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)
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Source: Voice of America
.