DATE=5/31/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SAF / PLANE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263007
BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA
DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Families of the victims of a 1987 South 
African airline crash say new allegations about the 
cause of the disaster should be fully investigated.   
The appeal came as the newspaper that has been 
revealing new details of the incident reported the 
pilot of the ill-fated plane at first refused to take 
off because what was described as a deadly cargo was 
on board.  VOA's Alex Belida reports from 
Johannesburg.

TEXT:  The Afrikaans-language newspaper "Beeld" says 
pilot Dawie Uys (DAH-WEE ACE) initially refused to fly 
his 747 jumbo jet from Taipei to
Johannesburg in late November 1987 when he was told a 
dangerous cargo was on board.

The newspaper says the pilot took a phone call from a 
cabinet minister in South Africa's then white-minority 
government ordering him to take off before he agreed 
to fly.  The plane, carrying 159 people, later crashed 
into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mauritius.

"Beeld" says the latest revelations come from a 
retired pilot in the South African Air Force who 
obtained the information while on duty in
Air Force headquarters in Pretoria 13 years ago.  The 
source said he did not know what the cargo was, only 
that it was described to him as "deadly."

Previous reports have suggested there may have been a 
nuclear weapon on board or possibly chemicals needed 
to produce rocket fuel.  A judicial inquiry into the 
incident during the apartheid era found no one was to 
blame for the fatal crash.

David Klatzow, a forensic investigator who looked into 
the accident for the plane's manufacturer, tells South 
African national radio there are many reasons to 
reopen the investigation.

            /// INVESTIGATOR ACTUALITY ///

      Firstly, we've had allegations over many years 
      that the truth is not out.  We've had 
      allegations been made that our national carrier 
      airline is in some way implicated in a deep and 
      very dark criminal activity.  We have 
      allegations that a judge of our Supreme Court 
      has somehow been involved in a cover up of 
      Olympian proportions.

            /// END ACTUALITY ///

Families of the victims are now demanding a new probe, 
including public release of secret testimony given two 
years ago to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission, a panel set up to look into human rights 
abuses during white-minority rule in the country.

/// opt /// This man, the son of one of the victims, 
voiced his support for a fresh investigation at a 
Johannesburg news conference.

/// VICTIM RELATIVE ACTUALITY ///  /// opt act ///

We've gone through our pain in various different ways, 
now all we want is the truth.

/// END ACTUALITY ///  /// end opt ///

South Africa's Director of Public Prosecutions has 
been ordered to coordinate a new probe of the crash.  
His office has already received copies of the closed-
door testimony given to the Truth panel.

The country's former white minority government is 
known to have developed nuclear weapons as well as an 
extensive conventional arms capability through a 
clandestine support network set up to circumvent 
international sanctions imposed during the apartheid 
era.  (Signed) 

NEB/BEL/GE/KBK 



31-May-2000 12:08 PM EDT (31-May-2000 1608 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.