Frank Dutton

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Frank Kennan Dutton is a retired South African policeman. During his career, he continuously risked his life in a struggle to advance human rights, justice, and peace. The dominant theme in his career was the investigation and prosecution of individuals guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, which traced the struggle of the country on its journey to freedom and a rightful place in the world. These efforts took place in South Africa as well as abroad. In South Africa, he helped expose the Apartheid military's destabilization machinery; and later headed the Scorpions, the country's elite police force. Abroad, he worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Nelson Mandela personally thanked him for his brave and decidated service.

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[edit] Uncovering the Third Force

[edit] Trust Feeds massacre

Dutton, with his teammate Wilson Magadla, solved the case of the Trust Feeds massacre, a massacre in a village of supporters of the African National Congress in the township Trust Feeds in Natal in December 1988. Taking on the system they work for, Dutton and Magadla sent a prominent policeman Brian Victor Mitchell to prison for this in 1992, the first senior policeman during the anti-Apartheid struggle to be tried and sentenced[1]. Subsequently, his superiors Ronnie van der Westhuizen and Christo Marx discouraged him and dissolved his unit. But Dutton continued to expose the involvement of the Apartheid-era South African Police hit squads so-called "Third Force" involvement of the South African Defence Force in destabilising large areas of South Africa.

[edit] Eugene de Kock

In 1992, on the recommendation of Jacob Zuma, Richard Goldstone appointed Dutton the chief investigator for the Goldstone Commission, a judicial commission looking into political violence. This led to the exposure of the workings of the Third Force, and the imprisonment of security police colonel Eugene de Kock, known as "Prime Evil". Goldstone said of Dutton: "He is a man without strong political feelings but with a deep belief in the need for complete integrity in police investigations, regardless of the consequences."[2]

[edit] Magnus Malan

In 1995, Dutton became the head of the Investigation Task Unit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission[3]. He investigated and arrested the former defence minister Magnus Malan and 10 former military officials in connection with the 1987 KwaMakhutha massacre[4].

[edit] Renamo affair

Dutton exposed the shadowy relationship between the special forces of the South African Defence Force and Renamo rebels in Mozambique. He showed this as continuing for many years after the non-aggression Nkomati Accord was signed between South Africa and Mozambique in 1984. Three of the accused – Brigadier Cornelius van Niekerk, Brigadier John More and Colonel Cornelius van Tonder – were directly involved in coordinating support for Renamo in direct violation of the Nkomati Accord[5].

The atrocities committed by Renamo have been described by an United States Department of State report as worse than those of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia[citation needed]. The cost of South African-sponsored wars of destabilisation in Angola and Mozambique has been estimated by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre in Harare at more than a million lives and between 45 billion USD and 60 billion USD since 1980[citation needed].

[edit] On the hit list

In working to uncover the workings of the Third Force, Frank Dutton was placed on the South African Police hit list, and several attempts were made on his life. He was advised to flee the country, but returned despite the danger to ensure justice was done.

[edit] Investigations in the former Yugoslavia

In 1994, on the recommendation of Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Dutton successfully applied for a post with the United Nations in the investigation section of the Office of the Prosecutor for that tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands[6]. In this role, he worked with detectives from more than 90 countries and proved himself to be a world-class detective. In 1995, he was promoted to head of the court's investigating mission in Sarajevo. He was again promoted to Commander of Field Operations in Kosovo in 1999, when Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka asked him to return to South Africa to set up the elite unit, the Scorpions.

[edit] Setting up the Scorpions

In 2000 before his retirement, he set up the Scorpions, the Directorate of Special Operations, modelled after the American Untouchables and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dutton was at the time the only member of the organisation with a public image. This once again placed him in the firing line[7].

[edit] Panelist in the Selebi case

In October 2007, Dutton was selected to serve on the panel to review the case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^
  2. ^ Goldstone, Richard J. (2000). For Humanity: Reflections of a War Crimes Investigator. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300082053. 
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  5. ^ Opperman reveals Renamo links. Mail and Guardian. 22 Mar 1996
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