ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A former South African police colonel - who once admitted he doesn't know how many anti-apartheid activists he killed - was sentenced Wednesday to two life terms in prison. He became the highest-ranking officer convicted of apartheid- era crimes.
Eugene de Kock, 47, has already appealed for amnesty to a government commission. De Kock claimed during his trial that he carried out attacks on the orders of superiors, and was told some of those orders sometimes came from former President P.W. Botha.
De Kock headed a unit notorious for killing and torturing anti-apartheid activists and was convicted of six murders and 83 lesser charges.
Judge Willem van der Merwe passed two life sentences on de Kock Wednesday - one for murder and one for conspiracy to murder. In addition to these, he sentenced him to 212 years jail.
He called de Kock's crimes revolting, calculated and cold-blooded. He said the sentence should serve as a deterrent to others with power.
Van der Merwe said many of the victims were ``innocent people who posed no physical threat to the accused or the police.''
De Kock will now take his case to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Headed by retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the commission is hearing evidence of apartheid-era crimes in an effort to heal the wounds from more than 30 years of official segregation.
The commission has the power to grant amnesty if it decides a crime was politically motivated and the perpetrator gives a full account.
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