Justin Pearce
GROWING anti-landmine sentiments in South Africa and abroad have prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs to announce a permanent ban on the export of the mines by South Africa, confirming a moratorium which has been in place for the past two years.
A suspension has also been placed on the use of mines by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Foreign Affairs Deputy Director General Abdul Minty said the decision to suspend the use of mines had been initiated by Foreign Affairs, and the suspension will be in effect until it has been discussed in Cabinet.
The SANDF is to present a report to Cabinet on the strategic value of landmines to its operations, and on this basis Cabinet will decide whether to make the ban permanent.
What is definite, however, is South Africa will no longer export anti-personnel mines.
South Africa has in the past manufactured and exported landmines, but manufacturers and the SANDF have kept tight-lipped about how many mines were made, where they were exported to, and when the manufacture ceased. The SANDF is known to have stockpiles of conventional mines, which it said last year would be replaced by “smart mines” which self-destruct after a set period of time.
The South African decision came at the end of the United Nations review conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), which finished in Geneva last week. In the run-up to the conference which was intended to give additional muscle to the original CCW, South Africa had been criticised for not insisting the CCW be amended in a way which would oblige signatories to place an outright ban on the use, manufacture or transfer of mines in their national territories. Instead, South Africa went along with a position which allowed for conventional mines to be replaced by “smart mines”.
The import and export ban adopted by South Africa applies to “smart mines” as well as conventional mines.
At the conference, five more countries added their names to the list of states supporting a convention which would impose a complete ban on landmines, bringing to 34 the number of countries favouring this position. While the position held by South Africa remained the majority one at the conference, the drift of other states towards the total ban position put increasing pressure on South Africa to take a harder line.
At the conference, South Africa did not support the idea that the CCW should require signatories to ban landmines completely, on the grounds that this would dissuade other countries from supporting the ban.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has described the UN protocol as “a shameful betrayal of the tens of thousands of innocent civilians who live in mine-affected regions and those of future generations who will fall victim to this inhuman weapon”.
ICBL’s concerns include the convention’s endorsement of smart mines, and the fact that it only restricts devices which are “primarily” intended as antipersonnel mines.British spy is plotting his ‘revenge’The ‘red notice’ which led to Paul Grecian’s arrest in South Africa is still in place, but this will not stop him from taking action against Interpol, reports Mungo SoggotFORMER British spy Paul Grecian, who spent 135 days in South African prisons, returned to London this week to plan a legal assault on the South African branch of Interpol.
He wants to launch a string of lawsuits against American and British government institutions, but first in his sights is Interpol whose zeal has saddled him with hefty legal bills.
Grecian says he will investigate suing the South African branch of Interpol, which, he believes, “lured” him to South Africa by telling him there was no warrant out for his arrest when he telephoned from London to check whether it was safe for him to visit the country to see his girlfriend.
After being given the all-clear by Interpol director Dave Bruce, Grecian flew to South Africa on December 15 where he was greeted with an Interpol “red alert” arrest warrant, kicking off a five-month stretch in prison with a spell in solitary confinement over Christmas.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, Bruce dismissed any suggestion he deliberately trapped Grecian. He says that as he testified in the extradition hearing, he had at first not remembered ever talking to Grecian last year. “I was astounded when he first said he had spoken to me.”
But then Bruce said one of his colleagues had reminded him of his telephonic conversation with Grecian in London. Then only did Bruce recall Grecian had in fact asked him whether he was wanted for any crime in South Africa — not whether there was any Interpol warrant. “I did not ask him why he had got hold of me as head of Interpol … It is unfair for him how it transpired … it was an unfortunate mistake.”
Bruce, who was previously a senior officer of the South African Police’s media relations, said he could quite easily have denied ever having spoken to Grecian as there would have been nobody apart from Grecian to tell otherwise. “I could have kept quiet about this, but this is not expected from a South African police officer”.
Grecian began his incarceration at Modderbee Prison east of Johannesburg, but asked for a transfer to Krugersdorp Prison, west of the city after battling to get access to the two phones he shared with 3 500 inmates.
A source close to prison officials said disgraced stockbroker Greg Blank helped arrange the transfer, but this could not be confirmed. Blank is serving a seven-year sentence at Krugersdorp Prison where he is understood to have developed an unusually cordial relationship with the prison authorities.
Grecian’s five-month ordeal in South Africa ended last Thursday when a magistrate quashed an application by the United States for his extradition, finding that the offences he was charged with in America were not crimes under South African law.
Grecian is wanted in the US on charges of illegal arms-dealing with Iraq and fraud, despite being cleared of similar charges last November by the British Court of Appeal which accepted that he had been acting under orders from the British government.
Through the arms-dealings, Grecian was able to alert the West of Saddam Hussein’s plans to develop a “Super-Gun”.
The US never tried to extradite Grecian when he was in Britain and Interpol there never arrested him, despite his high profile appearances in the British courts.
Grecian was naturally wary of leaving Britain with the US charges against him, which was why he contacted Bruce before coming to South Africa to visit his girlfriend, Elizabeth Powell.
Bruce says Grecian had to be imprisoned in terms of South Africa’s extradition agreement with the US. He says the series of unsuccessful extradition hearings which culminated in the rejection of the US extradition order will not affect the way the South African Interpol office conducts itself in future. “We had to act on that red notice. We are part of a judicial process.”
Just because a South African court did not extradite Grecian there is no reason that he cannot be successfully pinned down in another country, he said.
Indeed, the red alert notice remained in place when Grecian left for London on Tuesday night. At the airport, Grecian said he was confident he would have a smooth arrival at Heathrow. In any case, he said, the British, unlike the South Africans, did not arrest and imprison on the basis of a red notice without a court hearing.
Apart from exploring a law suit against Interpol, he will consider taking legal action against the US for laying charges against him. He suspects the Americans are particularly anxious to get hold of him so he can help give evidence in other arms-dealing prosecutions.
According to friends of Grecian in Johannesburg, he had no trouble at London Heathrow and went straight off for an interview at the House of Commons.
Campaigners in South Africa for his release say both former British prime minister Edward Heath and Lord Richardson, who heads the Labour Party in the House of Lords, have expressed concern about the way in which South Africa handled the affair.SA’s Interpol connectionMungo Soggot
SOUTH AFRICA rejoined Interpol in September 1993 after a 27-year exile from the international police network which was set up in 1914 to combat international crime.
South African Interpol executive director Dave Bruce says the South African Police Interpol office in Pretoria, which is now staffed by 14 detectives, provides the link between the South African Police (SAP) and police in Interpol’s other 175 member countries, all of which are now linked to a central computer database. Interpol handles any crime as long as it is not “political”, he says.
Through the computer link, Interpol alerts Bruce’s team of any known foreign criminals in South Africa. The agency has a scale of arrest warrants for its quarries.
The top of the range “red notice” is for anyone for whom there is an extradition order; a “blue notice” for anyone who can give more information about a crime; a “green notice” for anyone possible involved in crime and a “yellow notice” for missing persons.
The Pretoria operation is funded by the SAP, which also pays about R1-million a year to Interpol and, like all other member countries, seconds one officer to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. Bruce says all Interpol offices operate within the law of their home country and have no jurisdiction elsewhere.
South Africa will soon fall under the Southern African regional office, which is being set up in Harare.