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- <text id=91TT0486>
- <title>
- Mar. 04, 1991: The Hit Man Plays A Deadly Tune
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Mar. 04, 1991 Into Kuwait!
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- GRAPEVINE, Page 17
- The Hit Man Plays A Deadly Tune
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By David Ellis/Reported by Sidney Urquhart
- </p>
- <p> Right-wing assassins in South Africa have found a brutal,
- high-tech way to punish their enemies: send them a
- booby-trapped tape player. On Feb. 15, such a Walkman-type
- device took the life of Bheki Mlangeni, a human-rights lawyer.
- The real target of the deadly package was Dirk Coetzee, a
- former policeman who now supports the African National Congress
- and lives in exile in Zambia. Coetzee testified last summer
- that former colleagues on the South African police force were
- behind the hit-squad deaths of several A.N.C. activists. The
- parcel bomb was sent to Coetzee in Lusaka. But when he refused
- to pay the duty on the package, it was sent to Mlangeni's
- Johannesburg law firm, falsely listed as the return address.
- Intrigued by a tape marked EVIDENCE OF HIT SQUADS, the lawyer
- took the tape player home and put on the headset that had been
- thoughtfully included. A few seconds later its right earphone
- exploded, apparently triggered by a sound signal.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-