WHITES PLANNED TO VACCINATE BLACKS AGAINST PREGNANCY

DESCRIBING a world of poisoned chocolates, pregancy vaccinations and
ecstasy, two scientists, yesterday, cast light on the murky world of
apartheid era South Africa's secret chemical and biological weapons programme.

Testifying before a panel probing apartheid crimes, Schalk van Rensburg
said Roodeplaat Research Laboratories, a military front company, had
produced poisons and given them to special forces agents to be used in
killing anti-apartheid activists.

Van Rensburg said the company had given them chocolates and cigarettes
laced with anthrax, poisoned whisky and orange juice and sugar containing
salmonella.

Describing himself as a political liberal who only realised the company's
true nature after he joined, van Rensburg said he could not leave for fear
of being killed and had stayed on to secretly slow down production.

''We had been told in no uncertain terms if we let the side down we are
dead,'' he said.

''If I stayed there, I could minimize a lot of (their) effort.''

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is investigating covert military
research programmes set up by Wouter Basson, who headed the army's Seventh
Medical Battalion and ran the projects through a sophisticated network of
front companies.

Van Rensburg testified that he worked on a fertility project set up by
Basson to develop a ''vaccine'' against pregnancy.

He suspected Basson may have planned to secretly use it on South Africa's
majority black population.

Basson, who is expected to testify later this week, was forced to resign
from the army in 1993.

He is currently being investigated on charges of making and possessing
ecstasy and mandrax drugs. Another scientist confessed to running a secret
programme that made almost a ton of ecstasy with a street value of up to
UKP123 million.

Johan Koekemoer described working in 1992 for Delta Scientific, a Basson
front company, and being asked to make the drug as part of a chemical
warfare project.

Koekemoer said he suspected his superiors were dealing drugs on the side
because rather than being a life-threatening drug, ecstasy produces
feelings of bliss and happiness.

''From my personal point of view I don't think that ecstasy is an ideal
compound to use as an incapacitant,'' Koekemoer said.

Koekemoer said he confronted his superiors with his doubts, but they
assured him the drug was to be used for military purposes and he accepted
their word.

Ecstasy has a reputation for giving users a feeling of bliss and happiness.

''I was just a bit suspicious,'' said Koekemoer.

''I would not like to kiss my enemy, but rather work on his central nervous
system so he can't operate properly," he said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski