-E EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUTHERN AFRICA ­ 339 Lafayette-Street, New York, N.Y. 10012-2725 . C. (212) 4n-006£· .' S .-- . A Ivan Peter Toms-was born in Germiston, Transvaal Province, South Africa on . 11 July 1952 He is a medical doctor, a graduate in 1976 of the University of Cape Town He is at present studying part-time toward a bachelor's degree in Theology. Dr Toms is medical director of Empilisweni clinic in the Crossroads settle­ ment. This 10-year~old squatter community Which has been a thorn in the flesh to the apartheid authorities from its beginning. The peoples' stead­ fastness is now'under assault from Pretoria's 'vigilantes'. It one stroke the South African regime is able to remove unwanted black men, women and children living virtually within the shadow of Parliament in Cape Town and to promote for world consumption that the struggle in South Africa is now 'black against black I.. Empilisweni was founded in June 1980. Ivan Toms was a founder and was for three years the only doctor. The clinic~ sponsored by the South African Christ.ian Leadership Assembly, has three full-time and one half-time doc­ tor and a total staff of .29. The facility treats 177 medical and 50 dental patients each year. , _ Empilisweni is administered oy eight people chosen by the .Crossroads commun­ ity patients. This clinic committee hires staff, decides on goals, objectives and budget. Ivan Toms is an executive of the South African draft resistance movement, the End Conscription Campaign. .In the present State of Emergency all ECC members countrywide, men and women, have either been detained incommunicado or are in hiding .. Dr Toms is on the board of the Anglican Church's Board of Social Responsi­ bility. He was an American Field Service exchange student in 1970-71 in Madison, Connecticut. When he returns to South Africa - probably on 30 June, Ivan Toms is certain . to be detained by Pretoria's security police. He will disappear into the maw of the police state to join thousands OI other South Africans who have in anyway evinced their oppos~_~~3 the apartheid regime. E .EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUrHERN AFRICA 339 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. 10012·2725 C (212) 477-0066 S A 25 June 1986 Charles Z. Wick, director, United States Information Agency Washington, DC 20547 Dear· Mr Wick: . '.' I write about one of your guests from South Africa invited to tour this country udder the auspices of the International·Visitor Program of the United States Information Agency. He is Dr Ivan Toms who leaves New York today to return home .. Dr Toms is medical director of Empilisweni clinic which ~s sponsor~d· by the South-African Christian Leadership Assembly at the Crossroads settlement outside Cape Town .. Dr Toms is also an executive of the End Conscription Campaign, the association of South African draft resisters. On ·both counts Dr Toms faces almost certain detention· when he arrives in South Africa. Crossroads has been the scene of bloody assaults by Pretoria-organized and -led vigilantes to drive the settlement's over· 100,000 men, women and children out of their community which they.had built up in defiance of apartheid. Empilisweni clinic is community- . led and Dr Toms who was a .founder six years ago is regarded by Cross- roads dwellers as one of them. The South African authorities view. him therefore as an opponent. Pretoria has long seen members of the End Conscription Campaign as among its principal enemies and has repeatedly detained and brought to trial those who· refuse to serve in the Sc1Uth African Defence Force. Since the State of Emergency was imposed two weeks ago all ECC members have either been detained incommunicado or have gone into hiding.. Dr Toms is sure to be arrested when he reaches Johannesburg. We call on you to ex~~cise all energies of the USIA to protect this American guest. We look forward to hearing from you about these efforts and their results. .. - ',". : DAILY NEWS Friday, June 27, 1986. ;-:.: ;.;.,.: :':"':~': :.,.:.:.,.:.:.-.:.'.:.; . ~~. No doctors in South Mrica's bloody crossro~ds . I T'S NOT A CITY, a town, 01' e\'en a won't pose a threat and the conditIons Otherwise, I would be just another in Crossroads wasn't nearl~ as bad as in village and so it has no real name. they live in won't become an issue. To white in South Arica exploiting blacks." the homelands (where ~~ of the kids I It's just a place in South Africa earn a living, the men get passes to So Dr. Toms took his expertise and suffer) and he said the inf nt mortality that's come to be known as Crossroads.. work in the cities as migrants. But they went to Crossroads and established the rate wasn't as bad as the h melands'170 ·'It looks like this," Ivan Toms said. are required to leave their fainilies Empilisweni Sacla clinic. "It means a in 1,000. j , On a scrap of paper, he two drew lines behind. The men who work in the cities place where people are healed." Since the state of em~rgency, the ,;Ianted like tent-poles. At the bottom, live in hostels. Only rarely Wednesday, he was in only pictures of violencej the govern- he .drew another, smaller Ijne, straight can they travel to the home· . EARL New York telling the story ment has allowed to come:out of South across that connected the other two. lands and visit their of another horror being Africa have been from Cro~sroads. And "It's a triangle, about a mile, by a families, CALDWELL perpetrated in the country those pictures have shown horrible, mile, by about three-quarters of a mile," Crossroads was the men where he was born. On June bloody clashes of blacks against blacks. he said. "And in there you have 150,000 saying, hell no, to the pass 10, his clinic was closed. "But plainclothes co~s come In to 200,000 blacks living in tin shanties laws and the migrant work- "The military took over," ... they're like the front~nners and that are about four by five yards and er system. By the he said. Yesterday, Toms they've been involved in ireeling the they have families of six to eight peo- thousands, they got their was on his way home. "I'm attacks," Dr. Toms said. "S, metimes the pIe, tightly packed together like that. families and began to live as sure I won't be allowed to police use tear gas, prepar ng the way." And that's been going there since 197p." best they could right out· b k Cd' I' He said the attacks have 014er conserva· side Cape Town. The gov~ go ac to rossroa s. m tl've blacks on one side a1 the young Crossroads was never supposed to told th.... whole area Is sealed d happen. "That's why they have the pass ernmentdbrought b bulldozers off I'C e p t "that I'll be militants on the other. "It' really sad," laws; that's the reason for the whole an troops ut they were d' tai.d xtoec" he sal·d. "They have them 'l'ghting each llugrant. Ia bor system," Toms expI'amed.not dable F to 11destroy Cros·h e Cne o. d I th other for the little bit of ptwer, for th'"'" sroa S.· or years, t e rossroa s s more an ability to tax and reap the orruption." "They never want anyone to see these government tried,but Cros- just a place that sprang up I people." sroads survived, outside Cape Town. Dr. Toms said that ,FROM CROSSROADS" the squalid The pass laws restrict blacks to Ivan Toms is 32. He's short and bit what had the look of Just a forest of tiny place where no Jo~rnali8ts are black areas. For some, that means Iiv- stocky and has curly "lond hair. He's ~ tin ~ha~ks wall ~eally' a community. He, 1 , allq.wed'lan old strEltegY,diVJdi Ing in bl.a~k to~ris~ip~ ~f\df~r others, it tdoctor: .apd for five years he saw 'Cros- I , shid- s~flle .$~ac~.had,become shops and. '1 ~I)d,ruJ~ha~ DJ!~n brovJ:h1 b~c~ ~ ~~ I I means Ihhhg In the eVf!rl mor~ rethote srdlid!l from a distance. "But I had to do others, offices and that in a way; a U yeats dr defiance by me,n who'slOo homelands. It's a s~'stem designed to something; as a Christian, I had to be whole structure f!>r.llvlng had been put up to apartheid and fOUghtror the right keep blacks so far from whites, they involved In bringing about change. in place. He said the malnutrition rate to live family life. J~~,..!'.:"'!::"o' '·~ ..\Jlr~:;.:P!~:' q 1fj;.'...~_:~~ .~~ ~ :,' ".-:;:,,~h~:g.~~~~~:.' '~':.~':~~<~ .'>~. -. ~~' '.~.~ :.. ~~~~:'._ •.:-.~.• ~~.~:~.--_~"~"'~:"_~'.: . ~••-.~',.~~.-- ',_ . :;,~.>~!': ,.,~,;'" ~<;... ." ., '" HE-~ . REALITY...,~... ... .'": ..., OF .. (",.: :.. ...... - . - CROSSROADS ., "..:. 1. WE BELIEVE THAT WHAT y,OU HAvE HEARD AND .READ ABOUT THE CROSSROADS CRISIS IS A DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH~ ~ . 7 ....-. U- ", .. ~. '\' t·,...., . " . The picture which has been presented to the pubiic, through the media of the press and 'SABC television and radio, has been one in which the conflict within the Crossroads community is portrayed as little more than a faction fight. The situation is far more complex than this, however, as there are divisions within the community along lines of power structures, all imposed from above by state policies. The state, in the form of the security forces, have been presente~ as an impartial peace-keeping force.