MONDAY, 5.30PM
RETIRED security police general Johannes Griebenauw has become the most senior police general to admit knowing of security police torture and of giving his tacit support to “unconventional” interrogation methods.
He told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee in Cape Town on Monday that he “knew what was going on,” adding: “I was very much aware that … success could be ascribed to the use of unconventional interrogation methods.”
Griebenauw, a former chief of the security police in the Western Cape, was testifying at the amnesty hearing of former security police Captain Jeff Benzien, who seeks amnesty for the murder of Umkhonto we Sizwe guerilla Ashley Kriel and the torture of many prominent African National Congress activists.
Griebenauw said the use of torture escalated during the eighties when armed conflict spiralled and the police came under increasing political pressure. “The evident condonation of atrocities … led to the men in the ‘machine room’ believing they did not need direct orders to do these irregular deeds.” Policemen who tortured detainees believed they could rely on the protection of their commanding officers and of the government of the day.
Griebenauw’s evidence was in marked contrast to that of police ministers and other senior police generals, who one by one last week denied any knowledge of torture.