Frank Dutton
Encyclopedia
Frank Kennan Dutton is a retired South Africa
n police
man. 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 crime
s 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 dedicated service.
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. 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.
, 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."
He investigated and arrested the former defence minister Magnus Malan
and 10 former military officials in connection with the 1987 KwaMakhutha massacre.
. 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.
The atrocities committed by Renamo were described by a United States Department of State
report as being worse than those of the Pol Pot
regime in Cambodia
. 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.
, 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.
, 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. 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.
, 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, and gave it its motto: “Loved by the people, feared by criminals, respected by peers.” This once again placed him in the firing line.
.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
man. During his career, he continuously risked his life in a struggle to advance human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
, and peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
. The dominant theme in his career was the investigation and prosecution of individuals guilty of committing war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s 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
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
personally thanked him for his brave and dedicated service.
Trust Feeds massacre
Dutton, with his teammate Wilson Magadla, solved the case of the Trust Feeds massacre, amassacre in a village of supporters of the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
in the township Trust Feeds in Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
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. 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
South African Police
The South African Police was the country's police force until 1994. The SAP traced its origin to the Dutch Watch, a paramilitary organization formed by settlers in the Cape in 1655, initially to protect civilians against attack and later to maintain law and order...
hit squads so-called "Third Force
Third Force (South Africa)
The "Third Force" was a term used by leaders of the ANC during the late 1980s and early 1990s to refer to an unknown group believed to be responsible for a surge in violence in KwaZulu-Natal, and townships around and south of the Witwatersrand ....
" involvement of the South African Defence Force
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force was the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. The former Union Defence Force was renamed to the South African Defence Force in the Defence Act of 1957...
in destabilising large areas of South Africa.
Eugene de Kock
In 1992, on the recommendation of Jacob ZumaJacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
, Richard Goldstone
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...
appointed Dutton the chief investigator for the Goldstone Commission
Goldstone Commission
The Goldstone Commission, formally known as the Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, was appointed to investigate political violence and intimidation that occurred between July 1991 and the 1994 general election that ended apartheid in South Africa.The...
, 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
Eugene de Kock
Eugene de Kock is a former colonel of the South African Police force during Apartheid in South Africa. Dubbed "Prime Evil" by the media, he was the commander of C1 unit of the South African Police counter-insurgency group, well known for kidnapping, torturing and murdering hundreds of...
, 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."
Magnus Malan
In 1995, Dutton became the head of the Investigation Task Unit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.He investigated and arrested the former defence minister Magnus Malan
Magnus Malan
General Magnus André De Merindol Malan was the Minister of Defence , Chief of the South African Defence Force and Chief of the South African Army.-Early life:...
and 10 former military officials in connection with the 1987 KwaMakhutha massacre.
Renamo affair
Dutton exposed the shadowy relationship between the special forces of the South African Defence Force and Renamo rebels in MozambiqueMozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
. He showed this as continuing for many years after the non-aggression Nkomati Accord
Nkomati Accord
The Nkomati Accord was a non-aggression pact signed on 16 March 1984 between the government of the People's Republic of Mozambique and the government of the Republic of South Africa. The event took place at the South African town of Komatipoort with the signatories being Samora Machel and PW Botha...
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.
The atrocities committed by Renamo were described by a United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
report as being worse than those of the Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
regime in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. The cost of South African-sponsored wars of destabilisation in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
and Mozambique has been estimated by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre in Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
at more than a million lives and between 45 billion USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
and 60 billion USD since 1980.
On the hit list
In working to uncover the workings of the Third Force, Frank Dutton was placed on the South African Police hit listHit list
Hit list or The Hit List may refer to:*Hit List , starring Jan-Michael Vincent*Hit List , a Canadian television series*The Hit List , featuring Cuba Gooding, Jr.*The 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.
Investigations in the former Yugoslavia
In 1994, on the recommendation of Richard Goldstone, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
, Dutton successfully applied for a post with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in the investigation section of the Office of the Prosecutor for that tribunal at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Netherlands. 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
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
. He was again promoted to Commander of Field Operations in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
in 1999, when Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka
Bulelani Ngcuka
Bulelani T Ngcuka was the first national Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa, and is the husband of former Deputy President of South Africa Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. He was embroiled in controversy after being accused of being an apartheid spy...
asked him to return to South Africa to set up the elite unit, the Scorpions.
Setting up the Scorpions
In 2000 before his retirement, he set up the ScorpionsScorpions (South Africa)
The Directorate of Special Operations was a multidisciplinary agency that investigated and prosecuted organised crime and corruption. It was a unit of The National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa. Its staff of 536 consisted of some of the best police, financial, forensic and intelligence...
, the Directorate of Special Operations, modelled after the American Untouchables and Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. Dutton was at the time the only member of the organisation with a public image, and gave it its motto: “Loved by the people, feared by criminals, respected by peers.” This once again placed him in the firing line.
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 SelebiJackie Selebi
Jacob Sello Selebi is the former national commissioner of the South African Police Service, and a former president of Interpol. In January 2008, Selebi was put on extended leave as national police commissioner, and resigned as president of Interpol, after he was charged with corruption in his...
.