Apartheid policemen apply for amnesty at TRC

Eight former apartheid policemen, including former police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Johan Coetzee, former hit-squad commander Eugene de Kock and former intelligence agent Craig Williamson, applied for amnesty before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee for their dirty tricks campaign against liberation organisations, in particular the African National Congress (ANC). During their application Coetzee outlined a plot to bomb ANC offices in London in 1982 with the knowledge of Minister of Law and Order, Louis le Grange. This was in retaliation for the 1981 bombing of the Voortrekkerhoogte Military base in Pretoria and to show their dissatisfaction to the United Kingdom government for allowing the ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) to operate freely in their country despite their communist ideologies. Williamson expressed regret for having killed Jeanette Schoon and her six-year old daughter in Angola. Williamson was also responsible for the parcel letter bomb that killed ANC activist, Ruth First, wife of Joe Slovo. De Kock regretted all the atrocities and murders he committed while attached to Vlaakplaas and maintained that former State Presidents, F. W. De Klerk and P. W. Botha had a full knowledge of what was happening. The members of Schoon and First families opposed the amnesty application of Williamson and other policemen.