THE LAWYERS' COMMITTEE SOUTHERN Gay McDougall, Director FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW A Special Report: • AFRICA Isabelle Gunning, Att'y 1400 'Eye' Street, N.W. ",PROJECT Mary Rayner, Int. Washington, D.C. 20005 Southern Africa (202) 371-1212

Edited By: Peggy Cox & Mary Rayner • January 1986 • Special Report No.4

Judge Nathaniel R. Jones Serves as International Legal Observer at South African Treason Trial of 16 United Democratic Front Members; Witnesses Impact of Emergency Rule

Since 1979 the charge 0 f treason has become a significant observer on behalf ofthe Lawyers' Committee at the pre-trial weapon used by the South African authorities to criminalize proceedings held this past August, in connection with an ef­ the activities of its opponents. This year some 52 people are fort to dismiss the indictment for treason against the sixteen facing trial for high treason, among them many prominent defendants. The hearings were heard in the South African leaders of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF). Supreme Court (Natal Provincial Division) in Pietermaritz­ The Lawyers' Committee has been closely involved in one of burg on August 5, 6, 7 and 12. these trials, State vs. Mewa Ramgobin & 15 Others, which Reprinted below are highlights from Judge Jones' report grew out of the protests surrounding the imposition of the to the Lawyers' Committee setting out the background and new discriminatory constitution in 1984. The trial and its context of the indictment; his observations of the trial pro­ potentially serious outcome for the defendants-treason is ceedings; and his visit to the where he witness­ a capital offense in -as well as its enormous ed the impact of the recent imposition of emergency rule. costs both personally and financially for all concerned, are Judge Jones presented his report in summary form to the indicative of the significance of this ideological weapon be­ United Nations Special Committee Against on ing used to crush democratic opposition inside South Africa. October 15, 1985. Accordingly, the Lawyers' Committee invited the Honorable Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, of the United States Gay McDougall, Director Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, to serve as a legal Southern Africa Project

The Treason Charges theless, throughout the campaign, police repression was con­ stant. Activists were harassed and assaulted, pamphlets and peti­ Background tion forms were confiscated, and canvassers were arrested. "The accused are members ofone ofthe most important op­ UDF-sponsored meetings in a number of areas were banned, position groups in South Africa, the United Democratic Front and rallies were sometimes violently broken up by the police. (UDF), [and four of its affiliated organizations, the South On the election days themselves police used tear gas and batons African Allied Workers' Union (SAAWU), the Natal Indian against demonstrators as well as journalists covering the event. Congress (NIC), the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), and the "On August 21, the eve of the elections, the South African Release Mandela Committee (RMC)]. The UDF was organized Security Police arrested [eight] leading members ofthe UDF .... in 1983 to coordinate opposition to the new constitution intro­ "Other prominent members of the UDF were swept up in duced by the ruling white Nationalist Party. The proposed new police raids on February 19, 1985. The security police searched system ofgovernment gave limited participation rights to South the homes and offices ofUDF members and affiliates, and con­ Africa's Indian and Colored (mixed-race) population but con­ fiscated documents and records. Other arrests were carried out tinued to exclude from participation the 73 percent black ma­ later that month. By then eight more individuals had been jority. A continued white monopolization of power was charged with treason ...." guaranteed through the ethnically separate, tricameral parliamentary structure and through the nature of the new ex­ The Indictment ecutive presidency. "The indictment consisted of587 pages in three volumes. The "The UDF spearheaded a boycott of the tricameral parlia­ State alleged that the defendants had over the past four years mentary elections scheduled for August 22 and 28, 1984. The acted to further the aims of a number of banned organizations tactics employed by the UDF were peaceful and open. Never- (continued next page)

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a private tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to securing total acceptance of the concept that all Americans are entitled to equal rights under law and that lawyers carry out their responsibilities to help solve serious modern problems through processes of the law. The Committee was formed in 1963 at the request of the President of the United States. to "overthrow the State" and were accordingly guilty of high ted must have occurred under the same circumstances in order treason. The offense of high treason carries a possible death for joinder to be proper." penalty. As alternatives to the main count of common law "In another phase of the attack on the indictment, Mr. treason, the defendants were charged with a number ofstatutory Mahomed characterized the theory of the government as at­ offenses. Count 1 charged all sixteen of the accused with ter­ tempting to base a conspiracy merely on a similarity ofgoals and rorism. Count 2 charged several accused with participation in objectives of the United Democratic Front and of outlawed terrorist activities. Count 3 charged all the accused with the per­ organizations concerning the new Constitution. In challenging formance of acts calculated to further the objectives of the that position, Mr. Mahomed interjected the doctrine of "distinc­ unlawful organizations, the African National Congress (ANC) tiveness." He argued that merely because the UDF called for and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Count 4 goals that coincided with calls ofthe outlawed African National charged several accused with the performance ofacts calculated Congress, the Communist Party or the Committee to Free to achieve communism, and Count 5 charged several accused Mandela, does not, in and of itself, constitute a conspiracy be­ with the performance ofacts calculated to achieve the objectives tween those organizations or members thereof. It first must be of the ANC. shown that such an objective, cited as illegal, was a "distinc­ "The main charge oftreason concerns an alleged conspiracy tive" feature of the outlawed organization. He then went on to between the defendants and a number of banned organiza­ suggest that many organizations and individuals across a broad tions ... , [with t]he indictment alleg[ing] that the object of the spectrum share the objectives of urging an end to apartheid or conspiracy was to further the aims of an alleged organization, freeing . the "Revolutionary Alliance," formed between the banned "For three days Mr. Mahomed made his arguments against ANC and SACP, together with the South African Congress of the indictment and in support of the defendants' contention that Trade Unions (SACTU). The term "Revolutionary Alliance" the motion to dismiss should be granted. The defense team was coined by the State in the indictment. argued against the logic, reasoning, explanations and justifica­ "It should be emphasized that no organization called the tions advanced in each response made by the government in its "RevolutionaryAlliance" exists in South Africa. Nevertheless, filing. [However, not knowing what the state proposed to do the indictment is directed primarily to acts and purposes of this with the alternative counts, Mr. Mahomed could not formally non-existent group." rest defendants' case.] Court Proceedings "Following a six-day adjournment, the state argued in op­ "The hearing on the motion of the defendants to have the in­ position to the motion to dismiss the indictment. Basically, the dictment dismissed commenced on the morning of Monday, government insisted that the indictment and response suffici­ August 5, 1985, in the Supreme Court ofNatal Province before ently informed the defendants ofthe charges and met all require­ Justice [John] Milne. These proceedings consisted of oral ments. Further, the state asserted that it was to the advantage arguments by the defendants' legal team headed by Ismail ofthe defendants for the charges to be joined in a single indict­ Mahomed, one of two black Senior Advocates in South ment and tried together to protect them from a retrial in the Africa. . .. This hearing, according to a number of legal event ofan acquittal. Ifthe charges were separated, some defen­ observers, had enormous significance because it afforded an op­ dants would face successive trials, according to the state." portunity for the defendants to test seriously the allegations in The Decision the 600-page indictment . "At the conclusion ofthe state's case, the court took the mat­ "Advocate Mohamed launched his attack on the indict- ter under advisement. ... On Monday, September 2, 1985, ment by outlining three primary objections: Justice Milne handed down his decision. • Misjoinder of the various defendants in the treason conspirary "Justice Milne found that the joinder ofall the accused in one count. indictment for treason was permissible. The practice of charg­ • Exceptability-uncertainty as to the offenses against which the ing a series of acts as one offense is well established in South defendants would have to defend, African law where the acts were.committed in pursuit of one overall plan or design, albeit by aifferent accused at different • Lack of particulars. times over a period of time. The same rule permitted the joinder "He argued that ifthe misjoinder objection was well found­ of multiple defendants in each of the alternative counts. The ed the court should instruct the state to elect to "make it right" combination and interrelation ofthe separate counts was found by amendment or if amendments could not cure the defects, impermissible, however, because the counts involved different dismissal of the flawed charges. In such an event some of the charges and widely differing periods of time and places of the defendants could possibly be dismissed. alleged acts. "With regard to the conspirary count ofTreason that named "To cure the misjoinder, the prosecutor must elect which of all 16 defendants, Advocate Mahomed argued that misjoinder the accused he will proceed against on each charge. The charge is an irregularity that must be dealt with at this preliminary stage will be valid against the accused elected, and the others must be because the law treats proper joinder as an unequivocal require­ dismissed from the charge. The Justice instructed the prosecu­ ment. It was contended that the treason count lumped together tion to elect either to proceed on the main count ofcommon law defendants who were accused of committing different acts at treason and alternative Counts I and 3, or to proceed only with different times with no showing of common purpose or the re­ Count 2, or only Count 4, or only Count 5 (described above). quisite "hostile intent." The acts alleged to have been commit- (continued next page)

SA-2 "Next, the Justice explained that there is judicial authority how the government can go forward with a trial of the sixteen stating that advocating an objective that has also been advocated under these circumstances." by an outlawed organization is not, by itself, punishable under the applicable law ofSouth Africa. He suggested that there must be a finding of improper motive or mens rea. Otherwise, any State of Emergency: respected public figure who publicly said he believed Mandela Effect on should be released immediately and unconditionally and that he Black Townships believed this would result in lasting peace could be prosecuted for advocating a known aim of the ANC..... The Eastern Cape Crucible "The Justice did not accept wholly the defense's "distinctive­ "Nowhere in South Africa does one gain a keener insight into ness" theory, but did quote approvingly from an opinion stating the resistance to apartheid than in the eastern Cape area. I had that no objective can be deemed to be an objective of an out­ listened to the legal arguments ofAdvocate Mohamed in his at­ lawed organization unless it is distinctive of that particular tack on the treason and terrorism indictment. To fully under­ organization to a degree sufficient to identify the objective of stand them, one had to go to a place like the eastern Cape ... for the organization. In addition, the Justice discussed a recent case there a clash was occurring between the matrix of laws known in which it was explained that South African law does not as apartheid and the determination ofnon-white people to resist penalize a person or group for having the same aims as the ANC these laws. In response to these challenges, the government has or trying to achieve these aims as long as their actions taken are, reinforced its already ample powers with a declaration ofa State unlike those of the ANC, performed in a way that could not be of Emergency. Much of the [eastern] Cape area was blanketed considered as endangering public safety. Justice Milne noted by the Emergency Order.... The police and military authorities, that the term "distinctive" has no absolute meaning, and that using emergency power, rounded up political activists and it was not clear how the state might have understood it, so he clergymen, detained them apart from the populace, interrogated would not rule on the matter at that stage.... .them for days on end, during which torture and beatings in the "The Justice rejected the prosecution's contention that prac­ interrogation rooms of the jails and prisons occurred .... Disap­ tical problems of proof will arise as to what the aims of an pearances and detentions of activists, combined with official acts outlawed group are, whether certain acts were calculated to fur­ ofviolence against residents who were politically non­ ther these aims, and which aims are similar to the outlawed involved, reinforce the reign of terror." group's aims. The Justice stated that, although these matters [The following is based upon encounters Judge Jones had with may present such practical problems, that difficulty cannot in­ township residents, whose stories he brought back with him in fluence the court's intepretation ofthe legal requirements ofan the form of sworn affidavits.] indictment under the statute. A Reign of Terror on the Streets [On September 18, the prosecution did concede that, in addition "Sometime before 7:00 a. m. on the morning ofJuly 30, Mrs. to proving the commission of a particular act alleged to objec­ tively further the aims of the ANC, it was incumbent upon the Qomoyi, aged 59, lay in bed with the flu. One of her daughters State to prove a subjective mens rea with respect to that particular and six grandchildren were in the room with her. [Then, said act.] Mrs. Qomoyi:] "Regarding the defense request for further particulars, Justice A white policeman unknown to me entered the room. He Milne ordered the prosecution to furnish additional particulars said to me "why didn't you come outside when called." for some charges, suggested revisions to clarify satisfactorily I said "who called me." He said "you ask" and hit me some vague allegations, and found that some allegations were with a long sjambok (whip) across the back and then so defective that they must be dismissed. [Numerous examples across the face. I jumped up and grabbed the whip. We are cited in Judge Jones' report.] struggled. Another group of policemen came up, threw me "Some allegations were too defective to be amended, accord­ on the floor, and kicked me on the head and arms. They ing to Justice Milne. For example, he stated that "no reasonable walked away. man could infer" from the fact that certain accused were jointly Only later did Mrs. Qomoyi learn that she had not heard the responsible for publishing writings about Nelson Mandela and police call on their 'loud-hailers' for the residents to come out­ that those accused''were joining a conspiracy side and clean the streets. to overthrow the government by violent or other unlawful "Marina, Mrs. Qomoyi's 24-year-old daughter, was 8Yz means ...." months pregnant at the time ... [T] hat morning ...disturbed by [On September 18, at a further pre-trial hearing, the prosecu­ the sound of the children screaming [she] investigated and tion elected to proceed with the main count and alternate Counts discovered that the police were whipping and beating her I and 3, that is, with a charge of terrorism under the Internal mother. Security Act, No. 74 of 1982, sec. 54(1), and a charge offurther­ ing the aims of a banned organization under section 13 of the My mother was sprawled on the floor at the time I entered same Act.] the room. I then intervened and ...they turned on me and "Since my visit, initiatives have been taken by leading South beat me in the same way they beat my mother. African businessmen to establish dialogue with exiled leaders The police beat Marina across her back and her abdomen with of the ANC. This presents the government with a clear anomaly. sjamboks. Mrs. Qomoyi reported that her daughter's "stomach The sixteen defendants are charged with acts no more calculated bled and her dress showed the blood stains." to further the aims of the ANC than these dialogues. It is unclear (continued next page)

SA-3 [Mrs. Qomoyi and Marina were taken to a police station. They "Rensburg said this questioning lasted for at least 1J;2 hours were kept in a back room for three hours and were neither charg­ after which a Sergeant arrived .... ed, nor given food or water or medical attention. Eventually they were released without explanation.] He hit me in the face with his fist. One of the blows hit me on the nose. I bled profusely with blood splashing on "On July 22, three security policemen arrived at the home of the walls and floor. He strangled me with a rope. I was Mrs. Annie Gilbert. One policeman, known as Bokkie, searched gagging. Then he released me and ordered me to clean up Mrs. Gilbert's house and then asked for the key to an outside the blood. room that the Gilberts rent to tenants. The room was locked because the tenants were away at work. [Mrs. Gilbert's 20-year­ "As cruelly as he was treated, Rensburg reported that other old son George verbally intervened to try and stop Bokkie from fellow detainees fared much worse. For example, Dennis Neer, knocking down the door with a hammer] ...Bokkie grew angry organizing secretary of the Motor Assembly and Component and warned George not to argue, because "Botha has said we Workers' , was taken from his cell for can kill you like flies." After forcing open the door to the room interrogation and later returned with visible facial and wrist and searching it ... Bokkie asked George his name and his bruises resulting from the 'helicopter' treatment at the hands workplace. The policeman then left, after stating 'I will come of his interrogators. The 'helicopter' is a torture tactic in which back, I am not finished.' one's hands are handcuffed behind the knees, a rod is inserted between the hands and knees, elevated and suspended from two "As Bokkie and the other policemen drove offin their hippo ledges or surfaces. As the person is spun around the rod, the (armored military vehicle), Mrs. Gilbert told her children to keep handcuffs tighten, stripping skin and muscle from the wrist. In out of sight. Neer's case, according to Rensburg, the rod broke, causing him George went to a house three doors away. As George to smash, face first onto the floor .... Another torture tactic was entered the grounds, I saw Bokkie in the yard ofthe house the application of electric bolts upon the exposed bodies of de­ three doors further away. He lifted his rifle, aimed at tainees. The burn marks on Rensburg were clearly visible." George, and fired one shot which I heard. George called out in pain, grasped his waist, sagged a Disappearances little, and staggered around the house and into the kitchen. "When politically active organizers 'disappeared' the police I ran towards the house but Bokkie told me to stand still, and security forces were thought to do little more than simulate because I was also on the list. investigations .... Bokkie dragged George from the house, face down, and threw "My conversation[s with the families of the disappeared] him into the hippo with the help of three other policemen. Mrs. vividly transformed the issues of disappearances from a word Gilbert then saw that her eighteen-year-old son James was also to a painful reality. in the hippo. When Mrs. Gilbert gave us her affidavit nineteen days later, she had neither heard from James nor learned ofhim was a rural organizer for the UDF in his from the police ...." home town of Cradock. The Washington Post has described Goniwe as one of South Africa's 'most effective political Detentions organizers.' On May 8 of this year he disappeared. That eve­ "[T]he horrors surrounding detentions and the conditions of ning Goniwe and three other black leaders had left a United confinement were graphically described to me by a young phar­ Democratic Front meeting in and climbed into macist ...Ihron Lester Rensburg .... He had been detained by Goniwe's Honda sedan for the 120-mile drive to Cradock. Mrs. security officers on July 22, 1985, and held for thirteen days. Goniwe stated that the trio was urged by friends to delay their He told of being taken from his home late at night without ex­ trip until the next morning. They responded that they would stop planation. 'They merely told me to get dressed and get moving.' only if faced with a police roadblock. They departed at approx­ Taken to the Algoa Park Police Station, he was brought together imately 9: 10 p.m. Goniwe's car was found the next day behind with others who were being similarly rounded up from the 'col­ a sand dune near the highway to Cradock, thoroughly burned. oured areas.' They were transferred to St. Alban's prison. During the next four days, four charred and mutilated corpses Within a period ofa day or so, Rensburg reported, the detainees were discovered. The Legal Resources Centre in totaled approximately 600 .... arranged, on behalf ofthe families, for the autopsies to be con­ We were kept in three sections in the prison-with approx­ ducted and the car examined. The bodies were identifed as those of Goniwe and his three companions, Sicelo Mhlawuli, Fort imately 30 detainees per cell. Of the 600 there was about Calata and .... 70 kids ranging in age from 10 to 14 years. A most strik­ ing fact to me was that ofthe 600 arrested about 400 were picked up off the streets in a random fashion while 200 [The following are excerpts from the pathologists' reports, taken were taken from their homes, as I had been. from Judge Jones' Report to the UN, p. 11.] Families ofthe 400 did not know their whereabouts and the press was not permitted to report on their arrests until the Commis­ SPARROW MKHONTO -Age 32 sioner of Police officially released names." Death due to multiple injuries, the most significant being a gun­ shot wound to the head and two stab wounds through the heart. [Rensburg was taken to the Louis LeGrange Police Station for interrogation three days later, where he was questioned about Body burned after death. his family, his associates, and later on his political orientation and activities.] (continued next page) SA-4 -Age 29 Concluding Remarks Cause of death was stab wounds to the chest-involving the "As I reflect on the mission I undertook, my mind returns heart and the pulmonary veins. Several weapons used. repeatedly to the 16 defendants in the South Mrican courtroom. Body burned after death. Their acts and deeds consist of nothing more than speaking out SICELO MHLAWULI-Age 36 against a fundamental evil. Right hand "clearly amputated" above the right wrist. Multiple "My mind goes back to the courtroom where an earnest and stab wounds. Right jugular vein has been severed. Twenty-five decent judge grappled with the law-within the limited authority stab wounds over the right trunk; seven stab wounds over the the system accords the judiciary-in an effort to do justice and upper back caused by a variety of weapons. realizing how impossible that is under the laws now in effect in Body burned after death. South Africa. "My mind also returns not only to the numerous persons with MATTHEW GONIWE-Age 38 whom I spoke in the various townships, but also to the 4,591 Immediate cause of death was stab wound to the heart. [as of mid-September, 1985] persons jailed since July 21, and Body burned after death. to the hundreds ofpersons killed and wounded. These statistics have come to represent to me much more than cold numbers on "The bodies ofthe four men were retrieved and buried beneath a page. With each of these numbers I now see a face and hear white wooden crosses on an open plain outside Cradock .... a voice. I also see a wife-a husband-a father-a mother-a son-a daughter-and I see tears. In short, I see courageous and "Although Cradock in the eastern Cape area was a long way determined human beings 'yearning to breathe free.' from , I was painfully aware of the connection "Until apartheid ends, and legal and political rights exist for between the indictment for treason against the 16 defendants each of these persons, they will never breathe free." and the graves I visited early one morning of Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlawuli, Fort Caleta and Sparrow Mkhonto.~'

"It was just a few feet from these graves, in front ofthe home Judge Jones Arrested of Angelina, where women and children gathered in the early in the Eastern Cape morning hours to greet our party-and to express their emotions in a song, 'Oh Lord, this burden is so heavy, don't know how On his way to King Williams Town to attend Victoria much more I can bear.' " Mxenge's funeral, Judge Jones and his four guides were arrested by 20 to 30 heavily armed riot police. Arrested on the grounds that they had unlawfully entered a black township, which had been placed under emergency rule several days previously, Judge Jones and his party were taken to a police station. As Judge Jones noted in his Assassination of Attorney report: We were questioned, fingerprinted and charged with a violation ofthe Emergency Order. Summonses to On August 1st, 1985, Mrs. Victoria Mxenge, a member appear in court the following Monday morning ofthe defense team in the Pietermaritzburg treason trial, (August 12) were issued .... The charge carried a was brutally murdered outside her home in the fine of 10,000 Rand and 10 years in prison. Follow­ township of Umlazi. As requested by the Lawyers' Com­ ing the prompt intervention of the United States mittee, Judge Jones visited Mrs. Mxenge's family to ex­ Consul General's office, Justice Milne, the Natal At­ press the Committee's condolences. Her husband, Grif­ torney General Michael Imber and the Cape Provin­ fiths Mxenge who had been a correspondent attorney with cial Attorney General Edward Heller, the charge the Lawyers' Committee, had been assassinated nearly against me was dismissed. The United States State five years earlier. Judge Jones attended Mrs. Mxenge's Department responded to a request ofthe Lawyers' funeral, which was held on August 11 outside King Committee to follow up by urging that the charges William's Town in the eastern Cape. Some 30,000 people pending against the four South Africans also be attended. After five hours ofsongs, speeches and messages dismissed. This was done. of condolences from across the country, Mrs. Mxenge's Judge Jones concludes with the comment that "the coffin, carried on the shoulders ofblack youths, was taken whole episode provided an invaluable education on the ar­ to the gravesite. At the funeral, speaker after speaker ex­ bitrariness of the South African legal system. One need pressed the widespread sentiment that Victoria Mxenge not exert much effort to become ensnarled in the tangled had been assassinated by a state-sponsored "death web of apartheid laws." squad."

SA-5 Prosecution Withdraws Charges Against Twelve Defendants in UDF Treason Trial: Trial of Four Others to Resume

Charges against twelve of the defendants in the United appreciation of the sixteen defendants and of the members of Democratic Front (UDF) treason trial were withdrawn by the the defense team for the strong support they have received from prosecution December 9, 1985 in the Supreme Court in Pieter­ the American people. They believe that this support and sur­ maritzburg, South Africa. The weakness ofthe evidence for the rounding publicity facilitated the favorable, if interim, outcome State's allegation concerning the existence ofa treasonable con­ of the trial. spiracy among leaders ofthe UDF and four affiliated organiza­ Throughout the long ordeal ofthe treason trial, the Lawyers' tions had been exposed during several weeks of cross­ Committee has been actively involved, contributing toward the examination of its expert witnesses. Its case completely cost of defending the sixteen accused, in addition to sending unravelled when the prosecution's main expert witness, Isaak Judge Jones as an international legal observer to the pre-trial de Vries, was forced to concede that he had formed no final proceedings. The Lawyers' Committee will continue to be in­ opinion on the intentions or commitment to violence of the volved in the defense of the remaining four defendants. accused or their organizations. He admitted, furthermore, to Finally, and with great sadness, I note the tragic deaths of complete confusion regarding his exact role in giving evidence. MoUy Blackburn and Brian Bishop, two people who had Faced with these damaging admissions and after consulta­ generously assisted Judge Jones during his visit to the eastern tion with the defense team, the prosecution agreed to withdraw Cape in South Africa last August. They died on Saturday, charges against twelve of the accused. Charges remain, though, December 27th, when their car, according to police reports, col­ against four ofthe original defendants: Thozamile Gqweta, Sisa lided head on with another vehicle. Judith Chalmers, Mrs. Njikelana, Isaac Ngcobo and Sam Kikine, all members of the Blackburn's sister, and Mr. Bishop's wife Diane, were injured South African Allied Workers' Union (SAAWU), an affiliate in the collision. Mrs. Blackburn and the Bishops had acted as of the UDF. Their trial resumes on February 3, 1986. escorts for Judge Jones and were arrested with him on August Although twelve ofthe defendants have been acquitted, they 12 by South African security forces. During the past year they and their four fellow defendants still standing trial have passed had sought to document and publicize widely information on the last ten to sixteen months either in jail or living under bail police and military abuses in the occupied townships of the terms which amount to house arrest. They have been unable eastern Cape. They were returning from one such fact-finding to engage in any kind of political activity. Furthermore, an mission in a township outside Port Elizabeth on the night of enormous amount of financial and human resources has been the 27th when the accident occurred. In recent months Mrs. expended in response to the government's use of the charge of Blackburn had been subjected frequently to telephoned death treason as a weapon against democratic opposition within the threats from anonymous callers, and the Bishops had had their country. home and car petrol-bombed. In discussions with the defense lawyers following the court Gay McDougall, Director decision on Monday the 9th, I was asked to convey the deep Southern African Project

Project Releases Memorandum Documenting Alarming Reports of Police Brutality in South Africa

A Memorandum released November 13, 1985 by the Southern Soobader, having been detained himself, recalled seeing his son Africa Project ofthe Lawyers' Committee documents its receipt Yunis of alarming reports on the systematic abuse and torture of de­ lying on his bed (in the cell) sweating profusely. He was tainees in South Africa. Most ofthe more than 7,500 people de­ disoriented and did not recognize me at first. I can best tained during 1985 were arrested following the July 21st imposi­ describe his expression as "wild." He was largely in­ tion of Emergency Rule-I,150 continue to be held, many in coherent, and was in obvious physical pain and it was clear secret detention camps and under emergency rule regulations; to me that he was in a very disturbed mental condition .... and 166 are charged under Section 29 of the 1982 Internal Secu­ I spoke to my son and all he was able to tell me was that rity Act, allowing for indefinite, incommunicado detention for he had had "a rough time," and he said "I can'ttake it." purposes of interrogation. Excluded from these figures are the Attached to the Memorandum were numerous affadavits detail­ hundreds of individuals detained without charge or trial in the ing the experiences of others tortured in detention. so-called "homelands." The Memorandum called for the exertion of pressure on the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch to condemn police Assistance is currently being provided by the Southern Africa brutality against detainees, to demand a full investigation into Project in a matter involving an urgent application filed by a . allegations oftorture and to demand the unconditional release father on behalf of his two sons, Yunis and Rieaz Soobader, of all political prisoners. (Copies of the Memorandum can be both of whom are being held under Section 29 in Durban. Mr. obtained by writing the Southern Africa Project.) SA-6