Special Report

De wet Potgieter

The South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) – a sinister international organisation, based in South Africa during apartheid – was linked to the British secret services.

British historical researcher Dr Susan Williams makes this shocking revelation in her latest book, Who Killed Hammarskjöld?

Williams claims that SAIMR was, since the ’60s, closely linked to Britain’s MI5 and MI6 intelligence agencies, the American CIA, as well as the Israeli Mossad and that British and American agents were part of the plot to kill Hammarskjöld, because he had “become troublesome”. This shadowy organisation was headed during the apartheid years by a “Commodore” Keith Maxwell – a quack obsessed with Aids research.

Williams interviewed people in South Africa in the course of her research who told her that SAIMR exported Aids-infected blood during the ’80s to other African countries. In 1989, SAIMR advertised jobs in the Citizen newspaper for experienced soldiers required for “a dangerous assignment” in Africa.

Janusz Walus was one of the wannabes who applied for the job.When confronted with his ties with SAIMR, Walus confirmed that he had applied for work as a mercenary when he was interrogated by George Bizos during a Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation in November 1997.

According to Williams, the TRC had come across 12 pages of documents from the National Intelligence Agency archives outlining plans to assassinate Hammarskjöld. It was in July 1998, when the TRC was already compiling its final report, that Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the TRC was not in a position to examine the authenticity of the papers, since their mandate was fast running out.

“He did not simply dismiss them,” Williams wrote. She said that Tutu remarked: “It isn’t something that is so bizarre. Things of that sort have happened in the past. That is why you can’t dismiss it as totally, totally incredible.”

Janusz Walus, Chris Hani’s assassin, had links to the shadowy SAIMR. Picture: GALLO

Williams also revealed that SAIMR was involved in the bungled Seychelles coup attempt by Col “Mad” Mike Hoare in 1981. SAIMR was supposed to create a diversion by running a search for the treasure-laden vessel, Santiago, which would allow the arms for the raid to be taken by sea.

Col Mike Hoare, commander of the mercenaries in the Congo when Hammarskjöld was killed.

This operation was called off by SAIMR at the last minute and the mercenaries had to enter the Seychelles hiding their weapons in their luggage, disguised as a beer-drinking tourist party, The Ancient Order of Froth-Blowers.

The Seychelles operation failed when a Mahé airport customs inspector found a weapon hidden in a Froth-Blower’s luggage.

A gunfight broke out at the airport, in which one mercenary was killed and several others wounded. Desperate to escape, the raiders fought their way to the control tower, guided an incoming Air India 707 to land and commandeered the plane. They forced the Air India pilot to fly them across the Indian Ocean to Durban.

Hoare was also involved in the conflict in Katanga province, with his South African mercenaries, after Hammarskjöld died. A Hollywood film, The Wild Geese, was based on Mad Mike and his group of mercenaries.

Since the publication of the book in Europe, calls have been made in Sweden to re-open the investigation into Hammarskjöld’s death.

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