Editing Project Coast (section)

== Component of genocide ==
Research on [[birth control]] methods to reduce the black birth rate was one such area. Goosen, the managing director of [[Roodeplaat Research Laboratories]] between 1983 and 1986, told Tom Mangold of the BBC that Project Coast had supported a project to develop a contraceptive that would have been applied clandestinely to blacks. Goosen reported that the project had developed a 'vaccine' for males and females and that the researchers were still searching for a means by which it could be delivered to make black people sterile without them being made aware. Schalk van Rensburg stated that “fertility and fertility control studies comprised 18% of all projects”.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Gould |first1=Chandré |last2=Folb |first2=Peter |date=2000 |title=The South African Chemical And Biological Warfare Program: An Overview |url=https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-content/uploads/npr/73gould.pdf |journal=The Nonproliferation Review |volume=7 |issue=Fall-Winter |pages=10–23|doi=10.1080/10736700008436822 |s2cid=144006674 }}</ref>

Testimony given at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission suggested that Project Coast researchers were also looking into putting birth control substances in water supplies.<ref name="purkitt_burgess" /> The project officer for Project Coast, Basson, was put on trial for 64 charges, all of which were committed while he held that position.<ref name=":0" /> Goosen testified that when asked what motivated him, Basson had replied that "although we do not have any doubt that black people will take over the country one day, when my daughter asks me what I did to prevent this, at least my conscience will be clean".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singh |first=Jerome |date=2008 |title=Project Coast: Eugenics In South Africa |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18316125/ |journal=Endeavor |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=5–9 |doi=10.1016/j.endeavour.2008.01.005 |pmid=18316125 |via=Science Direct}}</ref>

Despite strong links to [[Israel and weapons of mass destruction|Israel]] and [[Libya and weapons of mass destruction|Libya]], no country has been directly implicated for involvement in the project, however, the project would not have been able to develop without some form of international support.<ref name=":0" /> According to Miles Jackson, while the focus on apartheid South Africa’s research into fertility is barely part of the ongoing discussion regarding Project Coast, what occurred could constitute conspiracy to commit genocide under international law.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Miles |date=November 14, 2015 |title=A Conspiracy to Commit Genocide: Anti-Fertility Research in Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Weapons Programme |url=https://academic.oup.com/jicj/article/13/5/933/2411996 |journal=Journal of International Criminal Justice |volume=13 |issue=5 |pages=933–950|doi=10.1093/jicj/mqv060 |doi-access=free }}</ref>