DATE=5/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SAF / PLANE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262967
BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA
DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The pilot of an ill-fated South African
commercial airliner that crashed during the apartheid
era is reported to have feared for his life because of
dangerous cargoes he was forced to carry, apparently
to circumvent sanctions against the country's then
white-minority government. V-O-A Johannesburg
Correspondent Alex Belida reports.
TEXT: The Afrikaans-language newspaper "Beeld" says
that just months before a South African Airways jumbo
jet plunged into the Indian Ocean off Mauritius 13
years ago, killing all 159 people on board, the
plane's pilot told a close friend he feared for his
life because he regularly had to carry weapons and
ammunition as cargo.
The article gives few additional details. But last
week "Beeld" reported that newly-deciphered recordings
from the plane's cockpit voice recorder revealed there
may have been a nuclear device or nuclear components
on the aircraft, which went down on a flight from
Taipei to Johannesburg.
Other reports have suggested there may have been
dangerous chemicals on the plane, possibly including
ingredients for rocket fuel.
The new revelations about the disaster 13 years ago
have prompted authorities to announce they will open a
new investigation into the incident. South Africa's
National Director of Public Prosecutions has been
given responsibility to coordinate the probe. He has
already been given transcripts of secret testimony
from special closed-door hearings held on the crash by
the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Truth panel recently concluded an exhaustive
investigation into a wide variety of apartheid-era
human rights abuses.
South Africa's former white-minority government is
known to have developed nuclear arms as well as an
extensive conventional arms capability despite
international sanctions aimed at preventing its access
to military technology. (Signed)
NEB/BEL/GE/ENE/KBK
30-May-2000 11:05 AM EDT (30-May-2000 1505 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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