Willem Schoon

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Willem Frederick Schoon [ sχoːn ] (born March 1, 1931 in Ngome, Natal ) is a former brigadier of the South African police during the apartheid period . Among other things, he was in charge of the activities of the secret task force C1 (formerly C10), which became known as Vlakplaas . He gave the orders for numerous political murders .

Life

Willem Frederick Schoon served in the secret police unit Oshakati in what was then South West Africa and, as the successor to Johannes Jacobus Victor, was from 1980 commander of Section C, which was responsible for counterinsurgency . Among other things, he ordered the murder of two ANC activists in 1972, two PAC activists in 1981, the attempted murder of the oppositionist Marius Schoon (to whom he is not related), the kidnapping of an ANC activist from Swaziland , the murder of Griffiths Mxenge in 1981, the murders of Jeanette and Katryn Schoon (wife and daughter of Marius Schoon) in 1984 and the bombing of the headquarters of the trade union confederation COSATU in 1987. Several of the acts were carried out by the undercover agent Craig Williamson .

Hired murderers received a bonus from him, about 1,000 rand for the murder of Griffith Mxenge.

As part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he asked for an amnesty , which was granted to him in 2001 after extensive statements about his work. Today Schoon is retired.

literature

  • Dirk Coetzee: Vlakplaas and the murder of Griffiths Mxenge. In: Anthony Minnaar, Ian Liebenberg, Charl Schutte (Eds.): The Hidden Hand: Covert Operations in South Africa. Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria 1994, ISBN 0-7969-1563-6 , digitized version ( memento of October 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report from the TRC , accessed on August 2, 2012
  2. a b People in connection with the TRC (English; PDF; 1.2 MB)
  3. Dirk Coetzee: Vlakplaas and the murder of Griffiths Mxenge. In: Anthony Minnaar, Ian Liebenberg, Charl Schutte (Eds.): The Hidden Hand: Covert Operations in South Africa. Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria 1994, ISBN 0-7969-1563-6 , digitized version ( memento of October 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Announcements of amnesty up to 2002 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English)