‘Dr. Death’ hearing stirs up painful apartheid memories in South Africa

[polly7]

Friday, March 30, 2012 1:33 PM EDT
‘Dr. Death’ hearing stirs up painful apartheid memories in South Africa
Geoffrey York

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/dr-death-hearing-stirs-up-painful-apartheid-memories-in-south-africa/article2387161/



The man known as “Dr. Death” says he was just following orders. But as he fights to keep his medical license, the case of Wouter Basson is stirring up memories of apartheid-era atrocities, including a germ-warfare program that targeted black opponents of the white-minority regime.

Dr. Basson, the former commander of South Africa’s notorious 7th Medical Battalion and head of its secret biological and chemical weapons program, is now a successful cardiologist in an affluent suburb of Cape Town with 9,000 heart patients.

A decade ago, he was acquitted of murder and fraud charges in one of the most controversial court decisions of its time. But now the Health Professions Council of South Africa is holding a disciplinary hearing to decide whether to revoke his medical license, on the grounds that his apartheid-era activities were unprofessional and unethical.

From 1981 to 1993, Dr. Basson was head of Project Coast, a unit of South Africa’s military security service, which used secret laboratories and front companies to develop a terrifying arsenal of chemical and biological agents, including sarin, salmonella, mustard gas, and 45 types of anthrax.

More »

[polly7]

1. Is anyone else but me as shocked at this as I was? I'd never heard of this.

It took them a freaking decade to decide to hold a hearing to decide to revoke his license .......... after all the horror he was in charge of? Unreal. Shameless bump, but I'd love to hear more on this from someone who's more familiar with it than I certainly am.

[tabatha]

2. I do not believe too many people are/were familiar with it.

I had no idea. I only found out about it a long time after leaving South Africa. I posted an article about his trial a week or so ago.

I guess like the tracking of German criminals, it takes a while for stuff to become known. Even by the people who were opposed to Apartheid, who are now in charge of investigations of the past.

EDIT:

Here is a wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wouter_Basson

Much of what Basson was working on is still secret. It is known that in 1981, when he was working as a personal physician to state president P. W. Botha, the country's Surgeon-General hired Basson to work for and form 7 Medical Battalion Group a specialist unit of the South African Military Health Services . His job was to collect information about other countries' chemical and biological warfare capabilities under the name Project Coast. After his preliminary report, Basson became the head project officer and began to work on the country's chemical and biological weapons capability. He recruited about 200 researchers from around the world and received annual funds equivalent to $10 million. In 1982, Basson is alleged to have arranged the killing of 200 SWAPO prisoners.[7]

[polly7]

3. Thanks very much, tabatha.

I have to run, but will read up on your Wikipedia link and whatever else I can find when I get back. It sounds completely horrible.

[polly7]

4. Well I did try to find out more, and a lot of it was in the original and Wikipedia articles.

Besides what I posted in the OA, he as head of Project Coast oversaw some unspeakable things.

Even more frightening, the program developed ways of attacking anti-apartheid activists with these secret weapons, leaving no trace of the attack. Among the methods were anthrax-tainted cigarettes and chocolate, screwdrivers tipped with poison, pesticide-tainted beer, vials of cholera, and bleach contaminated with salmonella.

One scientist testified at the criminal trial that Dr. Basson urged the unit to develop biological ways to suppress population growth among blacks, and to search for a possible “black bomb” – a biological weapon that would select targets based on race.

Get a load of this though:

The Irish Times - Wednesday, March 28, 2012

'Dr Death' of apartheid era tells inquiry he was trying to save lives

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0328/1224314009942.html

Giving evidence to the Health Professions Council of South Africa on Monday, where he faces four charges of unprofessional and unethical conduct relating to his apartheid-era activities, Basson said much of his work was aimed at saving lives rather than taking them.

Among numerous other things, Basson (61) has been accused of being involved in the creation of poisons that targeted black people and of administering sedatives to dozens of anti-apartheid fighters who were allegedly thrown to their deaths from a plane.

At the Pretoria hearing, which could see him stripped of his medical licence, he has admitted to creating tear gas that was used to break up anti-apartheid protests in the townships and cyanide capsules that could be used by captured operational officers to take their own lives.

In essence, Basson has defended his actions as those of an angel of mercy rather than a doctor of death.

A monster.

[tabatha]

5. Yes, monsters are usually on the side

of dictators, authoritarian leaders, and mostly right-wing brained.