EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUT~~N AFRICA

339 Lafayette Street Phone: (212) 477-0066 New York, N.Y. 10012 Fax: (212) 979 ... 1013 #184 founded Z2 June Z956 20 September 1997

vv e atanJt· intend to kill Biko. I feel remorse and beg 11 September 1997 for forgiveness . Steve Biko: shackled By Alec Russell In Johannesburg

:¥ WHITE former police standing position against a rather than Sept 6. This had him . . . I feel remorse and major admitted yesterday grille door for an entire day. been done. he believed. to beg for forgiveness." that there had been an offi­ He claimed that the scuffle hide the fact that doctors Among the co-applicants claT cover-up over the death broke out as an interrogation were not called to treat ~r was a former police colonel. in detention 20 years ago of became increasingly con­ Biko until two davs after the Gideon Nieuwoudt, then a the black rights activist frontational. incident. Howeve-r. his over­ detective sergeant. He is Steye Biko. "I am not sure who hit him all version of the sequence of serving a 20-year prison sen­ Harold Snyman. one of five and who got hit. .. ~lr Soy­ events was little different tence for his role in a 1989 policemen seeking amnesty man· s statement said. :\s from the account that he and bomb that killed three for~.tr Biko·s death. said he police tried to handcuff ~r other policemen gave at the policemen and a police had lied to the inquest to Biko. one officer fell on him. inquest. informer. spare the govern­ sending his head against a :\iany left the hearing bit­ Mr Biko is widely seen as ment and the police wall. terly disappointed as. far the greatest martyr of the embarrassment. "He fell to the ground ... he from accepting full responsi­ anti-apartheid movement. He was speaking at the said. "If was clear that the bility, Mr Snyman merely His black consciousness phi· start of one of the most sensi­ knock on his head had left reiterated previous claims losopby, that political free­ tive hearings to come before him dazed and disorientated. that the police had not dom could be ac~eved only the Truth and Reconciliation He was slurring. intended to kill Mr Biko. if blacks ceased to feel infe­ Commission. which is "I kept in mind that he "I feel badly about these rior to whites, re-ignited pro­ charged with investigating might be trying to deceive us actions - that we acted in test i.n the mid-Seventies human rights abuses during in order to escape further this manner against this per­ when the African .:'llational the last years of apartheid. interrogation.·· son." he told the hearing in Congress leaders were either The proceedings, which :\1r Snyman admitted that :-.lew Brighton township. out­ in prison or exile. were attended by Mr Biko·s under pressure from his com­ side Port Elizabeth where The announcement in Jan· widow. :-.itsiki. and son. :-.lko­ mander he had lied to the ~r Biko was detained and uary that the five policemen sinathi. in a packed township inquest about the date of the beaten before his death. were applying for amnesty communitv hall. had an scuffle. giving it as Sept 7 ··we never intended to kill was hailed by the commis­ added resonance as tomor· sion as proof that its quest row is the 20th anniversarv for the truth was working. of the activist's death. · But Mr Biko's family But the policemen stuck to opposes the amnesty bid. their original story that he George Bizos, their lawyer bad died after bitting his and an old friend of Presi­ bead against a wall. prompt­ dent Mandela, yesterday dis­ ing'murmurs of disbelief. puted the policemen's claims Mrs Biko said last night: that they had made "full dis­ ·'!fhere is nothing new. He closure" and that their [Snyman] is lying even more actions were political - two now than in the inquest." of the prerequisites for Speaking in Afrikaans in a amnesty. subdued voice. Mr Snyman ·'Torturing a helpless shed some light on Mr Biko ·s detainee for the purpose of harsh treatment during his extracting information from last days alive. them to the point that they He said that :\ir Biko. finish up dead is not a politi­ despite being "disoriented" cal objective that any civi­ and displaying "slurred lised country can accept ... he speech" after a fight with his said. captors, had been shackled ~r Mandela will unveil a by his hands and feet in a Mr Biko's son and widow at yesterday's hearing statue to Mr Biko tomorrow. 11 September 1997

Mr Snyman admitted yes­ and disorientated." They had David Beresford terday that there had been a immediately shackled him. In Johannesburg cover-up of the true story. On George Bizos, counsel for instructions from the then the Biko family, which is try­ OUTH AFRICA'S truth regional security police chief, ing to block the granting of an commission yesterday Colonel Pie! Goosen -- who amnesty, s:tid two professors S began trying to lever has since died- he had fabri· and a pathologist had found o~n the true story of the cated the date on which Biko that abrasions on Biko's borly death in detention 20 years suffered his inJuries. The had been inflicted over a ago of the black conscious­ scuffie in which Biko was fa· period of four to eight days. ness leader Steve Biko, as tally injured had taken placP Mr Snyman dPnierl having crowds outside the hearing a day earlier than claimed. seen one of the other police· demanded justice. Although badly hurt, he was men, Gideon Nieuwoudt, Police officers began ~estify­ kept standing for most of that attack Biko with a piece of ing to the commission in an day, handcuffed to a security hose-pipe. "Its use woulrl attempt to win amnesty for gate. · have been irregular," he said. the killing, but lawyers for Mr Snyman, who admitted After the day's testimony. the Biko family accused them that the use ·of torture was Biko's widow, Ntshiki Biko, of offering only a modifica­ police policy at the time, said said: "They're going to lie tion of the original cover-up. Nkosinathi Biko, son of the the interrogators had been even more so they are granted "We never intended to kill black leader Steve Biko, trying to soften Biko up by amnesty. I am feeling bad be­ him. I just want to be forgiven listens to evidence depriving him of sleep. Naked cause they know what the\· for my past," Biko's chief In· and forced to stand, he had are saying is not the truth." · terrogator, the former seen· account of his death, although "gone wild" and attacked his • Katiza Cebekhulu. who has rity police major Harold Sny­ accepted by an inquest, has interrogators. Four police­ alleged that Winnie Manrlela man, told the hearing in a always been disbelieved. men joined in the struggle. "I personally took part in the township hall outside Port Five former security police­ am not sure who hit him and killing of Stompie Seipei, Elizabeth. men are making an amnesty who got hit," he said. emerged in London from six · Biko died on September 12 application, the success ·or He claimed that one of the years in hiding yesterday to 1977. after being driven 750 which depends on whether policemen stumbled. causing urge her retrial. The truth miles -- naked, handcuffed the truth commission is satis· Biko to hit his head against a commission said it mav hold and badly injured :..__ in a fied they have made full dis· wall. "He fell to the ground. It a session outside Smtih Af· 1 police vehicle from Pretoria closure and that their crime was clear that the knock on rica to listen to Mr I to Port Elizabeth. The police was politically motivated. his head had left him dazed Cebekhulu.

-C/) ·-a>o >.:::t:. C·- ::Jal C\1'+-- -0 Q)Q) c -o::J ::c0 c...... , -oE"D caca :!g...... -·...::1111 oc ~1i) ~- ~ :, ...... '..,. . Participation in the apartheid ju­ Ronald Suresh Roberts w:gues that diciary was a personal, moral and political choice and can be judged as .those lawyers who subordinated their . such. Such joiners cannot, as judges oJ?ligatwns to an apartheid. .~7::. ___ _ often do elsewhere, moral justify their individ­ ~gislature.should be held accountable ual actions by refer­ ence to the overall le­ gitimacy and morali­ he~tsbould Later, Mandela and his Rivonia ty of the system. be. in the dock;· not co-trialists, in refusing to plead Apartheid judges · me,"saldNelsonMan- guilty explicitly refused to ac- who claim to have . · dela. In State vs Man- knowledge moral guilt. "All right, subordinated their 'Tin 196'2 objected being deJa he to tried let us forget about moral guilt," re­ individual moral by a white supremacist court and spondetlpro-apartheid prosecutor opinions to a legisla­ called on the magistrate to recuse Percy Yutar. ture that was busy himself. The magistrate declined: The commission must choose be­ with Its crimes against humanity, "There is only one court today and- tween these creeds. Yutar's creed merely increase their difficulties. that is the White Man's Court." sees the doctrine of parliamentary . · Judges owe the commission more In asserting that the apartheid sovereignty as the end of debate on than broad-brush theoretical expla­ state could not dispense justice in judicial morals, not the beginning. nations, irrelevantly imported from IUlY legitimate sense, Mandela is sup. Mandela's creed realises that, par­ legitimate political systems. They ported by international law: ticularly in a repressive system, le­ owe the country a moral and pollti- . apartheid, a crime against humani" gal philosophy is a branch of ethics•. cal evaluation of their w1ll1ng par­ ty, violated the settled core of inter- As Uni~ States legal realist F& ticipation in an illegitimate system. . national principles which no state 11x (?.pben tvmts" m ~Jut EthiaU Bl:lr,;., : Certain judges, or categories of .may violate. Judges who upheld sis of Legal CrltirlbWir.U..it8~'GIIIe'.~ judges, will have more defensible sto­ apartheid joined in criminal gover- problem which the judge faces is, in ries to tell than others. Such differ­ final nance. the strictest sense, a moral problem.". entiation, in the commission's Yet some dismiss Mandela's Apartheidjudgescannotescape.. report, could not be called a witch­ lawyerly arguments and interna- moral responsibility by claiming to hunt, since there is no question of tionallaw alike as mere rhetoric have been "bound" by law, particu­ persecution, of removal trom the whicb the Truth and Reconciliation bench. Commission should ignore as It in- larly when they deliberately dis­ At the Rivonia ·Trial, Mandela missed the innovative argwnen~of vesttgates, and reports· on, the legal activist-lawyers and embraced the. doubted that there could be a nonnal profession. judiciary in an abnonnal society. He The Democratic Party says the reasoning of the apartheid bosses doubted that the classic judicial role commission is heading for a quag- who appointed them. !-obeisance to the law as laid down .. mire of contradictions in judging As Richard Abel's Politics By Oth- Gl bvJ:Patliament.r.fi1011JdJailPQ er Means demonstrates, many the legal profession: apartheid lawyer-activiSts challenged apart­ lrllltJill!liJeid~·~ judges could not act in conflict with the Jaws made by Parliament since heid. Some succeeded, but more .there was no supreme law, such as were defeated by judicial criminals. ThiS argmDent C8nnot be • in : circular fashio!l, by repeating tbe the present ConstitUtion, against Other lawyers- Yutar is only the traditional story about judge$ in Or• ' which to test Parliament's handi- most obvious-vigorously advo­ work. . cated criminal governance for pro- ,. : dinarY systems, by jporing the ex- . · · traordlnary nature ofapartheid. But under the old Constitution, fessional and personal gain. - In the most routine legal acts, judges could and did act against the Similarly, among the judiciary, ' even in legitimate legal systems, apartheid Parliament, particularly one cannot always lwilp innovators '"judges deal pain and death", says in the 19508. The fact that the judges like John Didcott with compliant )egal historian Robert Cover. Even in the 195os did not do more, that the pro-apartheid blackletter judges. in )egltimate systems, debates rage· · Nat-packed bench re- ____.Some suggest that the only moral .~ about when, if ever, judges really· fused to invent con- choice was whether to stay on the lack moral choice in deciding cases. stitutional and other bench or not-a subject hotly de- · Ajudgewhosays "'can'thavee .. challenges, that bated in South AfHcan Jaw .Jourruiis , cided otherwise" is never quite in~ judges refused to in- ofthe 191Kls. _ . · thepositJonofonewl;losays: "'can't vent activist chal· . walk: my legs are broken." Alleged . lenges based on inter- yet whatever position one , judlcialJncapacitY is never quite the national law-these takes on whether it was ·~as brute physical inability,par­ were moral and pro- morally defimsible to remain ticuJarly in appellate courts. fessional failings. on the apartheid bench, questions Apartheid judges could have lis­ persist about the diflerlngmorai con- tened to activist lawyers. Some did Unquestionlngdef- duct of those judges who stayed. The others should not be allowed to erence to the doctrine Even ifone thinks it was by defini- pretend otherwise. ofparliamentary sovereignty in the tion atrocious to stay, there re­ absence of that doctrine's vital in- mained degrees ofatrocity. gredlent-universal franchise- Ronald Suresh Roberts is co-author was a moral and political choice re- o/Recond!Jation ThrouglrTruth: A . quiring moral and political justifi- Redrontng ofApartheid's 01minal cations; · · _ . Go~andautlwro/Ciarent» Tholnasand 1M Tough 1.mJe Crowd: Counter/ell Heroes and UnhDppy Truths Deat~~row prisoners still wait in limbo A. • .1 , • I . ,~

···' week, this is more easily said than flee of the Western Cape Attorney­ done. General, told ParUamelit's portfolio e filte of 453 former death­ 1be draft Criminal Proaldure Act committee on justice that the Cape ow prisoners remains un­ Amendment Bill, now before Par­ High Court managed to flnalise on­ clear as politicians and legal llament, proposes that each former ly 1.30 criminal cases last year. experts wrestle with the dilemma of death-row prisoner be re-sentenced "Here we are looking at more how best to deal with them. by the original trial court. But hu­ than 400 cases. Wbat about awaiting­ When the Constitutional Court man rights organisations reject this trial prisonm>? Musttbey wait while abolished the death penalty two .... on grounds that the prisoners may these prisoners get another bite at years ago, it ordered that prisoners · not get a fair trial at the hands of the cherry?" she askecL . sentenced to death remain in cus­ judges who originally sentenced A "quick-fix" SOlution, with Par­ tody until their sentences were ei­ them to bang, while justice officials liament enacting legislation to re­ ther set aside or substituted by new say an already overloaded system place every death sentence with life ones. will not be able to cope with hun­ imprisonment, was also impractical But as the parliamentary po~ dreds of new trials. and could lead to a ConstitutioDal lio committee on justice beard this Ronel Berg. an advocate in the of-

"'tis an in~ problem, but "There are some real debates While some former death row bere.1be prisoners were JegaJJy sen­ prisonershadexbaustedallavenues tenced at the time, so it's not as if · of appeal, the cases of others we:-:-e one that bas to be. dealt with," Berg their sentences have been decived · still in the pipeline, rendering a blan­ said. invaUd It is just that they cannot be ket approach unfeasible. African National Congress MP "The Bill's proposal that death­ ~ted. and justice committee member · "We are going to try hard to find row prisoners be re-tried is con-ect Willie Hoftneyr said: "We are ex­ a more speedy mechanism to deal in law," Berg told the Mall & ploring the possibility of substi!Ut­ w!th ~problem. .. GUI1J"Clian. "But it presents a practi­ ing the lesser sentence of life im­ cal nightmare. It would involve deal­ prisonment without having tc re- ing with thousands ofpages ofcourt . sente\l<:e everybody. The president records and clog up both the courts reg11la.-ly commutes death sentenCes and attorney-generals' omces, im­ to )if'£ !lelltences and this !s one op- pacting on awaiting-trial prisoners' tbnw9areiookingat. 'lh rights to be dealt with speedily. Han~ assassin gives details of wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, have been hoping to fore1gn right-wing contacts · hear evidence of a wider ranging conspiracy. Madikizela­ I Mandela has in the past indicated she believes some in the Clive Derby-Lewis, one ofthose sentenced for the assas­ ANC may have had a hand in the killing, which removed a sination of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani, this rival to the present leadership (SouthScan v121 05). week cited his links with the British Conservative Monday The two assassins said they were motivated by militant Club, and with Swiss and West German right wing MPs to policies of the Conservative Party and their lawyers have give substance for his claims to amnesty for a political fought to prevent disclosure of statements they made to crime. police which, according to observers, suggest others may He had also had contacts with ranking US military and have been involved. Central Intelligence Agency officers, he said. At the time Harry Prinsloo, a lawyer for Derby-Lewis, argued the many ofhis foreign trips and contacts were public knowl­ statements were made shortly after their arrests "in April edge, and the statement was aimed at demonstrating the 1993 and were "inadmissible" because police had given the political climate in which he operated. He did not name accused alcohol and deprived them of sleep. names. Derby-Lewis told the commission he had numerous Derby-Lewis and a former right wing Conservative meetings in the 1980s and early 1990s with international Party associate, Janusz Walus, are serving life jail terms anti-communist groups, including the World Anti-Com­ for the April10, 1993, killing ofHani. munist League, and was at one point the president of the The two both denied guilt during their 1994 trial, but Western Goals Institute, whose members included a this week admitted the murder to the Truth and Recon­ prominent US major general, a CIA chief and a senior ciliation Commission in a bid to gain amnesty. member of the British House of Lords. Derby-Lewis and Walus earlier denied that the Hani The Monday Club, the right-wing lobby within the murder had been planned as part of a wider conspiracy, .BritishConservativeParty,invitedDerby-Lewistoaddress saying they acted alone. them in the 1980s and was given a report which "strongly Observers at the hearings, which have been attended by clarified the western world's dependency on South African Communist Party protesters and senior political figures, titanium, platinum and other minerals". including CP leaders and President 's ex- Walus, a Polish immigrant, said he originally came to As the men THE INDEPENDENT • TUESDAY 12 AUGUST 1997 who shot pose the application of Walus, his brother's politics but found explanatiOn given at his trial: who pulled the trigger, and it incredible that the TRC might dead Sf:\s Gaye Derby-~ had drawn Derby-Lewis, who provided the not grant him amnesty after re­ up the list for use in parliament. gun and masterminded the as­ cently freeing four black youths He had simply borrowed it. Communist sassination. The men are already who murdered an American stu­ When Walus and Derby­ serving life for the murder. dent Amy Biehl. Lewis were originally found leader seek Central is the belief that Yesterday, Walus and Derby­ guilty, Limpho Hani said justice Walus and Derby-Lewis were Lewis insisted apin that they had been only half done. Full part of a wider political con­

giveness. It is no coincidence others accused of being 'spies' taken to Quatro. In April1981, by David Beresford that the chairman and vice- after an insurrection by com­ he was taken to confront Johannesburg chairman of South Africa's batants in protest at being Chief. 'At first, I could not Truth and Reconciliation forced to fight for the Angolan recognise him. I was supposed DA \VlE DE VILLIERS said Commission are churchmen. government against Jonas Sa- to say in front of him that, yes, sorry last week. The former Watching the determined vimbi's Unita movement. I am an agent of which he was Springbok rugby captain, ex­ face of Rani's widow, Limpho, Seremane said he had sub­ my boss. But I couldn't but Cabinet Minister, doctor of as her counsel battles to find a mitted affidavits taken from implicate myself if I agreed to philosophy and cleric, bowed technicality to keep his killers his brother's two friends - that and instead I said some· out of politics, making his in jail, you cannot help but one now a police officer in the thing different; that I only farewell to Cape Town's par­ question whether reconcilia· new South Africa, the other a knew Chief as a brother to me liament with a confession, an tion is desirable. soldier - to an ANC inquiry and as my comrade and noth· abject apology for apartheid. Similarly, when listening to into the camps scandal, but ingelse. There was something satis­ Joseph Seremane, one ques- they had never been acknowl· 'They were all stunned. I fying, almost biblical, about tions whether the truth is dis- edged, or returned. Instead, an was promised and threatened the moment: the golden boy of coverable. Seremane, a highly attempt had been made to kill I ""ill look like him [he was Afrikanerdom shouldering regarded veteran of the anti- one of the witnesses. badly disfigured] if I did not the sins of his fathers; the man apartheid struggle, was the . He had appealed to Nelson obey orders.' Instead, he was seemingly destined to lead a head of the justice department Mandela, getting as far as his detained for three years. Chief nation brought down by the of the South African Council secretary. 'She just said many 'vanished into thin air'. iniquity of the system into of Churches. In recognition of people had pho_ned to speak to The other ""itness. Goitse­ which he was born. one Gordon Moshoeu, said he In a way, it represented the was detained at Quatro in apotheosis of the anti-apart­ 1981. One night the ANC's tor­ heid struggle, the realisation As Rani's "ido,v, ture officers, led by Sipho of the truth and the final vic­ Mthembu, took him to see tory in the titanic battle be­ Limpho, fights to Chief. tween good and evil so long 'In this cell was a badly tor· represented by South Africa. keep his killers in tured and beaten person stand· And yet, amid this feast of ing in the dark at the back. A righteousness, there is the jail, you cannot light was brought into the cell whiff of a confusion of justice for us to see each other. I could across the country. In Pre­ help but question hardly identify this figure ... toria's city hall, two murder­ [Sipho Mthembu] asked this ers are anxiously trying to the commission figure to tell me what he told compound the foulness of them. "Give them the guns." their crime in the paradoxical the figure uttered. Only then hope it .,.,..m bring them liberty. his contributions to the Iibera· the President about similar did I realise that this disfig. The amnesty applications of tion cause, he was appointed matters and I should speak to ured person was Chief. Before Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz chairman of the Land Claims the Truth commission.' we could say anything to each Walus, who killed the South Commission, which compen­ The affidavits make horrific other, I was taken to another African Communist Party sates those dispossessed by reading. They charge that cell to receive my share of the leader, Chris Hani, in 1993, apartheid's segregation laws. among his brother's torturers torture.' enter their third week t(}o He came before the commis· was ANC member Sipho Moshoeu said ANC officials. morrow. Last week's hearing sion recently to demand jus­ Mthembu, now a top official in including South Africa's pres­ was marked by their efforts to tice, not from the whites but the National Intelligence ent Minister of Defence, Joe persuade the commissioners from the liberation move­ Agency, the South African Modise. organised a kangaroo that their crime was not some ment. His brother was exe­ counterpart to MIS. court at Quatro in 1983. aberration born of passion, cuted by the ANC. They record how, in 1977, 'In the court an inmate but a ruthlessly premeditated 'I've been on the Island, I've 'Chief was made deputy com­ could not speak. We were attempt to cause thousands been through hell. I've been mander of a 6Q..strong unit called one after the other to more deaths by bringing civil tortured and nearly lost my chosen to undergo training at simply come to receive our war on the country. life. But when I think of Chief Pirivalni, a Soviet military sentences.' He got four years The curious reversal of the Timothy and compare the way academy near the Black Sea. with hard labour, 13 others normal thrust of criminal de· he died, my suffering means William Mashotana trained were sentenced to death, in· fence is demanded by the en­ nothing ... why do you cheat in Russia with Chief but was eluding Chief. abling legislation, which re­ me of my brother's bones?' later separated from him to 'This group was all executed quires a political mandate· for Seremane said his brother undergo further training in by firing squad in a valley that an atrocity to earn amnesty. had joined the ANC's military Zambia. When dissatisfaction lies behind Quatro. It is in this Like Galileo before the In· wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, began boiling up against the valley where the bones of our quisition, Archbishop Des­ with . two boyhood friends leadership ofthe ANC in Zam· sons and daughters of our mond Tutu's commissioners after the 1976 Soweto uprising. bia, its security apparatus, motherland are thrown.' seek not proof of the deed, but 'Chief Timothy, who had 'Imbokoto'. cracked down It is a charge against the confession of heresy - the risen to rank of commander in with random arrests. Accused forces of liberation which. one sanctity of confession offering the guerrilla army, was tor­ of plotting to assassinate the suspects, ""ill be enjoined by reconciliation through for- tured and shot along with 12 leadership, Mashotana was no confession. FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 1997 • THE INDEPENDENT S Africa agrees arms spending spree

Britain expected to tender for business.

Mary Braid as minister reverses military decline Johannesburg After three years of apocalyptic warnings that South Africa the money would be better has been slashed by 60 per cent sition. "One of the reasons we would soon be relying on leak­ spent on schools and clinics. since 1989. "He has lobbied hard keep shying away from peace­ ing submarines and rusty planes But the Cape Town parlia­ to counter the arguments put keeping is that we don't have the to defend its borders, defence ment has now endorsed defence forward in 1994," said former necessary equipment, particu­ minister Joe Modise has per­ department proposals to pur­ Brigadier Bill Sass, deputy di­ larly aircraft." suaded President Nelson Man­ chase four Corvettes, four sub­ rector for the Institute of Secu­ Not all the Institute's staff are deJa's government to embark on marines and other armaments; rity Studies. ''Arguments about as enthusiastic. Dr Jakkie Cil­ its first military spending spree. a plan already approved by schools and clinics would not liers, the director, has been ar­ Hfird lobbying has produced President Mandela's cabinet. wash now ... Most military an­ guing for months that with a marked change of heart. In Britain, Spain, Germany and alysts agree the South African apartheid and the 1994 South Africa's purchase of France are expected to be defence force is in a bad condi­ gone the South African Na­ four Corvettes - for which among the countries to tender tion. The navy's last warships tional Defence Force should be Britain's Yarrow shipyard was for the business. were bought 25 years ago." fundamentally redefining itself. . on a shortlist of two to build - Parliament's decision is re­ ' Mr Sass said military spend­ He recommends it focus on in­ was halted by the African Na­ garded as a major victory for Mr ing was essential if South Africa ternal crime fighting and anti­ tional Congress on the grounds Modise whose defence budget w.as to maintain its regional po- illegal immigrant border patrol

equipment, Mr Modise has yet to clinch his bitter battle with fi­ nance minister Trevor Manuel for a gradual guaranteed in­ since there is no immediate or The military contracts in­ of 4.5 per cent of GDP in 1989. crease in defence spending. medium term military. threat volve billions of rands and lu­ The defence department is According to Dr Cilliers, the from its neighbours. crative international counter pushing for the budget to be SANDF's ·new spending will But defence chiefs warn a trade deals, Mr Sass said Britain raised to around 2 per cent; the have to be gradual and initial­ military force cannot be built up was expected to put together a level for which it claims many ly on credit. overnight and South Africa package to provide Corvettes, other countries settle. Given the SANDF's disrep­ should always be ready for un­ fighter aircraft and four surplus The SANDF, now composed utable past the rehabilitation of foreseen aggression. Upholder class submarines, offormer guerrillas who fought the forces has proved a tricky Anticipating parliamentary which were built by Vickers for apartheid and the soldiers who business. Deputy defence min­ approval, the international de­ the British government in the once defended it, is halving its ister Ronnie Kasrils promised fence companies are already in mid-1990s for £600m but nev­ personnel in line with Mr earlier this year that SANDF South Africa pitching for busi­ er went into operation. Modise's promise to create a had transformed itself and was ness. "Overseas salesmen areal­ South Africa's defence bud­ leaner, cheaper, better no longer the "same old rav­ ready buying drinks for South get is 1.6 per cent of the coun­ equipped fighting force. While enous wolf plundering state African navy officers," said Mr try's gross domestic product. It job cuts will bring savings which coffers at the expense of the Sass. reached an apartheid-era peak can be ploughed into new · poor and needy". SouthScan Vol.12 No.28 8 August 1997 ANGOLA: Washington seeks to secure peace with lure of new diamond wealth Tht• Ex-Jm Bank- which makes loans to U~ compamc.• for deals abroad - is an independent federal agency and The lJS is seeking a peace breakthrough in Angola by cannot do business in Angola until the US president certifil·,; offedng the rebel movemt•nt Unita a stake in a sub­ that free and fair elections have been held there. Opponents stantially increased diamond mining industry. say Tempelsman is using the US government to expedite a Leading the deal is US diamond businessman Maurice business rather than a political deal. Tt>mpelsman, whose company Lazare Kaplan has been involw·d in Angola for a number of years. Unita accused by UN The intE>ntion is to get Unit a and the Luanda governmmt However, there has been deep concern that something involved together in deep mining the diamond wealth thPy has to be done to prevent the slide back to war. The UN have until now only been picking from the river beds in the accused Unita on Monday of having taken "no significant Lunda Norte. steps" to comply with its orders to honour the 1994 Lusaka US-made deep mining equipment financed for by the US peace agreement. Ex-Im Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. Last month, the Security Council threatened to impose lOpic) would be used to mine the kimberlite pipes of the economic sanctions on Unita if they did not take specific region. This will revitalise the industry as the alluvial steps by August 15. They include full and accurate disclo­ diggings peter out, and could mean a billion dollar a year sure ofUnita's military strength and the transformation of business for the next halfcentury, according to US reports. its radio station into a "non-partisan" broadcaster. This would double what Unita at present makes in diamond UN special representative Alioune Blondin Beye said sales. mediators from the US, Russia and Portugal, who oversee The US has insisted to the Luanda government of , the peace process, had concluded "that Unita has not made President Jose Eduardo dos Santos that Unita cannot be any significant steps" to implement council orders. cut off from its economy, based on the diamond diggings. A "They consider that it is imperative that Unita provide National Security Council official told Dos Santos that credible information on the true state of all its armed ··Unita must have the resources to make a transition from elements," Beye said. a military force to an unarmed political party", according to He said the mediators "strongly urge Unita to act with a classified account of the meeting reported in the Wash· transparency and take the necessary steps as demanded by ington Post. The mines earn Unita an estimated $500 the Security Council." million a year. "It will not be acceptable if the information requested by US officials also met Unita leader Jonas Savimbi. and the council is made available right before August 15," he said that Luanda would be likelier to respect a diamond added.·Last month, UN officials accused Unita of planting deal with its old enemy "if the US is involved through such land mines in Unita-controlled areas, of armed attacks on mechanisms as Ex-ImBank or Opic". the towns ofM uaquesse and Caxinagagi and harassment of Unita was reported to have welcomed Washington's UN military observers. involvement while Luanda, after initially objecting, has UN officials say that Unita has been slow to comply with now expressed interest. the agreement, especially in demobilising its forces. They . In return for bringing the two warring parties together say Unita claims to have about 3,000 fighters but they Tempelsman will secure the rights to market the gems in suspect the real number is much higher. Unconfirmed the US, in passing dealing another blow to De Beers' reports say that Unita has been shipping out of SA field Central Selling Organisation's hopes. The Luanda gov­ rations for between 40,000 and 60,000 people a day. ernment first ended the CSO's marketing control in 1986 and then in 1988 gave Tempelsman's Lazare Kaplan com­ pany the right to sell the gems in the US- so the present Border security tightened north suggestion is not novel. and south to isolate rebels Border security is being tightened in a bid to isolate High development costs Unita in the north and south of the country, and to cut off Minerals analysts say the best alluvial sources have the Cabindan secessionist rebels from their bases. already been exploited and the future now lies in the Congo-Kinshasa's President Laurent Kabila left Luanda development of the over 600 known kimberlite pipes, in- on Wednesday after initialing a series of agreements on cluding some of the largest in the world. Around half of border security with Angola during a two-day visit. The tht•sl•contain gradt•scxct•l•ding .04 carats percu metre. But Luanda authorities want to see Kinshasa involved in the dt•vdnpment costs will be enormous, they say. surveillance of their common border. i Around 80 small foreign mining companies arc already . Another eight border posts will be established to reinforce I actiVl' in the region, with Angolan partners, so the field will security along the border between Angola and Congo- I not be wide open. This week a Russian company, Alrosa, Brazzaville. The proposal follows a meeting by experts togdher with the parastatal Endiama and the Brazilian from both countries held in Cabinda last week. The Angolan firm Odebrecht processed its first diamonds from the Catoe a interior minister, Andre Pitra 'Petroff, said he was con­ field, while Petra Diamonds, through its Blul' Diamond cerned about the possible existence of military bases of the Mines subsidiary, was granted 10,000 sq. miles of former Cabinda separatist movement FLEC (Front for the Lib­ De Beers' prospecting territory. . eration ofthe CabindaEnclave), in Congo-B. About a dozen Another large prospecting concession has gone to the separatist groups, three of them armed, are demanding Canadian DiamondWorks, formerly Branch Energy, which independence for Cabinda. had been involved in Sierra Leone and has close Executive Congolese officials have proposed the creation ofa mixed ! Outcomes links (SouthScan v12/27 p206). police force to guarantee security along the common border. I No figure has been given for possible Ex-1m Bank and Meanwhile in the south ofthe country, Namibian police i Opic financing and surprise at the apparent official pres­ are reported to have increased vigilance along the common I sure for their involvement has been expressed in Wash­ border with Angola to counter a possible deterioration in I ington. Tempelsman is a contributor to Democratic Party Angola's political and military situation. There have been funds and a confidant of the top echelons of the party. He reports of constant movements by Unita troops along the i has been backed by former national security advisor Anthony common border. . j Lake and assistant secretary of state George Moose. I _,Donald Woods, journalist hero of the film immortalising Steve Hiko, describes !this week's official recognition of the man who brought home the evil of apartheid T IS 20 years this week since family. who had asked me to repre­ government, and, because he had Steve Biko died after being sent them in making such arrange­ died so young, young people all over driven hundreds of miles, naked ments, I was aware that the city the world used his name as a rallying and in a coma, from a police cell council were overwhelmingly ANC cry, as they demonstrated for disin· in Port Elizabeth to another in and that for many years the ANC vestment and the economic and dip­ Pretoria.I hadn't exactly rushed to acknowl­ lomatic isolation of the apartheid On Friday, President Nelson Man­ edge Biko's importance in the regime. dela is to unveil a large bronze statue struggle against apartheid. Biko's name and story as rallying of Biko in front of the classical Vic­ I had also suggested that a suitable points of the worldwide anti-apart­ torian city hall in the Eastern cape site might bt. the Buffalo bridge, heid movement intensified hugely city of East London, where Biko was hoping the location of the statue after production of the 1988 interna­ prosecuted, imprisoned and interro­ there would inspire the council to tionally released film Cry Freedom, gated in the years leading up to his rename the bridge after Biko. which was aeen ill more than 100 final arrest. But the council1 under Mayor countries, dubbed or sub-titled in . But even as the spotlight is turned Lulamile Nazo, ' w~ wonderfully more than 30 languages. i on a key event in South African generous in its response. Councillors Produced by Uiliversal Studios history and Biko's death is commem­ said if we really wanted the statue at and directed by Sir Richard orated here and abroad, his killers the bridge, they would erect it there, Attenborough, now Lord seek amnesty from the ·country's but their suggeston was to put it up Attenborough, this was the first Truth and Reconciliation in the city's greatest place of honour, major motion picture to shine the Commission. right in front of the city hall. mainstream cinematic spotlight on The hearings begin in Port Eliza­ I said this would be a wonderful apartheid, and it had a dramatic beth, the city where Biko was held iii tribute to Biko, but that frankly I had impact on international opinion security police custody, incommuni· suggested the bridge site in the hope regarding the subject of sanctions cado for three weeks of that they might rename the bridge. against the apartheid government. interrrogation, before being taken to The m:ayor leant forward and put Made with positive input from the the South African capital where he his hand on mine, saying: 'Why don't ANC, PAC and BCM experts and died on 12 September 1977. we do both?' And that Is why the advisers, and meticulously President Mandela wil also statue is going up at the city hall, and researched to ensure absolute fac­ rename East London's main bridge the Vorster Bridge is about to be­ tual truth and historical accuracy, spanning the Buffalo River after come the Biko Bridge. the film included elements of the life Steve Biko. Up till now it has been Then I went to see the President, to and death of Steve Biko as part of an called after John Vorster, the some­ ask him on behalf of the family and overall story on general aspects of time Prime Minister of the old apart­ friends of Biko, if he would unveil apartheid. heid regime. It was designed to educate and The .larger than lifesize bronze enlighten the most influential ele­ statue is by one of South Africa's 'His death had a ments of political and economic most eminent sculptors, Naomi power in Europe and America about Jacobson, who has previously under· massive impact on the need to act internationally taken commissions for the African against Pretoria's racist laws and National Congress including busts of world opinion, help to bring about democracy in Mandela, Sisulu, and the late Oliver South Africa. Tambo. more than that of The question often asked about A tiny women in her seventies, she Steve Biko is whether he would have is a neighbour of mine in a block of any other detainee' had more impact against apartheid flats in the Johannesburg suburb of alive than dead. It is a question that Parkview. When we met in February ' . ' can never be answered, because this she volunteered to do the statue for a the statue and rename the bridge, brilliant young man was killed while minimal fee, mostly as a labour of and the response was pure Mandela: his remarkable intellect was still love, provided I could raise money 'Yes I will do that. I feel that is developing and broadening, and his for the foundry, casting, transporta· something I must do.' views deepening and mellowing be­ tion and erection of the statue at a When he had first been released yond the early angry writing which suitable site. from prison Mandela had told me in a had characterised his student period. The deal was struck and I raised phone call that he and other prison­ But, dead or alive, he was to play a the money from friends abroad, mak­ ers on Robben Island had been aware pivotal role in hastening the end of ing the statue a gift to the people of on the day after Biko's death that he apartheid oppression, and he himself South Africa from such admirers of had been killed, and they were aware knew this would be so. As he wrote Steve Biko as David Astor, Richard of his significance and the impact of about the possibility of his own pre- · Attenborough, Richard Branson, his death nationally and mature .death: 'You are either alive Frederick Mulder, Ken Follett, Peter internationally. and proud or you are dead, and your Gabriel, Kevin Kline and Denzel Yet the significance of Mandela's method of death can itself be a politi­ Washington, who had starred as unveiling of the Biko statue is sym­ clslng thing. So if you can overcome Biko in Attenborough's film Cry bolically and Politically enormous in the fear of death, which Is irrational, Freedom, and Michael Williams­ South Africa. It is the first official you're on the way.' Jones who as head of United Pictures acknowledgment of Biko's impor­ As he explained to his security International had released the 1988 tant role in the liberation struggle. police interrogators, if they intended film worldwide. As the printed programme for Frt· to assault him he would fight back. So Naomi Jacobson began her day says: 'His death had a massive 'You have got to handcuff me 4nd ' sculpture, which friends believe is impact on world opinion, more than bind my feet together, so that I can't her best yet. First in clay, then in that of any other detainee, mainly respond. If you allow me to respond plaster-of-Paris, then in wax and because he was better known to the I'm certainly going to respond. And finally in bronze, she used step lad- international media than any other I'm afraid you may have to kill me in • ders to complete the eight·foot·high detainee. the process even if it's not your figure of Biko. 'He had been visited by jouinallsts intention.' Yet to be unveiled to the public, it from all over the world, and they had Biko was therefore consciously shows a young man standing at ease written about him so that when he prepared to give his life for freedom but with a measure of alertness, with died there was shock and anger on a in South Africa, with a courage and fists not clenched but the. fingers wide scale abroad, as well as among spirit that matched his intellectual curled in. It suggests someone who Is his admirers and friends in South gifts . . not wanting trouble but will refuse Africa.' It is fitting that today, 20 years to be pushed around and will res- At the United Nations, his death after his brave death, this extraordi· pond if attacked. · was cited as one of the principal nary young man is nationally recog· When I went to the city of East reasons for the intensification of nised and acclaimed by our most London to offer them the statue and sanctions, in particular the oil and honoured leaders for his major role discuss a site on behalf of the Biko arms embargo against the Pretoria in our national liberation. ~ ~-: -~ .·. -.

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