S. Africa’s Detention of Dutch Teacher in Arms Case Sparks Outrage in Netherlands

The controversial detention of a Dutch teacher under South Africa’s security laws has led to the discovery of large caches of arms and explosives intended for a campaign of urban terrorism here, South African authorities said Thursday.

Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha told a press conference that Klaas de Jonge, 47, a sociologist detained last month, had been distributing weapons for the outlawed African National Congress and establishing secret stores to supply the group’s guerrillas as they step up their attacks on civilian targets.

Botha was attempting to dampen growing outrage in the Netherlands over De Jonge’s original arrest and his recapture Tuesday, when several security policemen took him from the Dutch Embassy here after he had escaped from custody and sought asylum.

Botha asserted that the police, who were taking De Jonge around Pretoria to get him to point out the hidden arms caches, did not realize that he had entered the embassy, which is housed on the second floor of a bank building.

“As he was all the time legally in custody, . . . the police escort pulled him back into the passageway,” Botha said, adding that South Africa respects the inviolability of diplomatic premises under international conventions.

But what did it matter, he asked, whether De Jonge, whose hands were manacled and whose legs were chained, was recaptured “a split second before or a split second after” he entered the embassy.

The incident has angered the Dutch government, which told the South African ambassador in The Hague that the police action constitutes “a serious violation of the immunity of the embassy’s premises” under international laws protecting them from intrusion by forces of the host country.

Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek demanded De Jonge’s return to the embassy, “to reinstate the situation before the police officers intruded.” He also called for assurances that such violations would not be repeated.

The Netherlands said that De Jonge was fully inside the embassy for more than a minute and was waiting for a diplomat when three or four policemen burst in and took him away in what Dutch newspapers described as “an outrageous kidnaping.”

Botha, who acknowledged that there are conflicting versions of the incident, sought to defend the South African action in terms of this country’s effort to cope with terrorist attacks against the minority white regime and its policy of apartheid, or racial separation.

De Jonge, who taught history at a high school in neighboring Zimbabwe after working in Mozambique, was detained June 23 while on a visit to South Africa, under provisions of security laws that permit indefinite detention in solitary confinement without trial for purposes of investigation.

The South African security police had substantial evidence, Botha said, that De Jonge was working with the African National Congress, a key guerrilla group fighting white rule.

As a result of his detention and interrogation, Botha said, the police discovered considerable supplies of Soviet-manufactured hand grenades, rifle-fired rockets, mines, plastic explosives, detonators and rifle and pistol ammunition--all presumably intended for use in the guerrillas’ announced plan to step up their attacks here.

Lt. Gen. Stan Schutte, chief of the police security branch, showed reporters some of the weapons from arsenals that he said were seized as a result of De Jonge’s detention. He asked, “How many lives do you think each of these mines or explosive charges would have taken?”

Botha said that the case against De Jonge will be presented shortly to the provincial attorney general and that this official will probably file charges of terrorism against him. Dutch diplomats were given permission Thursday to see De Jonge for the first time since his detention nearly three weeks ago.

De Jonge’s former wife, Helena Pastoors, who has been living in Johannesburg, was detained at the same time under the internal security laws and may be charged with assisting the African National Congress, according to lawyers familiar with the case.

Asked if the incident might impair South Africa’s relations with the Netherlands, Botha said he doubts they could get much worse than they are.

“The Netherlands government has stood at the forefront of the European boycott movement against South Africa,” he said. “I say ‘the government’ because I don’t believe that the Netherlands government represents the vast majority of Hollanders in their venomous, obstinate attacks on South Africa and its communities.”