De Klerk Denies Death Squad Role

FW de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid-era president, yesterday denied he knew about death squads and other human rights abuses by the white regime, after his former law and order minister was charged with attempted murder.

Mr de Klerk, who won the Nobel peace prize for ending apartheid, was responding to reports that he may be implicated in political crimes by the trial next month of Adriaan Vlok, who is accused of ordering a botched plot to kill a leading cleric.

"I've never been part of any policy which said atrocities are fine, cold-blooded murder is fine, rape is fine, torture is fine," said Mr de Klerk. "I have not only a clear conscience, I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever."

Mr Vlok has previously apologized for approving the attempt to kill the Rev Frank Chikane in 1989 by lacing his underpants with poison. Mr Chikane, a leading anti-apartheid activist and now director general in President Thabo Mbeki's office, became seriously ill but survived.

Mr Vlok is reported to be furious that he alone from the last white cabinet is accused of apartheid crimes. The Johannesburg Sunday Times said he has reached a plea bargain with prosecutors that implicates Mr de Klerk.

But Mr de Klerk said: "We should be extremely careful in setting off a chain of events which will put this country into a new straitjacket of persecution and retribution."

Mr Vlok, General Johann van der Merwe, a former police chief, and three other policemen face trial next month after failing to admit the alleged crime to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Last year Mr Vlok washed Mr Chikane's feet to ask for forgiveness. The cleric said he welcomes the prosecution despite the former cabinet minister's apology.