TRIAL REVEALS S. AFRICA'S ROLE IN SEYCHELLES COUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302680001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 19, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302680001-3
STAT
STAT
THE GUARDIAN (U.S.)
ON PACE [ ( 19 May 1982
ARTICLE APPEARED
$~chIIescou
Trial 06al$', -'ON. 1~
By JAMES K UATAMI only 'a repetition of statements already' In-addition, according to the Rand Dailyl
The testimony of CoL.Michael Hoare made by Martin Dolinchek, a senior Mail, two South African intelligence,
before a South African court on last South African intelligence . officer who agents were, sent. to the. Seychelles in
November's attempted coup in the Sey,- was captured in the Seychelles during the-. - - -March,to ascertain how much information-1
chelles has removed any doubts about the coup attempt. Dolinchek told ? a_ UN Dolinchek had revealed to. Seychelles
central role of the South African govern- - - commission, dispatched in March to the officials. There are even widespread
ment in planning the failed operation. - Seychelles to investigate the coup at- rumors that Prime Minister P.W. Botha,
While the aging 'mercenary's allega- tempt, that top South -African military may be seeking to arrange an exchange of
_tions were- scarcely a surprise, they have. and intelligence officials. were involved in three young members of the African
"nevertheless embarassed the white mi preparing the operation.; -National.Congress (ANC) who have been
nority government in Pretoria. They have- Dolinchek is scheduled to goon trial in '..condemned to death, for Dolinchek and
also served to raise important questions ' the Seychelles in June .along with six..` the other captured mercenaries.
about cooperation between the U.S. and ?.. other members of the assault force who Dolinchek's confessions have also em-
South Africa in Pretoria's undeclared war were also 'abandoned by their fleeing barrassed? the government of Kenya,
against neighboring African states. - compatriots.' According to reports from which in recent years has been estab-
' - Hoare and 42 other mercenaries, = : - Victoria, Dolinchek says he will.become a lishing increasingly close security ties to
primarily South Africans; are on trial in 'state witness' in the upcoming trial and the U.S. The captured South African
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. They are "tell all" in exchange for asylum in the agent admitted that after the mercenaries
accused of hijacking an Air India jetliner Seychelles. seized control of the Seychelles capital of
in a bid to escape from the Seychelles ' If Dolinchek were to play such a role, it ? Victoria, the ex-premier of the country,
after they were caught trying to smuggle- could be a devastating blow to'South James Mancham, was scheduled to be
weapons through airport-customs in Vic- - Africa's covert operations, because of -flown into Victoria from Kenya, along
toria, the island nation's capital. . ' ' Dolinchek's.relatively high position in the with Kenyan troops. _
Hoare, who led the mini-invasion force, South African security apparatus. An ex- Mancham, who is evirently based in
told -the court that the South African policeman, Dolinchek Joined ? BOSS in - London, was deposed in 1977. He was
government had approved the coup 1968. During his fifteen years with the replaced by France Albert Rene,' who
attempt and had provided weapons and a intelligence organization, he was in- quickly reversed Mancham's policy of
training ground in the northern Transvaal volved in operations in Zimbabwe as well maintaining close ties to South Africa.
to the assault force. Senior representa- as in South Africa. - Since taking office, Rene has adopted a
fives of ' the South African National Further, Dolinchek may have been . nonaligned foreign policy, and he has
Intelligence Service (formerly BOSS), he ? involved also with BOSS's infamous' introduced economic policies aimed at
added, had told -him that the South 'Z-Squad," a special unit of the agency ? lessening the tiny island.chain's almost
African cabinet had approved the coup reportedly formed to terrorize and mur- total economic dependence on tourism..
attempt against the government of Albert . der opponents of the apartheid regime. -Although there is no concrete proof of
Rene in the Seychelles. Hoare also According to the book, "Inside BOSS," - an active U.S. role hi the coup attempt
adrnitteii that he had met with an agent of by the South African agent Gordon against President Rcne`s government.
the CIA in Pretoria before the operation Winter, the Z-Squad often carried out < suspicions have been raised because of
in an attempt to enlist U.S. support. attacks on targeted individuals under the the historically close ties between the CIA
Hoare's admission of contact with the guise 'of "Scorpio," supposedly an ex- and Hoare, as well as between the CIA
CIA has resulted in a flood of press treme right-wing group. One.such target, and the South- African military -and
speculation that the U.S. may be actively Winter claims, was the banned academic intelligence services. -
involved in a variety of South African Richard Turner of the University of Natal. Hoare first, achieved notoriety in the
covert operations against African nations Turner was shot dead in his home by an 1960s during the CIA-orchestrated, open"
hostile to the apartheid state. Angola and "unknown sniper" in January 1978. ation to establish Mobutu Sese Seko as
Mozambique have both charged that the Dolinchek, according to the magazine ' the chief of state in newly independent
CIA has assisted South African efforts to Africa Now, ,was the only BOSS official ' Zaire. It was in Zaire, then the Congo.
destabilize their government's by backing ever to visit Turner at his home to . that the myth of "independent." swash-
internal opposition movements. investigate his attitude on politics. . buckling mercenaries ? was created to
A number of observers in the U.S. have Pretoria's concern over Dolinchek's ' conceal the extent of imperialist involve-
been puzzled by South Africa's willing- . revelations was underlined last week ment against independent nations in
Hess to permit Hoare to make 'such when South African police staged a raid Africa. The myth-that these forces were
damaging allegations about Pretoria's -on three Johannesburg newspapers in an somehow acting,on their own-has been
involvement in the coup attempt. 'How- effort to confiscate reporters' notebooks nurtured by South Africa, Britain, the
ever, Hoare's testimony was essentially sand documents pertaining to Dolinchek. U.S. and France, all of which have been
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302680001-3
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