S. African Officer Says Secret Unit Was to Operate Abroad, Not at Home

The military’s chief of staff told a commission investigating political assassinations Tuesday that a secret unit linked to plots within South Africa was established to operate outside, and not inside, the country.

The testimony before the one-man inquiry in Pretoria came within hours after Defense Minister Magnus Malan issued a statement saying he first heard about the existence of the secret Civil Cooperation Bureau in late November.

It was the first time he has said he had not known of the secret unit’s existence from its formation, which he has said was in 1987.

Malan is facing calls for his resignation over reports of high-level complicity in the unit, which has been linked to death squads.

Gen. Jan Klopper, army chief of army, testified that the secret unit had no authority to commit acts within South Africa and was set up to operate against political opponents--such as the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party--outside the country.

In a related development, police confirmed Tuesday that a second man, Theunis Kruger, was arrested last week in connection with investigations into the secret unit. Col. Joe Verster, the head of the secret unit, has been held since Friday.

President Frederik W. de Klerk ordered Justice Louis Harms in January to investigate a series of unsolved murders.