RELIGIOUS ACTION NETWORK for justice and peace in southern Africa a project of the American Committee on Africa ONE MORE MASSACRE by Aleah Bacquie "It seemed so absolutely unnecessary. If this is a taste of things to come, then God help us all." -John Hall, Chairperson Peace Committee God help us all indeed. Soldiers firing on unarmed peaceful demonstrators with no warning whatsoever is nothing new under the South African sun. (It was only last month that I wrote to you about the Boipatong Massacre.) Now, twenty-eight more are dead, 200 more wounded. The only fresh, but twisted slant comes from the "Gorbachevian" De Kierk, escort of the "New South Africa". You know the appalling statistics by now, nearly 8,000 people dead due to political violence since the "reformist" De Klerk began his bloody reign of terror, with tens of thousands more wounded, driven from their homes, gripped by hopelessness and fear. Complete denial of any South African governmental responsibility was expected, even though the soldiers who fired were under the command of a South African Defense Force Brigadier on loan to the "bantustan" Ciskei government. The South African government has long contended that the Black "bantustans" are independent governments, although they are not recognized by any other government, including the U.S. However, with hard evidence of government complicity mounting, De Klerk tried a new tactic, blaming the victim. He somehow mustered the gall to assert that the massacre of ANC supporters is the fault of the ANC! According to this disturbed logic, those Blacks who dared to exercise their right of peaceful assembly and protest are to blame because they should have known that Pretoria's puppet, Oupa Gqozo, would fire on the marchers. The U.S State Department Spokesperson Richard Boucher, chimed in on cue with a statement that "those who prompted the demonstration should carefully reconsider future actions.. .that expose innocent supporters to violence." Of course this analysis is not new to US civil rights veterans who were themselves blamed for the dogs, water hoses, batons, bullets, and nooses that were used on them when exercising similar rights. I urge you to send a telegram to both George Bush and Bill Clinton and urge them to speak out publicly against the continuing slaughter in South Africa. Ask them to openly endorse Senate Resolution 301 which addresses the violence in South Africa. Encourage them to do everything in their power to STOP APARTHIED'S VIOLENCE and support South Africa's people in their struggle for one-person, one vote democracy in a non-racial, non sexist unified South Africa. George Bush Bill Clinton 1030 15th Street N.W. Corner Third and Louisiana Washington, D.C. 20005 Little Rock, AK 72201 FAX (202) 336-7954 FAX (501) 372-2292 198 Broadway * Now York, N.Y. 10038 * (212) 962-1210 William H. Booth. President Wyatt Tee Walker. Vice President David Scott. Vice President Jennifer Davis. Executive Director W THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1992 Democracy vs. Dictat6r in Apartheid's 'Homeland' By BILL KELLER Specialto The NewYork Times BISHO, South Africa, Sept. 9 - The make-believe country of Ciskei has a shiny "international" airport capable of landing a Boeing 747, in case one ever attempts to visit this curious fig ment of apartheid. It has. 846,000 inhabitants who were not consulted in 1981 when they were stripped of their South African citizen ship and gerrymandered into one of 10 tribal homelands to protect white con BOPHUTHATSWANA of honoelad trol of the wealthy remainder of the of homeland country. o f1us Ciskei has a foreign service with a AFRICASOUTH " single ambassadorial posting, to the Te en p Fort a muhtedoe only country that recognizes its sover eignty, South Africa. IWillis Vm' It has its capital here, a miniature pastel metropolis with a three-block downtown, a hotel-casino complex where South Africans can enjoy the blackjack tables The New York Times forbidden a mile away South Africa is struggling to fit homelands like Ciskei, where at least 28 in their own country, .and high-walled people were killed Monday, into the eventual post-apartheid order. compounds where government minis ters and business executives dwell in luxurious isolation from Ciskei's But as the brigadier served bloody that the brigadier's position is wobbly. wretched poverty. notice on Monday, there is explosive Following the Ciskei killings, the Af It has its own development bank, its disagreement about where these home rican National Congress staged an un own army and its own diminutive mili lands fit in the post-apartheid order. eventful march today against the tiny tary dictator, Brigadier Oupa J. Gqozo, The African National Congress de homeland of Qwa Qwa, which is about who boils with rage -when he is ridi mands that homeland leaders it re 200 miles south of Johannesburg, on the culed as a puppet of South Africa. gards as inimical to democracy be northern border of Lesotho. replaced by impartial caretakers until More ominously, its leaders said "I need some help to make the world elections can be held. The South Afri they were contemplating action realize that I am a very serious lead can Government insists it is "not in the against KwaZulu, the Zulu homeland er," Brigadier Gqozo pleaded during business of replacing governments," and the domain of the A.N.C.'s bitterest an interview last Friday. as a spokesman put it. and most powerful black political rival, Three days later his army fired a The killings left Ciskei extremely Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi. Sseemingly interminable machine-gun volatile. Police and soldiers conducted door-to-door fusillade at searches today, and were protesters marching on his said to be arresting and beating partic The Clearest Border: capital, killing at least 28 and convinc ipants in Monday's ing many that march. In the Cis if he, is not a serious keian townships southwest of Bisho, Where the Poor Are leader, he is at least part of a serious residents burned the homes of Ciskei problem. soldiers. A visitor driving through the rolling Having manufactured these mock It was no surprise that the congress pasture and voluptuous mountains of states, entrenched their rulers in posi chose Ciskei for Monday's march, Ciskei finds no border posts to mark tions of power and small-time luxury which was aimed explicitly at toppling the frequent passage across the "inter and employed them as surrogates to Brigadier Gqozo. The region, where the national" border with South Africa. Xhosa and the British fought their fron But the boundaries are easily de divide the black political opposition, tier wars in the 19th century, is one of duced from the standard of living. The South Africa now seeks to undo the the congress's most militant strong cozy 19th-century English colonial experiment by reunifying its territory. holds, and there have been many signs towns, Queenstown, Fort Beaufort, Supporting African freedom and independence since 1953 - Established The Africa Fund. 1966 King William's Town, are in South Af Bisho, 50 heavily armed troops gath him paranoid." I rica. The sprawling townships and the ered outside while their commander Mr. Hugo, whose account is backedl barren rural settlements, Zwelitsha, ordered the meeting dispersed. by other former intelligence officers, Thornhill - those are in Ciskei. The Since the legalization of the African said that the most audacious maneuver Indian Ocean >ortof East Londor is Natio-ial 2ongress in 1990, 'he ho.,ie was staging a phoiy coup attempt. He South Africa's shipb-tldiag center. The lands have acquired . new utility for said South Africaet agentb lured Cis neighboring slum of Mdantsane is Cis the white Government as political foils kei's former security chief, Charles kei. to tte a'ack ;iberation movemea. Sebs, back from exile in Transkei with The brigadier readily admits that in The homelands - four of them "in a promise that mutinous army officers o errs,' is iepabiic is any dependent," the other six "self govern would hand him the presidency. Mr.1 thing but independent. in7" - have g adut lly ta'er sides, ;cbe and a collaborator walked into the South Africa underwrites the budget some tilting to the A.N.C., others to the trap and were killed. that pays for the 30,000-member civil Government. service and its perks, including the According to Gert Hugo, a former The congress did its share to embit black bulletproof Range Rnver that the South African military intelflgence offi. ter the brigadier, making a mistake the brigadier favors and the fleet of Mer cer whc was Brigadier iqozo's intelli whites in Pretoria did not: they insult cedes preferred by his cabinet. South gence adviser for a year, until July ed his pride. Africa trained and equipped the armyI 1991, Ciskei has long been a covert After the brigadier dismissed strik - assisted by such a large contingent I battleground in the white Govern ing civil servants, the A.N.C. organized of Israelis that for a time the Pick 'ni ment's "divide and rule" approach. rallies where he was denounced in Pay supermarket in Biiho had .ko 'he strategy, he said, was to ,manipu scathing terms. Keith Mathee, a law sher section. l (etCiskei as a tuli'war%- against the yet who ferved as Brigadier Gqozo's South Africans - many retired or African National Congress, especially lfirst minister of justice, said the fum seconded from the 3oath African Gov in the neighboring "indepeiident" ing brigadier forced his cabinet to sit ernment and military - till make up homeland of Transket. Transkei, '.he through repeated screenings of a police more than half the brigadier's cabinet home of Nelson Mandela, the A.N.C.