the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program

hinoceroses for the horns in Chiwore game reserve and that they were illdisciplined,
bored, and poorly trained. The first SAP contingents were relieved
after three months. South Africa attempted to solve the problem by sending
better-trained and more English speakers to Rhodesia. Tensions developed
again as Rhodesians increasingly had to rely on South African manpower and
military hardware in the early 1970s. Many Rhodesian troops resented South
African efforts to tell them how to conduct their counter-insurgency
campaigns. These tensions were one reason why the South African police
presence was reduced during the 1970s [Interview, Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) officials, Washington, D.C., 13 September 2000]. See also
Ellert, The Rhodesian Front War and Ron Reid-Daly, with Peter Stiff, Selous
Scouts: Top Secret War (Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 1983) for detailed
accounts of these tensions.
17 Reid-Daly, Selous Scouts.
18 Ellert, The Rhodesian Front War. He claims that the Selous Scouts
experimented with throwing cholera viruses in rivers but could not detect any
adverse effects associated with this experiment. He reports that in 1976, a
group of Scouts moved into the Ruya wildlife area near Mozambique and
introduced measured quantities of bacteriological cultures into the water at
several points along the Ruya river. Although the Scouts never knew if any
fatalities resulted from these experiments, Ellert notes that these experiments
corresponded in time with reports of deaths among people living on the banks
of the Ruya River in Mozambique. These deaths were officially attributed to
cholera (12).
19 Mangold, Plague Wars, 214-218.
20 Interview with Jakkie Cilliers, Director of the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS), Pretoria, 12 June 2000. The South African State in the Basson trial is
planning to use information gathered by journalists to support charges against
Basson related to the use of CBW in Rhodesia. However, the prosecution was
unable to discuss this evidence while the trial is ongoing. Interview, Pretoria,
July 2000).
21
Ellert, The Rhodesian Front War, 90-3; Interview with Peter Stiff, 12 July
2000.
22 From 1978 until independence the South African intelligence service
stepped up their efforts to recruit experienced Rhodesian Special Forces,
Ellert, 90.
23 Jacques Pauw, Into the Heart of Darkness (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball,
1997). South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Truth and
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