On Sunday 18 September 1994, the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper,Rapport, reported that `a massive arsenal' of South African weapons - tens of thousands of AK 47 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition - had been shipped from Port Elizabeth to the `terror-contaminated' Middle East. The weapons emanated from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The supplier was the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), operating as the sales arm of the SANDF. The report quoted allegations that the weapons were destined for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), for use against Israel: the report's suggestion was that the new African National Congress-led government was seeking to bolster its old ally, the PLO. This was despite the official stand of Armscor that the arms shipment had occurred within government prescriptions, and that the export was in fact destined for the government of Lebanon.
Subsequent press reports revealed that the consignment had been headed for Yemen, but had been turned away at one of that country's ports. Armscor arranged for the return of the ship to South Africa, where its cargo was unloaded at Port Elizabeth and transferred to SANDF storage. (The ownership of the shipment, and related financial matters, are currently disputed in legal proceedings between various of the parties.)
Rapport's disclosure provoked a public storm in South Africa. World media attention focused on the activities of Armscor, and on South Africa's alleged role in supplying arms to dubious purchasers. The Minister of Defence, Mr J Modise, called on Armscor to furnish a report on the events. After receiving the report, and within twelve days of the original disclosure, he requested the Minister of Justice, Mr A M Omar, to appoint an independent commission to investigate the issue.
This Commission was the result.
Source: Polity
Thursday, June 15, 1995
3 Charged in Killings Over Cocaine Dealing
For the third time in a year, the Manhattan District Attorney has dismantled a violent gang of young cocaine dealers who plied their murderous trade on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
This time, the gang of 22 men and women called itself Natural Born Killers, an apparent reference to last year's Warner Brothers movie about serial killers. Of the 22 people indicted yesterday, 17 were taken into custody in morning raids. Two indictments charged them with three homicides, conspiracy, drug dealing and gun running in what investigators said was a thriving $70,000-a-week crack-cocaine business near two schools in Manhattan Valley.
The indictment illustrated the resiliency of drug gang activity even after previous crackdowns. District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said the gang sprang up last July to fill the void left when the police broke up two other crack-selling gangs, Young City Boys and Young Talented Children. In the two months that followed, the leaders of Natural Born Killers consolidated their power by assassinating two members of rival gangs and one rival within their own ranks.
"You can never declare victory and walk away, but I think these three indictments of these three gangs has had a major impact on the drug activity in Manhattan Valley," Mr. Morgenthau said.
Mr. Morgenthau said homicides in the 24th Precinct, where the gangs operated, have been cut in half since his office began cracking down on street gangs in 1994. So far, 81 people in three gangs have been arrested. In 1993 there were 23 homicides, while in 1994 there were 12. So far this year, the neighborhood has seen only one homicide.
Officials said, however, that fed by a deep-rooted demand for drugs, the gangs continue to spring up like dandelions as soon as others are ripped out. "I don't think that while there is a demand, you can completely wipe these gangs out," said Chief Patrick Harnett, who heads the Narcotics Division. "It's a business."
The Natural Born Killers gang has roots in a previous drug organization known as the Red Top Crew, which began in 1990, prosecutors said. Selling crack cocaine in vials with red plastic tops, the gang turned the area around Public School 145 at 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue into a drug market.
But three years later, the orginal founders of the Red Top Crew were killed, and the Young Talented Children usurped their territory, selling yellow-capped vials, prosecutors said. The third gang, the Young City Boys, coexisted with the yellow-top gang, controlling the market around 105th and Amsterdam. They used vials with purple tops.
In June 1994, when the police arrested the leaders of Young Talented Children, some remnants of the Red Top Crew revived their drug organization and took over the other gang's territory.
The indictment says the leaders of the gang were Guillermo Urena, 22; Jose Lora, 18, and Norberto Russell, 20. Mr. Urena and Mr. Lora are charged with murdering Aries Santana, a member of the Young City Boys, on July 11, 1994, in front of 672 St. Nicholas Avenue.
A week later, all three men are accused of taking part in the assassination of Luis Quinones on 107th Street. Prosecutors said the men thought that Mr. Quinones had murdered a friend of Mr. Lora's father. The third homicide came on Aug. 8, when Mr. Urena and Mr. Lora are thought to have taken a dissident member of their own gang, Wilson Sanchez, to East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. He was found shot several times in the head.
The three gang leaders face life in prison if convicted.
Soon afterward, the gang renamed itself Natural Born Killers, said Walter Arsenault, an assistant district attorney.
The police investigation began a year ago when a community patrol officer, A. J. Melino, began hearing talk on the street about the resurrected Red Top gang and alerted detectives. During the year, undercover officers and informers bought or recovered more than 2,100 vials of crack and 12 handguns.
Source: New York Times
This time, the gang of 22 men and women called itself Natural Born Killers, an apparent reference to last year's Warner Brothers movie about serial killers. Of the 22 people indicted yesterday, 17 were taken into custody in morning raids. Two indictments charged them with three homicides, conspiracy, drug dealing and gun running in what investigators said was a thriving $70,000-a-week crack-cocaine business near two schools in Manhattan Valley.
The indictment illustrated the resiliency of drug gang activity even after previous crackdowns. District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said the gang sprang up last July to fill the void left when the police broke up two other crack-selling gangs, Young City Boys and Young Talented Children. In the two months that followed, the leaders of Natural Born Killers consolidated their power by assassinating two members of rival gangs and one rival within their own ranks.
"You can never declare victory and walk away, but I think these three indictments of these three gangs has had a major impact on the drug activity in Manhattan Valley," Mr. Morgenthau said.
Mr. Morgenthau said homicides in the 24th Precinct, where the gangs operated, have been cut in half since his office began cracking down on street gangs in 1994. So far, 81 people in three gangs have been arrested. In 1993 there were 23 homicides, while in 1994 there were 12. So far this year, the neighborhood has seen only one homicide.
Officials said, however, that fed by a deep-rooted demand for drugs, the gangs continue to spring up like dandelions as soon as others are ripped out. "I don't think that while there is a demand, you can completely wipe these gangs out," said Chief Patrick Harnett, who heads the Narcotics Division. "It's a business."
The Natural Born Killers gang has roots in a previous drug organization known as the Red Top Crew, which began in 1990, prosecutors said. Selling crack cocaine in vials with red plastic tops, the gang turned the area around Public School 145 at 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue into a drug market.
But three years later, the orginal founders of the Red Top Crew were killed, and the Young Talented Children usurped their territory, selling yellow-capped vials, prosecutors said. The third gang, the Young City Boys, coexisted with the yellow-top gang, controlling the market around 105th and Amsterdam. They used vials with purple tops.
In June 1994, when the police arrested the leaders of Young Talented Children, some remnants of the Red Top Crew revived their drug organization and took over the other gang's territory.
The indictment says the leaders of the gang were Guillermo Urena, 22; Jose Lora, 18, and Norberto Russell, 20. Mr. Urena and Mr. Lora are charged with murdering Aries Santana, a member of the Young City Boys, on July 11, 1994, in front of 672 St. Nicholas Avenue.
A week later, all three men are accused of taking part in the assassination of Luis Quinones on 107th Street. Prosecutors said the men thought that Mr. Quinones had murdered a friend of Mr. Lora's father. The third homicide came on Aug. 8, when Mr. Urena and Mr. Lora are thought to have taken a dissident member of their own gang, Wilson Sanchez, to East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. He was found shot several times in the head.
The three gang leaders face life in prison if convicted.
Soon afterward, the gang renamed itself Natural Born Killers, said Walter Arsenault, an assistant district attorney.
The police investigation began a year ago when a community patrol officer, A. J. Melino, began hearing talk on the street about the resurrected Red Top gang and alerted detectives. During the year, undercover officers and informers bought or recovered more than 2,100 vials of crack and 12 handguns.
Source: New York Times
Sunday, June 11, 1995
Movie Violence Has Become Routine
In your June 4 news article on the general moviegoer's response to Senator Bob Dole's comments on the entertainment industry, I might submit that the 17-year-old high school junior who admits to seeing "Natural Born Killers" seven times graphically illustrates the magnitude of the cultural problem that Senator Dole and others decry.
For anyone at that impressionable age to repeatedly witness and "really like" such a wanton depiction of mindless, casual violence cannot but adversely affect the outlook of such a person, and, by extension, of society as a whole.
I am a surgeon of 30 years' experience, including a year's service in Vietnam in 1968-69 and, no, I have not seen this movie.
The reviews were enough to send me elsewhere.
This brings to mind the totally stunned silence with which the movie audience in Houston greeted the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" in the Majestic Theater, with every one of the 2,000 seats filled. Not one sound was heard as everyone sat there in stunned silence, because of the wanton violence in the shower scene.
Nowadays such violence is considered routine, and audiences are inured to violence 10 times as horrific. BOONE BRACKETT Oak Park, Ill., June 5, 1995
Source: New York Times
For anyone at that impressionable age to repeatedly witness and "really like" such a wanton depiction of mindless, casual violence cannot but adversely affect the outlook of such a person, and, by extension, of society as a whole.
I am a surgeon of 30 years' experience, including a year's service in Vietnam in 1968-69 and, no, I have not seen this movie.
The reviews were enough to send me elsewhere.
This brings to mind the totally stunned silence with which the movie audience in Houston greeted the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" in the Majestic Theater, with every one of the 2,000 seats filled. Not one sound was heard as everyone sat there in stunned silence, because of the wanton violence in the shower scene.
Nowadays such violence is considered routine, and audiences are inured to violence 10 times as horrific. BOONE BRACKETT Oak Park, Ill., June 5, 1995
Source: New York Times
Tuesday, June 6, 1995
Right to Life: S v Makwanyane and Another
CHASKALSON P: The two accused in this matter were convicted in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the Supreme Court on four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances. They were sentenced to death on each of the counts of murder and to long terms of imprisonment on the other counts. They appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the convictions and sentences. The Appellate Division dismissed the appeals against the convictions and came to the conclusion that the circumstances of the murders were such that the accused should receive the heaviest sentence permissible according to law.
Section 277(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act No. 51 of 1977 prescribes that the death penalty is a competent sentence for murder. Counsel for the accused was invited by the Appellate Division to consider whether this provision was consistent with the Republic of South Africa Constitution, 1993, which had come into force subsequent to the conviction and sentence by the trial court. He argued that it was not, contending that it was in conflict with the provisions of sections 9 and 11(2) of the Constitution.
The Appellate Division dismissed the appeals against the sentences on the counts of attempted murder and robbery, but postponed the further hearing of the appeals against the death sentence until the constitutional issues are decided by this Court. See: S v Makwanyane en ‘n Ander [1994] ZASCA 76; 1994 (3) SA 868 (A). Two issues were raised: the constitutionality of section 277(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act, and the implications of section 241(8) of the Constitution. Although there was no formal reference of these issues to this Court in terms of section 102(6) of the Constitution, that was implicit in the judgment of the Appellate Division, and was treated as such by the parties.
The trial was concluded before the 1993 Constitution came into force, and so the question of the constitutionality of the death sentence did not arise at the trial. Because evidence which might possibly be relevant to that issue would not have been led, we asked counsel appearing before this Court to consider whether evidence, other than undisputed information placed before us in argument, would be relevant to the determination of the question referred to us by the Appellate Division. Apart from the issue of public opinion, with which I will deal later in this judgment, counsel were not able to point to specific material that had not already been placed before us which might be relevant to the decision on the constitutional issues raised in this case. I am satisfied that no good purpose would be served by referring the case back to the trial court for the hearing of further evidence and that we should deal with the matter on the basis of the information and arguments that have been presented to us.
It would no doubt have been better if the framers of the Constitution had stated specifically, either that the death sentence is not a competent penalty, or that it is permissible in circumstances sanctioned by law. This, however, was not done and it has been left to this Court to decide whether the penalty is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution. That is the extent and limit of the Court's power in this case.
Source: SAFLII
Section 277(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act No. 51 of 1977 prescribes that the death penalty is a competent sentence for murder. Counsel for the accused was invited by the Appellate Division to consider whether this provision was consistent with the Republic of South Africa Constitution, 1993, which had come into force subsequent to the conviction and sentence by the trial court. He argued that it was not, contending that it was in conflict with the provisions of sections 9 and 11(2) of the Constitution.
The Appellate Division dismissed the appeals against the sentences on the counts of attempted murder and robbery, but postponed the further hearing of the appeals against the death sentence until the constitutional issues are decided by this Court. See: S v Makwanyane en ‘n Ander [1994] ZASCA 76; 1994 (3) SA 868 (A). Two issues were raised: the constitutionality of section 277(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Act, and the implications of section 241(8) of the Constitution. Although there was no formal reference of these issues to this Court in terms of section 102(6) of the Constitution, that was implicit in the judgment of the Appellate Division, and was treated as such by the parties.
The trial was concluded before the 1993 Constitution came into force, and so the question of the constitutionality of the death sentence did not arise at the trial. Because evidence which might possibly be relevant to that issue would not have been led, we asked counsel appearing before this Court to consider whether evidence, other than undisputed information placed before us in argument, would be relevant to the determination of the question referred to us by the Appellate Division. Apart from the issue of public opinion, with which I will deal later in this judgment, counsel were not able to point to specific material that had not already been placed before us which might be relevant to the decision on the constitutional issues raised in this case. I am satisfied that no good purpose would be served by referring the case back to the trial court for the hearing of further evidence and that we should deal with the matter on the basis of the information and arguments that have been presented to us.
It would no doubt have been better if the framers of the Constitution had stated specifically, either that the death sentence is not a competent penalty, or that it is permissible in circumstances sanctioned by law. This, however, was not done and it has been left to this Court to decide whether the penalty is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution. That is the extent and limit of the Court's power in this case.
Source: SAFLII
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