Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Project Coast
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|South African chemical weapons program}} {{use South African English|date=May 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} '''Project Coast''' was a top-secret [[chemical warfare|chemical]] and [[biological warfare|biological weapons]] (CBW) programme instituted by the [[apartheid]]-era government of South Africa in the 1980s. Project Coast was the successor to a limited postwar CBW programme, which mainly produced the lethal agents [[CX powder]] and [[mustard gas]], as well as non-lethal [[tear gas]] for riot control purposes.<ref>Gould, Chandré (2006) ''South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare programme 1981–1995,'' PhD thesis. Rhodes University.</ref> The programme was headed by the cardiologist [[Wouter Basson]], who was also the personal physician of South African Prime Minister [[P. W. Botha]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marbot |first1=Olivier |title=South Africa: 'Dr Death' discovered to still be practising medicine |url=https://www.theafricareport.com/63661/south-africa-dr-death-discovered-to-still-be-practising-medicine/ |website=The Africa Report |access-date=27 January 2023 |date=February 5, 2021 |quote=The young personal physician to President Botha, Basson, a lieutenant colonel who joined the army in 1979, was a competent, extremely motivated volunteer.}}</ref> ==History== From 1975 onwards, the [[South African Defence Force]] (SADF) found itself embroiled in conventional battles in Angola as a result of the [[South African Border War]]. The perception that its enemies had access to battlefield chemical and biological weapons (CBW) led South Africa to begin expanding its programme, initially as a defensive measure and by researching vaccines. As the years went on, research shifted to offensive uses. In 1981, President [[P. W. Botha]] ordered the SADF to develop CBW technology for use against South Africa's enemies. In response, the head of the [[South African Medical Service]] division, which was responsible for defensive CBW capabilities, hired [[Wouter Basson]], a cardiologist, to visit other countries and report back on their respective CBW capabilities. He returned with the recommendation that South Africa's programme be expanded. In 1983, Project Coast was formed, with Basson at its head. To hide the programme and its procurement of CBW-related substances, Project Coast formed four front companies: [[Delta G Scientific Company]], [[Roodeplaat Research Laboratories]], [[Protechnik]] and [[Infladel]].<ref name="UNPROJCOAST">{{cite book|url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/145221/2002_ProjectCoase_en.pdf|title=Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme|first1=Chandré |last1=Gould |first2=Peter |last2=Folb|year=2002 |editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last=Berold|publisher=United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research|location=Geneva, Switzerland|isbn=92-9045-144-0}}</ref> [[Ben Raubenheimer]] was appointed as CEO.<ref name="UNPROJCOAST" />{{rp|52}} Project Coast created a progressively larger variety of lethal offensive CBW toxins and [[biotoxin]]s, in addition to the defensive measures. Initially, they were intended for use by the military in combat as a last resort. To that end, they copied Soviet techniques and designed devices that looked like ordinary objects but could poison those targeted for assassination. Examples included umbrellas and walking sticks that fired pellets containing poison, syringes disguised as screwdrivers, and poisoned beer cans and envelopes. In the early 1990s, with the end of apartheid, [[South Africa and weapons of mass destruction|South Africa's weapons of mass destruction]] programmes were stopped. Despite efforts to destroy equipment, stocks, and information from those programmes, some still remain, leading to fears that they may find their way into the possession of terrorist networks. In May 2002, [[Daan Goosen]], the former head of South Africa's biological weapons programmes, contacted the FBI and offered to exchange existing bacterial stocks from the programmes in return for US$5 million, together with immigration permits for him and 19 other associates and their family members. The offer was eventually refused, with the FBI claiming that the strains were obsolete and therefore no longer a threat.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/04/20/lethal-legacy-bioweapons-for-sale/4f1c6c0c-3733-4804-ba17-8f0051fda91d/| title = Lethal Legacy: Bioweapons for Sale – The Washington Post| newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-04-21|title=Offer the FBI decided it had to refuse|url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/offer-the-fbi-decided-it-had-to-refuse-20030421-gdgmuk.html|access-date=2021-07-24|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}</ref> ==Unusual features== The South African chemical weapons programme investigated all the standard CBW agents such as irritant [[riot control agent]]s, lethal [[nerve agent]]s and [[anticholinergic]] [[deliriant]]s, which have been researched by virtually all countries that have carried out CBW research. The South African programme differed from the CBW programmes of many countries in its focus on developing nonlethal agents to help suppress internal dissent.<ref name="UNPROJCOAST" />{{rp|77–109}} This led to the investigation of unusual nonlethal agents, including illicit recreational drugs such as [[phencyclidine]], [[MDMA]], [[methaqualone]] and [[cocaine]], as well as medicinal drugs such as [[diazepam]], [[midazolam]], [[ketamine]], [[suxamethonium]] and [[tubocurarine]], as potential incapacitating agents. According to the testimony given by [[Wouter Basson]] to the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]],<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-07-09|title=South African Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme|url=http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/49.html|access-date=2021-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709030636/http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/archive/cbw/49.html|archive-date=9 July 2012}}</ref> analogues of the compounds were prepared and studied. Both methaqualone and MDMA (along with the deliriant [[3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate|BZ]]) were manufactured in large quantities and successfully weaponized into a fine dust or aerosol form that could be released over a crowd as a potential riot control agent. It was later discovered that Basson was also selling large quantities of MDMA and methaqualone as tablets on the black market. The amount manufactured was far larger than what was sold, but the court accepted that at least some genuine weaponization and testing of the agents had been done. A [[black mamba]] and its extracted venom were also part of the research, as were ''[[E. coli]]'' O157:H7 bacteria genetically modified to express some of the toxins made by ''[[Clostridium perfringens]]'' bacteria.<ref name="UNPROJCOAST" /> A list of purchases at [[Roodeplaat Research Laboratories|RRL]] and other documents include references to such things as the snake, biological agents such as [[anthrax]], [[brucellosis]], [[cholera]] and [[salmonella]] among others, and chemicals including [[aluminium phosphide]], [[thallium acetate]], [[sodium azide]], [[sodium cyanide]], [[mercury oxycyanide]], [[cantharides]], [[colchicine]], powerful [[anticoagulant]]s such as [[brodifacoum]], [[phenylsilatrane]]s, [[strychnine]], [[paraquat]], "[[knockout drops]]", [[digoxin]], [[acetylcholinesterase inhibitor]]s such as [[aldicarb]] and [[paraoxon]] and other poisons. Other plans referenced in the UN report included crowd control with [[pheromones]], and discussion of the development of several novel compounds, including a locally produced variant of BZ, novel derivatives of [[CR gas]] including "a compound which had a pyridine moiety in place of one of the benzene rings...[and] caused severe blisters on the skin", a new, more potent analogue of methaqualone and a "dimethylketone-amphetamine" derivative of MDMA.<ref name="UNPROJCOAST" /> Another unusual project attempted to develop a method of sterilising crowds using a known male sterilant, [[pyridine]] {{Citation needed|reason=No record can be found of pyridine even being a sterilizer|date=July 2021}}. That was to be sprayed onto the crowds from a gas cylinder pressurised with nitrogen gas since pyridine is highly flammable. A subsequent industrial accident caused the death of a gas company employee when the experimental contaminated medical oxygen cylinder had been returned to the gas supplier and filled with oxygen that exploded.<ref>Brian Robson, Production Manager Messer Fedgas SA 1999</ref> == Employment == In 1985, four [[SWAPO]] detainees held at Reconnaissance Regiment headquarters were allegedly given a sleeping drug in soft drinks, taken to Lanseria airport outside Johannesburg, and injected with three toxic substances supplied by Basson. Their bodies were thrown into the [[Atlantic Ocean]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The Civil Cooperation Bureau operative Petrus Jacobus Botes, who claimed to have also directed bureau operations in [[Mozambique]] and [[Eswatini|Swaziland]], asserted that he was ordered in May 1989 to contaminate the water supply at Dobra, a refugee camp in [[Namibia]], with [[cholera]] and [[yellow fever]] organisms. A South African Army doctor provided them to him. In late August 1989, he led an attempt to contaminate the water supply, but it failed because of the high chlorine content in the treated water at the camp.<ref name=purkitt_burgess>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2001/southafrica.pdf|first1=Helen E. |last1=Purkitt|first2=Stephen F. |last2=Burgess|title=The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program|publisher=Air University, Counterproliferation Center| location=Maxwell Airforce Base, Alabama|year=2001}}</ref> == 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> == See also == * [[Medical experimentation in Africa]] * [[South Africa and weapons of mass destruction]] == References == {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== {{Refbegin}} * Glenn Cross, ''Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975–1980'', Helion & Company, 2017 {{Refend}} == External links == * [http://www.unidir.org/files/publications/pdfs/project-coast-apartheid-s-chemical-and-biological-warfare-programme-296.pdf Chandré Gould, Peter I. Folb: Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme, United Nations Publications, 2002] on-line version of the book * [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2001/southafrica.pdf Helen E. Purkitt, Stephen F. Burgess: The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program, 2001] on-line version of the book * [[Public Broadcasting Service]] special report: [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plague/sa/ Plague War: What Happened in South Africa?] * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/110947.stm Apartheid government sought germs to kill blacks] * [http://ecstasy.org/info/southafrica.html Ecstasy Produced for "Riot Control" in South Africa] * [http://www.css.ethz.ch/en/services/digital-library/articles/article.html/d6264a52-9fba-4986-baa2-cf30c2bddc1a Apartheid South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program] on-line article containing extensive documentation on Project Coast {{Political history of South Africa}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:Abandoned military projects of South Africa]] [[Category:Apartheid government]] [[Category:Biological warfare]] [[Category:Biological weapons by country]] [[Category:Chemical weapons by country]] [[Category:Human subject research in South Africa]] [[Category:Medical experimentation on prisoners of war]] [[Category:Military history of South Africa]] [[Category:Military projects]] [[Category:South Africa and weapons of mass destruction]] [[Category:South African war crimes]] [[Category:South African Border War]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page
(
help
)
:
Template:Authority control
(
edit
)
Template:Citation needed
(
edit
)
Template:Cite book
(
edit
)
Template:Cite journal
(
edit
)
Template:Cite news
(
edit
)
Template:Cite web
(
edit
)
Template:Political history of South Africa
(
edit
)
Template:Refbegin
(
edit
)
Template:Refend
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Template:Rp
(
edit
)
Template:Short description
(
edit
)
Template:Use South African English
(
edit
)
Template:Use dmy dates
(
edit
)