CHRONOLOGY

October 1976: Transkei becomes the first tribal homeland to be declared "independent."

December 1981: Ciskei gains its "independence."

Feb. 2, 1990: Nelson Mandela is freed. Ciskei President Lennox Sebe declares an emergency.

March 1990: Brig. Joshua `Oupa' Gqozo seizes power from Sebe in a popular coup.

June 1990: South African Defense Forces (SADF), through Military Intelligence (MI), moves into Ciskei.

July 1990: MI sets up Intelligence Researchers-Ciskei Intelligence Services (IR-CIS), a highly secretive front. Former SADF officer Anton Nieuwoudt arrives to take charge of IR.

November 1990: Col. Craig Duli leads an abortive coup in Transkei in which he is killed.

Jan. 27, 1991: Charles Sebe is killed in an ambush in Ciskei. IR is thought to be responsible for putting him up to a coup bid.

Feb. 6, 1991: Arms delivered to IR-CIS unit.

Feb. 8, 1991: Ciskei Defense Force officers discover arms cache and take it to military base. There they are fired on by troops, arrested, and charged with treason. Charges are later withdrawn.

June 1991: Church and community leaders call for Gqozo's resignation. Consumer boycott launched. Hit squads exposed.

July 1991: African Democratic Movement (ADM), an anti-ANC movement set up by Military Intelligence, is launched. Col. Gert Hugo, Ciskei's chief of staff for intelligence, flees Ciskei and exposes IR-CIS.

August 1991: SADF chief A. J. (Kat) Liebenberg travels to Ciskei to disband the IR-CIS. Nieuwoudt quits Ciskei.

September 1991: Ciskei signs the National Peace Accord.

October 1991: Gqozo declares a national emergency.

Aug. 7, 1992: ANC mounts protest march on Ciskei, but it is turned back at border.

Sept. 1, 1992: Coup bid in Transkei fails.

Sept. 7, 1992: ANC mounts another protest march in bid to topple Gqozo. Security forces open fire on protesters.