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Of Bfl,3 Y:9C7pi& Is W FAL L 1914 for tke wot&vdL of -Ike &a. of bfl,3 y:9c7pI& is w~~ k EPISCOPAL C141JK14MEN for S OUTHWAFR1CA 14 West 11th Street New York, N. Y. 10011 Phone : (212) 477-0066 —For A Free Southern, Mr/cu V.C$bflVt of cutr lad- 1974 . In a 31 July letter to Episcopal Churchmen for South Africa, the US State Department outlined its efforts since February 1974 to obtain from the South African government specific information about Namibians held incommunicado in detention .' The communication pro- vides details of the fate of 15 leaders of the South West Africa People's Organization. The South African Department of Foreign Affairs, after repeated representations by the US embassy in , Pretoria including a call by the American ambassador on the For- eign Minister, Hilgard Muller, and a diplomatic note, advised the embassy that a total of 15 SWAPO and SWAPO Youth League members had been detained "under Arti6le 6 of the Terrorism Act and that none of the detainees David H . Meroro would be charged under the Terrorism Act " . This re- sponse did not come until late June. David H . Meroro, national chairman of SWAPO inside Namibia, was released on bail on 16 July . The State Department letter says : "He has been charged with possessing eight copies of a South African Communist Party journal,aSuppres- sion of Communism Act offense " . THE STAR of Johartnesburg reports that the 57-year-old businessman 'must appear in Windhoek regional court on 3 September. His bail conditions-are that he report twice a day to the police, that he not attend any public meetings and that he not leave the Windhoek urban area . His bail is 200 Rand ($300). Thomas Ndalikutala Kamati, SWAPO Youth League leader and an applicant along with Lutheran Bishop Leonard Auala and Anglican Bishop Richard Wood in con- sistent and so far unsuccessful attempts to have public,floggings by Bantus- tan authorities stopped (Kamati was himself flogged in Ovamboland last year), was released on 11 July . He was immediately charged ."with malicious damage to property because he wrote on his jail cell during his confinement " - he scratched with his spoon the words " ONE NAMIBIA, ONE NATICN " . Mr . Kamati filed an affidavit with the Windhoek magistrate's court in which he described some of his ordeal at the hands of the security police . The ?2- year-old student was arrested 31 January 1974 at St . Mary's Anglican Mission in Odibo. THE WINDHOEK ADVERTISER of 14 August claims that Mr . Kamati had crossed the border into Angola to join an estimated 800 recent Namibian exiles. ONE NAMIBIA - ONE NATION (continued) Ezriel Nashilongo Taapopi, chairman of the SWAPO Youth League, and the League's. secretary, Joseph Kashea,went on trial in Windhoek at the end of May, the State Department letter continues . "They were charged under Section 9 (2) (b) of Ordinance 13 of 1962 with attempting to incite peo- ple 'to commit murder or to cause public violence or malicious damage to property! . They were found . guilty and each sentenced on July 30 . to five years with three years suspended . The case will be appealed . " Two SWAPO detainees were released uncharged . Nine of the 15 are still in prison. THE WINDHOEK ADVERTISER carries a story about a large demonstration out- side Windhoek supreme court as the judge president sentenced Mr . Taapopi and Mr . Ka'shea . Watched by armed police, including the security branch, the demonstrators carried placards reading "Viva SWAPO " ,, "Long Live All Freedom Fighters " , "Independence The Only Solution To The Namibia' Dis- puce ", "We Want Namibia Commissioners Office In . Namibia " . FLOGGINGS The South African regime's supreme court in Windhoek has refused to im- pose temporary prohibitions on political floggings . This was the latest in a series of court proceedings initiated in November 1973 by Lutheran Bishop Leonard Auala, Anglican Bishop Richard Wood and SWAPO Youth Lea- gue leader Thomas Kamati to attempt to stop public beatings of men and women by South African-supported Bantustan officials in Ovainboland. Justice J .J .Strydom,according to THE STAR of Johannesburg, " found that an interdict in such wide terms would interfere with the administration of justice . It could happen that 'ordinary culprits' sentenced to a flogging in a tribal court might frustrate the administration of jus- tice through the mechanism of protection . " The applicants were order- ed to pay court costs . Bishop Wood reports that legal expenses for the repeated applications and court procedures,including a pending appeal to the South African Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein, will total over $75,000. THE STAR says that if a person is sentenced to be flogged the magistrate in Qvamboland and the registrar at the supreme court would be notified and 10 days had to elapse before sentence was executed . The South Afri- can Department' of Bantu Administration and Development stated floggings were "absolutely a tribal matter and it is an old custom. of the tribe " , Amnesty International in London challenged the South African regime, saying " flogging had been introduced into the territory by a white com- missioner named Hahn, who was known locally as 'Sjambok' (the whip) '. Amnesty added that there was an understanding between South African police and the tribal authorities that African detainees handed over by the police would be flogged " . The Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law in Washington,.,,.which first supported Namibians at the : Terrorism . Trial in Pretoria in 1967/ 68, is instructing attorneys in both the floggings case and that of Mr. Taapopi and Mr . Kashea . It is in urgent need of funds. LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW 733 Fifteenth Street, N .W . - Suite 520 Washington, DC 20005 ATT : Mr . Douglas Wachholz SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY South Africa has replaced its police units in Namibia's Caprivi Strip with regular army troops . The changeover had been underway since March . Police had been stationed there since 1967, with an admitted loss of 10 men from landmine explosions and in other ways .. SWAPO, whose-forces have been bat- tling the foreigners in Caprivi and nearby areas of! orthern-Namibia, put Pretoria's losses at much higher figures. Cape Town journalist 'Stanley Uy's, writing in THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, says : "The real significance of the army's entry into the area is that if Angola agrees to harbour guerrillas, who will be able to strike across the border into South-West Africa, South Africa will have a 1,000-mile long frontier to .defend from the .Atlantic coast to Rhodesia . " Caprivi stretches like a long .finger, from the bulk of Namibia, 300 miles long and 50 miles wide. Uys . adds that the army units Will be made up of permanent officers and drafted national servicemen . "Nothing will bring the reality of guerrilla conflict home to White :South African families quicker than this experience . " THE EXODUS Namibians have been fleeing their homeland into Anola , at an increasing rate : political leaders, teachers, students, skilled personnel . John Otto, SWAPO chairman in the northern regions, who has recently reached safety in Zambia, said that they were escaping from the " barbarism of tribal rul- ers and the suppression of political expression " and because they had heard the Bantustan government in Ovamboland planned to form an army and draft Namibians to fight the " so-called terrorists on the border " .Mr .Otto said SWAPO members would be thrown into concentration camps if they refus- ed to serve. Filemon . Elifas, chiefminister of Owambo, declared his tribal authorities were donating 30,000 Rand (545,000) " to combat communism and terrorism " . Chief . Elifas, who operates under the aegis of and who strongly supports the South African regime, lashed out at the World Council of Churches and " certain governments (which had) proved they Wanted wars and bloodshed by aiding " SWAPO and other groups . The WCC has for the fourth year made a number of grants from its Fund to Combat Racism for medical, educational and social services ;: . :African liberation movements have been the major 're- cipients . This year SWAPO was given S30,000. CONGRESSMAN FILES S TJIT ON US-SOUTH AFRICA TALKS OVER NAMIBIA TRADE Representative'Charles .C . Diggs,Jr ., (D-Mich), chairman of the subcommit- tee on Africa of the House 'Foreign Affairs Committee, along with several other people, has filed suit in Federal District Court in Washington, charging, according to THE NEW YORK TIMES, " Secretary of Commerce Freder- ick B . Dent with violating international obligations and United States laws by permitting discussions with South African authorities on the im- port of fur seal skins from South-West Africa " - THE TIMES 'quaint persis- tence when speaking of Namibia. Mr . Dent, a South Carolinian, had been asked by Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) to intervene on behalf of the Fouke Company of Greenville, SC, to expedite the fur company's request for exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act to import baby fur seal skins from the rookeries along Namibia's ,Atlantic coastline . A three-man Commerce Department team visit- ed Namibia 7-23 August despite a State Department warning that this might raise foreign policy questions . The UN and the International Court of Justice have determined UN members should not recognize by any acts that might imply South Africa has legal jurisdiction in Namibia. -4- NAMIBIA AND THE UNITED NATIONS Sean MacBride, United Nations Commissioner for Namibia and Assistant Secretary-General ,in an interview on the "Voice of Namibia " , SWAPC's program broadcast from Lu- saka, Zambia, stated that he expected a total change in the United Kingdom's official policy toward Namibia . " :mot present, the UK recognizes South Africa's unlawful occu- pation of Namibia as being valid, in spite of UN resolu- tions and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice .
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