Worker Killed South Africans Enlisting Children As Spies

F$~ p F F~ 2 C "et,' b .sn . :.i . , n. .. M. .d P. -oih* 4)o D Events WORKER KILLED Jesaja Lukas, a worker at the Lu- theran Hospital at Nkurenkuru, Nami- bia was killed by South African led troops on the night of May 18 . Indis- criminate firing by occupation forces into the village where Mr . Lukas lived caused his death. Lukas had been eating dinner with his wife and five of their children when the shooting started . Since the sound of gunfire is an everynight occurrence, the family did little at first to protect Editoria~ themselves . When the firing drew near to the Lukas kraal, Lukas ordered his children to enter their huts, while he SOUTH AFRICANS and his wife put out the fire . Then the bullets penetrated the stick fence ENLISTING CHILDREN AS SPIES around the kraal, and Mrs . Lukas heard her husband cry out, "Mother, I am In a tactic reminiscent of Nazi Ger- are raped, and their home, or "Kraal" dying!" A shell had entered through many and George Orwell's chilling to- is burned to the ground in a display of Lukas' back causing massive exit talitarian classic 1984, South Africa is summary "justice ." If the family wounds in his stomach . Lukas was reportedly trying to recruit Namibian refuses to give the agents food, they are quickly taken to the Lutheran hospital children to spy on their parents. often subjected to the same treatment in where nurses worked to save him, but Sources inside Namibia indicate that the guise of SWAPO exacting retribu- the wounds were so extensive that he children in the northeastern region, tion . Either way the South African ter- died within thirty minutes. known as Kavangoland, are being paid ror continues. Pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran to report to teachers and the police their Moreover, since hospitality to stran- Ovambokavango Church were present parents' contacts with strangers, in an gers is a cherished tradition among at the hospital and prayed with Mr. Lu- effort to prevent the people from aiding Namibians in the rural areas, and since kas as he was dying. They tried to con- guerrillas of the Namibian liberation feeding their brothers and sisters who sole the family. "Their grief was so movement SWAPO. have taken up arms against the enemy great," reported one pastor, "the cry- The authorities are particularly anx- is almost universally considered an act ing by the wife, the sister, the chil- ious to prevent the residents of of patriotism among black Namibians, dren ." "Murder had taken place ." Kavongoland from feeding the guerril- the government campaign is likely to The pastors and the others went back las, and civilians are routinely arrested, fail, and the bloodshed to continue in- to the village after Lukas died . The imprisoned and tortured for this of- definitely. next morning South African special fense. In the past, the South Africans By using children in the practice of constables came, trying to claim that an have employed black agents and Ango- official terror, South Africa has entered East European weapon from the South lan troops from their heavily-subsi- a new phase of evil—one that will lead West Africa People's Organization had dized UNITA allies, disguised as to suspicion among family members, killed Lukas . Reports indicate that the SWAPO fighters, to try and trick the and greater fear in innocent hearts. villagers surrounded the police, shout- people into supplying them with food. This is the terror of South African rule. ing, "You have killed the man!" You According to local churchmen, South And this is why Christians throughout are killing the people! We don't want African agents engaged in the "entrap- the world are raising their voices you to change the truth, we have seen ment" campaign usually end up harm- against support for South Africa, you destroying the people! You have ing the people regardless of their against their governments' political, done it!" The villagers continued to response. economic and moral support for the stay at the kraal, and wept with the If the "terrorists" are given food, apartheid government . family. the offending family is beaten, women a f Event :. .. M . .M W's R And what was the South African reply to the deliberations of the Security Council? One of scorn, contempt—and Security Council Ponders Namibia terror. Addressing the council on May 24, the South African representative, Kurt Von Schirnding dismissed the Over a decade after the World Court holding the Namibian people hostage world body's "spurious claims" to ju- declared South Africa's occupation of to Washington's unrelated global polit- risdiction over Namibia: "The time has Namibia illegal, the crisis surrounding ical objectives—which has given South come to remind the United Nations that the apartheid government's continuing Africa an excuse to remain in Namibia. South Africa has never accepted the hold over the territory, and the suffer- And it is the United States, through the United Nation's view that South Afri- ings of the Namibian people under abuse of its veto powers in the Security ca's presence in the territory is illegal ." South African rule, were again the sub- Council which has protected South Af- Speaking on behalf of a country whose ject of a United Nations debate . The rica from the wrath of international soldiers operate openly in neighboring Security Council meeting, which opinion. countries, Von Schirnding cynically opened on May 23 at the request of the Another speaker, Jamaican Foreign told the council that his country stood African countries and the "non- Affairs Minister Shearer, also criticized for "peaceful co-existence with all our aligned" nations, was ostensibly called "linkage" and Washington's "con- neighbors" —this just 24 hours after to review the status of the drawn-out structive engagement" policy towards South African jets attacked the Mo- negotiations over Namibian indepen- South Africa, saying "the prospect of a zambique capital of Maputo, killing six dence under the terms of the interna- solution to the Namibia issue has re- people, including two young children. tionally accepted plan for Namibian ceded" as a result. The five member freedom, UN Resolution 435. Western Contact Group had failed to Von Schirnding was defiant, and fi- But the real purpose of the council bring about Namibian independence, nally threatening : "The world must un- meeting, as speaker after speaker re- he noted, "and has therefore outlived derstand that the South African vealed, was to underscore growing Af- its usefulness ." government will not bow to threats . We rican and Third World impatience with Even the Kenyan government, nor- shall not be bound by deadlines or held the stalling tactics employed by South mally one of America's closest allies in hostage by intimidation . We shall make Africa, and to condemn Western collu- our own decisions according to our per- Africa, said that South Africa had ceptions of our responsibilities and in- sion with South Africa's continuing never seriously contemplated leaving presence in Namibia—particularly with terests . I trust that the Security Namibia, and that the world had been Council will not consider any action or the U .S. demand that Cuban troops in misled about South African intentions neighboring Angola be withdrawn as set any deadlines which might force "by those negotiating for South Africa, southern Africa in the direction of con- part of a Namibia settlement. namely the Western Contact Group ." The remarks of P .V . Narasimha The Indonesian representative, frontation and an escalation of con- flict ." Rao, Minister of External Affairs of In- Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, focused his dia, the world's largest democracy, remarks on the "insidious" policies of "The Council should be under no il- represent the sentiments expressed by the South African government in lusions as to who would suffer most. It dozens of world leaders . Minister Rao Namibia . The apartheid government, would not be the Super powers or the reaffirmed his country's support for the he said "has used every dilatory ma- United Nations which would have to Namibian liberation movement neuver to obstruct and thwart pro- pay the price for loosing the dogs of SWAPO and condemned South African gress" towards peace in Namibia. war upon our region . It would be all the "aggression, intimidation, destabiliza- "The situation in Namibia today," he peoples of southern Africa, of all the tion and depradations" against its observed, "is significantly more op- countries of our region." neighbors. pressive and volatile than it was five Christians everywhere stand op- "Can the international community years ago" when the contact group first posed to terror and evil, and in south- afford to allow South Africa to con- formed . He concluded that the situation ern Africa, the horrors of war—and tinue to flout all norms of civilized con- in Namibia now constituted a threat to deliberate attempts to prolong war and duct in this fashion?" he asked the international peace, and demanded that suffering—are the result of the injus- world body . "For how much longer the Security Council resume its central tices and evils of apartheid . As Chris- must the Namibian people endure un- role "in the negotiations ." tians, how shall we reply to the pleas of told sufferings? What else must be al- the Namibian people? How shall we re- lowed to happen, and at what price to spond to the growing international de- the Namibian patriots, for the United mand that our elected officials end their Nations to bring the full weight of its support for South Africa and join in legal, moral and political authority to bringing free elections, independence bear on the racist, illegal regime of and peace to that injured land .

Load more