Libya from 1993 to 1995 , as a result of which he had worked as a consultant in a railway line construction and the establishment of medical facilities. The entrepreneur and ANC supporter Sol Pienaar had made possible contacts in this regard on several trips together in the country, but was not informed about Basson's military past at the time. The activities were also closely followed by US and UK intelligence. Finally, both states turned to the South African government and asked them to reinstate Basson in the civil service, which would make him more controllable. It was feared that in Libya he might have passed on important details about South Africa's former chemical and biological weapons program.

On April 11, 1994, the US ( Princeton Lyman ) and British ambassadors met with President Frederik Willem de Klerk and his then Defense Minister Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee . During this contact they expressed their governments' fear that other countries besides Libya could obtain information about the weapons program and South African scientists could be recruited. Another meeting in this group took place shortly before the parliamentary election on April 22, 1994, during which de Klerk reaffirmed his commitment to inform the successor in office of these matters. After the election, Nelson Mandela's briefing on this matter was delayed , after which the US government was very worried and, due to great concern about a possible impending proliferation , requested an interview with President Mandela via contact with Thabo Mbeki as soon as possible. Because Basson's visits to Libya at this time continued unhindered, the monitoring services were alarmed and initiated a third demarche to the South African government on the part of the USA and Great Britain .

Nelson Mandela took up the matter after consultations with his Foreign Secretary Alfred Nzo and Deputy Defense Secretary Ronnie Kasrils . He was meanwhile fully informed of these matters on the basis of the South African document Inquiry by Ambassadors of the USA and UK . From this discussion process emerged the opinion that the best solution would be to reinstate Basson in the service of the South African military and to transfer a role as a cardiologist .

aftermath

Project Coast was dealt with before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission . Basson testified there, but did not ask for an amnesty because he felt innocent. He was charged with multiple murders and other offenses in connection with his project work in the Pretoria High Court from 1999 . Some former employees gave extensive testimony. However, Basson was acquitted of all charges in 2002 for acting as a soldier on military orders.

Adaptations

The Coast project is also the focus of the 2014 film Zulu , directed by Jérôme Salle and based on the novel of the same name by Caryl Férey .

literature

  • Chandré Gould, Peter Folb: Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program. United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Center for Conflict Resolution; UN report UNIDIR / 2002/12. at www.unidir.org (English, PDF for download), digitized version
  • Stephen Burgess, Helen Purkitt: The rollback of South Africa's chemical and biological warfare program. Diane 2001. ISBN 978-142899045-6 . Online version (English, PDF)
  • Bartholomäus Grill: The poisoner of apartheid , in: The time of January 10, 2002
  • Helen E. Purkitt, Stephen F. Burgess: South Africa's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2005. ISBN 978-0253217301 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of South Africa: Code name "Project Coast" ( Memento from December 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b BBC-News on June 12, 1998 (English), accessed on December 28, 2013
  3. ↑ a b c Indictments in Stephen Burgess, Helen Purkitt: The rollback of South Africa's chemical and biological warfare program. Indiana University Press. (English), accessed December 28, 2013
  4. ↑ Chandre Gould, Peter Folb: Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program. P. 62. Digitized
  5. ↑ Stephen Burgess, Helen Purkitt: The rollback of South Africa's chemical and biological warfare program. Indiana University Press, p. 153. Digitized
  6. ↑ Chandre Gould, Peter Folb: Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program. P. 57. Digitized
  7. ↑ report at nti.org on the activities of Project Coast (English, PDF), accessed on 28 December 2013
  8. ↑ Chandre Gould, Peter Folb: Project Coast . UN report UNIDIR / 2002/12 , p. 214–215 (PDF document p. 218–219) online at www.unidir.org (English)
  9. ↑ Chandre Gould, Peter Folb: Project Coast . UN report UNIDIR / 2002/12, pp. 209–212 (PDF document pp. 213–216) online at www.unidir.org (English)