Craig Williamson

Last updated

Craig Williamson
Born1949 (age 74–75)
Johannesburg, South Africa
AllegianceFlag of South Africa (1928-1982).svg  South Africa
Service / branchFlag of the South African Police (1981-1994).svg Security Branch
Years of servicec. 1976 –1992
Rank Major

Craig Michael Williamson (born 1949), is a former officer in the South African Police, who was exposed as a spy and assassin for the Security Branch in 1980. Williamson was involved in a series of events involving state-sponsored terrorism. This included overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era. [1]

Contents

Spy career

Infiltration

In the late 1970s, Craig Williamson had inveigled Lars Eriksson, director of the International University Exchange Fund  [ sv ] (IUEF) in Geneva, into employing him as deputy director and help in the award of IUEF scholarships to African students. He was thus able to infiltrate the banned African National Congress (ANC) and, at the same time, make high-level contacts in Sweden which provided most of the funding for the IUEF. Williamson's networking through prime minister Olof Palme's office in Stockholm put him in touch with a number of Palme's close associates including Pan Am Flight 103 victim, Bernt Carlsson, who had become secretary-general of the Socialist International in 1976 and was based in London until 1983. [2] In 1981, Williamson recruited the woman who would become South Africa's best-known female spy, Olivia Forsyth.

Dirty Tricks

The same source accused Williamson of syphoning off IUEF funds to establish a dirty tricks operation in Pretoria known as "Long Reach" in order to target apartheid's opponents both in South Africa and abroad. This dirty tricks operation also involved arms trafficking.[ citation needed ]

Counter-intelligence

Again using IUEF funds, Williamson set up the South African News Agency to recruit and use journalists for apartheid South African counter-intelligence purposes. [3] Williamson also attempted to infiltrate the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF), though he was successfully deflected by Phyllis Altman, general secretary of IDAF. [4] His cover was finally revealed by Arthur McGiven who reported his activities in the Observer. [4]

Bombing and burglary

PAC office in London

In 1982, a burglary took place at the Pan Africanist Congress office in London. Two suspects were arrested. One of them, a Swedish journalist, Bertil Wedin, was eventually acquitted by an English court. Wedin admitted, however, that he was working for South African intelligence and that he had been recruited by Craig Williamson.[ citation needed ] The other suspect, South African Defence Force Sergeant Joseph Klue had diplomatic immunity as a member of staff at the South African embassy in London and was ordered to leave the United Kingdom.

ANC office in London

Williamson applied for amnesty in 1995 from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for bombing the London office of the ANC in March 1982. In the British House of Commons in June 1995, Peter Hain MP asked through the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, that the British police should interview and consider extraditing Williamson to stand trial for the London bombing. [5] The Home Secretary turned down Hain's request. Amnesty was eventually granted by the TRC to Williamson and seven others on 15 October 1999. [6] Following the TRC hearing, South African lawyer Anton Alberts commented to the "woza" news agency: "If you look at the Lockerbie disaster - this is very similar. I think Britain would like to see these guys are prosecuted in England even though they get amnesty here."[ This quote needs a citation ]

Kidnapping and assassination

Ruth Slovo

Williamson ordered the assassination of Ruth Slovo, who was an exiled campaigner for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, close friend of Sweden's prime minister, Olof Palme and the ANC author of a pioneering study of Namibia. She was also the wife of the South African Communist Party's leader, Joe Slovo. She was killed by a letter-bomb in Maputo, Mozambique on 18 August 1982. [7]

Mozambique

In January 1984, minutes of the apartheid State Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister P. W. Botha, recorded Craig Williamson as plotting the overthrow of the government in Mozambique. [8]

Jeanette and Katryn Schoon

In mid-1984 Craig Williamson mailed a letter-bomb which on 28 June killed Jeanette Schoon, [9] who was the wife of Marius Schoon, and their six-year-old daughter Katryn, at the family's home in exile in Lubango in Angola. Both Jeanette and Marius Schoon were prominent South African anti-apartheid activists and members of the ANC. While in exile in Botswana some years earlier, the Schoons had broken [10] Williamson's cover internally within the ANC, several months before his public exposure in the UK, allowing the ANC leadership to attempt to manipulate Williamson covertly for their own purposes.

The Schoons' younger son Fritz, then aged three, witnessed the murder of his mother and sister at close hand; found wandering alone in the house, and severely traumatised, he developed epilepsy from which he never fully recovered. Following Williamson's application for amnesty for the killings, Schoon filed a civil suit against Williamson, seeking damages for his son. However, the suit was suspended pending Williamson's Amnesty hearing.

It has never been determined [10] whether the letter-bomb had been addressed specifically to Marius Schoon or to both him and his wife; Williamson claimed to his subordinate, the bomb-maker Jerry Raven, that the former was the case. In June 2000, a year after Marius Schoon died of lung cancer, TRC amnesty for this killing and that of Ruth Slovo was granted to Williamson, [11] despite Marius Schoon's earlier testimony [10] strongly opposing amnesty. Schoon had argued that the whole truth about the murder of his wife and daughter had not, as required, been revealed by Williamson, and that the murder of his wife and daughter had been carried out in revenge. [12]

Williamson's bomb-maker, Jerry Raven, testified: [10]

"I did not know who the letters were intended for. It was only after the death of Jeanette Schoon and their child and the congratulations from Mr. Williamson, that I realised that they had been the targets for one of the devices I had manufactured. On questioning Williamson about the Schoon incident he said that the letter had been intended for Marius Schoon but it served the[m] right. He alleged that the Schoons had always used their daughter as their bomb disposal expert. On requesting clarification he said that whenever they received suspicious parcels they would throw them in the back yard and let the child play with them until such time they deemed it fit to open them."

Other incidents possibly linked to Williamson

On 21 February 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme addressed the anti-apartheid conference Svensk folkriksdag mot apartheid (Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid) at the People's House in Stockholm, Sweden. A week later, Palme was shot and killed after attending the cinema with his wife, Lisbeth Palme. The subsequent Stockholm Police investigation into the murder was criticised for its lassitude and incompetence for not quickly solving the crime. Five days after Palme's murder, Swedish author and journalist Per Wästberg reported twice to the Swedish police that South African intelligence services must have been involved, but no action was taken by the police. Ten years later, Williamson was named in a South African court for Palme's murder, as were three others: Anthony White, Roy Allen and Bertil Wedin. [13] [14] No South Africans were ever charged with the Palme assassination (nor was anyone else, but Christer Pettersson, who was convicted, then acquitted on appeal).

Propaganda

Williamson was one of the main collaborators with Peter Worthington in the anti-militant video The ANC method - violence which was distributed by Citizens for foreign aid reform throughout Canada in 1988.

In the summer of 1988 the US-produced film Red Scorpion was made on location in South-West Africa (Namibia). South Africa helped finance the movie and the SADF provided trucks, equipment as well as extras. The action-packed movie was a sympathetic portrayal of an anti-communist guerrilla commander loosely based on Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA – the Angolan rebel movement – supported by both Washington and Pretoria. The film's producer, Jack Abramoff, was also head of the International Freedom Foundation (IFF). Established in Washington in 1986 as a conservative think-tank, the IFF was in fact part of an elaborate intelligence gathering operation and, according to Craig Williamson, was designed to be "an instrument for political warfare against apartheid's foes". South Africa spent up to $1.5 million a year – until funding was withdrawn in 1992 – to underwrite Operation Babushka , the code-name by which the IFF project was known.

An article about the "enigma" Craig Williamson in the SA Sunday Times of 20 September 1998 entitled "The spy who never came in from the cold" concluded with the Williamson dictum:

I respect a person who's willing to die for his country, but I admire a person who is prepared to kill for his country.

In a television interview in early August 2001, Williamson told the BBC's Tim Sebastian in a defence of his actions during the apartheid era, that his actions should be contrasted against the background of the Cold War and were in support of the West. The NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, he said, killed far more civilians than his "dirty tricks brigade" ever did.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Tambo</span> South African anti-apartheid activist and politician (1917–1993)

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and activist who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Slovo</span> South African politician

Yossel Mashel Slovo, commonly known as Joe Slovo, was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Slovo was a delegate to the multiracial Congress of the People of June 1955 which drew up the Freedom Charter. He was imprisoned for six months in 1960, and emerged as a leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe the following year. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990, conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia. In 1990, he returned to South Africa, and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. He became known for proposing the "sunset clauses" covering the 5 years following a democratic election, including guarantees and concessions to all sides, and his fierce non-racialist stance. After the elections of 1994, he became Minister for Housing in Nelson Mandela's government. He died of cancer in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth First</span> South African journalist, scholar and anti-apartheid activist (1925–1982)

Heloise Ruth First OLG was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police.

Bertil Wedin was a Swedish secret service agent. He was accused in an English court, but acquitted of the 1982 burglary of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) office in London. In 1996, Wedin was named as a suspect in the assassination of Sweden's prime minister, Olof Palme, but has denied any involvement. His accuser, Peter Caselton – who with eight others including Craig Williamson had applied for amnesty from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the March 1982 bombing of the ANC office in London – was allegedly a member of an apartheid South Africa assassination squad. He was also suspected of bombing the ANC Stockholm office in 1986. Wedin denies involvement in any crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Freedom Foundation</span>

The International Freedom Foundation (IFF) was a self-described anti-communist group established in Washington, D.C. founded in 1986 by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Its purported aim was to promote individual and collective freedoms worldwide: freedom of thought; free speech; free association; free enterprise; and, the free market principle. It came into being after the Democratic International, a 1985 meeting of anti-Communist rebels held at the headquarters of UNITA in Jamba, Angola. The IFF campaigned against regimes and movements it described as Soviet allies. To achieve its aim the IFF, with offices in London and Johannesburg, sponsored symposia with high-profile speakers such as Henry Kissinger. Among its eight periodicals, the IFF published a monthly newsletter—the Freedom Bulletin—with three editions: International; UK/Europe; and, Republic of South Africa. The IFF ceased its activities in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assassination of Olof Palme</span> 1986 murder of the Prime Minister of Sweden

On 28 February 1986, at 23:21 CET, Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. Lisbeth Palme was slightly wounded by a second shot. The couple did not have bodyguards with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Street, Pretoria bombing</span> Car bomb attack

The Church Street bombing was a terrorist car bomb attack on 20 May 1983 in the South African capital Pretoria by uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress. The bombing killed 19 people, including the two perpetrators, and wounded 217.

<i>Catch a Fire</i> (film) 2006 film

Catch a Fire is a 2006 biographical thriller film about activists against apartheid in South Africa. The film was directed by Phillip Noyce, from a screenplay written by Shawn Slovo. Slovo's father, Joe Slovo, and mother Ruth First, leaders of the South African Communist Party and activists in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, appear as characters in the film, while her sister, Robyn Slovo, is one of the film's producers and also plays their mother Ruth First. Catch a Fire was filmed on location in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil Cooperation Bureau</span> Government-sponsored death squad during the apartheid era

The South African Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), was a government-sponsored death squad, during the apartheid era. The CCB, operated under the authority of Defence Minister General Magnus Malan. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee pronounced the CCB guilty of numerous killings, and suspected more killings.

Dirk Coetzee was co-founder and commander of the covert South African Security Police unit based at Vlakplaas. He and his colleagues were involved in a number of extrajudicial killings including that of Griffiths Mxenge. Coetzee publicly revealed the existence of the Vlakplaas death squads in 1989, making himself a target of a failed assassination attempt.

<i>Red Dust</i> (novel) Novel by Gillian Slovo

Red Dust is a 2000 novel written by South African-born Gillian Slovo that is structured around the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the fictional town Smitsrivier. Its key theme centers around the question of truth.

Neville Wilson Curtis was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the National Union of South African Students.

Linda Mvusi is a South African actress and architect. In 1988, Mvusi made her acting debut in the film A World Apart (1988), for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Black woman and the first South African to win the Best Actress award at Cannes. In 2004, Mvusi shared an award for excellence for her architecture on the Apartheid Museum.

The International Defence and Aid Fund or IDAF was a fund created by John Collins during the 1956 Treason Trial in South Africa. After learning of those accused of treason for protesting against apartheid, including Nelson Mandela, Collins created the fund in order to pay all legal expenses and look after the families of those on trial. The group was non-partisan.

Louis Marius Schoon was a white anti-apartheid activist of Afrikaner descent. Marius died from lung cancer, after a long call from Nelson Mandela, thanking him for his sacrifice against the struggle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Africa–Sweden relations</span> Bilateral relations

South Africa–Sweden relations refers to the bilateral relations between Sweden and South Africa. Formal relations between the two countries began with the opening of a South African legation in the 1930s with relations being upgraded to ambassadorial level in 1994 following South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections. In 2000 a South African - Swedish Binational Commission was established by President Thabo Mbeki and Prime Minister Göran Persson.

Chris Hani, General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was assassinated by right-wing extremist Janusz Waluś on 10 April 1993. The assassination, later tied to members within the Conservative Party, occurred outside Hani's home in Dawn Park during a peak period of progressive anti-apartheid momentum in South Africa. After the assassination, racially fuelled riots drew international attention to the instability of the political division within South Africa, leading to an inclusive national democratic election in April 1994, won by the African National Congress (ANC). Waluś and his accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis were both sentenced to death after their arrests in 1993; the sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security Branch (South Africa)</span> State intelligence agency, 1947 to 1991

The Security Branch of the South African Police, established in 1947 as the Special Branch, was the security police apparatus of the apartheid state in South Africa. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was one of the three main state entities responsible for intelligence gathering, the others being the Bureau for State Security and the Military Intelligence division of the South African Defence Force. In 1987, at its peak, the Security Branch accounted for only thirteen percent of police personnel, but it wielded great influence as the "elite" service of the police.

Jeanette Eva Schoon was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She and her daughter, Katryn Schoon, were killed by letter bomb in June 1984 in an operation carried out by the Security Branch of the South African Police.

References

  1. ↑ Beresford, Belinda (29 May 2008). "Craig Williamson: Apartheid careerist". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Nicholas Busch, FECL (28 February 1986). "FECL 47 (October 1996): PALME MURDER: THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION AND THE SWEDISH POLICE LINK". Fecl.org. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Justice Home". Doj.gov.za. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 "The International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF)". South African History Online. 14 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 22 Jun 1995". 17 January 2001. Archived from the original on 17 January 2001.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ↑ "Justice Home". Doj.gov.za. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Amnesty granted to Ruth First's killers", Dispatch Online, 2 June 2000.
  8. ↑ "Media24 Digital/Digitaal". News.24.com. Archived from the original on 20 January 2002. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "Jeannette Schoon and their daughter are killed by a letter bomb | South African History Online". Sahistory.org.za. 28 June 1984. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "On Resumption: 5th November 1998 - Day 4". Justice.gov.za. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Brittain, Victoria. "Outrage over amnesty for apartheid killer". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  12. ↑ "SAPA - 18 Sep 98 - WILLIAMSON ACCUSED IN TRC OF KILLING SCHOONS OUT OF REVENGE". Justice.gov.za. 18 September 1998. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  13. ↑ Billger, Ola (24 February 2014). "The Millennium author's theories concerning the murder of Olof Palme". Svenska Dagbladet .
  14. ↑ Drogin, Bob (27 September 1996). "Apartheid Spy Tied to '86 Assassination of Sweden's Palme". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 28 April 2023. [Eugene De Kock] said "Operation Long Reach"--the now-defunct South African military intelligence project headed by operative Craig Williamson--"played a role" in the murder of Palme, a staunch apartheid foe.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.