From: vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mbanane)
Subject: UPI: Ciskei troops kill fifteen as ANC marches on Ciskei capital
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 16:51:54 GMT


	JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (UPI) -- Soldiers killed at least 15 people
and wounded 144 when they opened fire Monday on thousands of African
National Congress supporters as they marched to demand the resignation
of the military leader of the Ciskei, a black homeland in South Africa,
the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported.
	South African government spokesman Deon van Loggerenberg confirmed
the death toll but warned it could still rise.
	ANC lawyer John Smith said the soldiers started shooting at 1.30 p.m.
shortly after the marchers crossed from South Africa into the Ciskei. He
said four people were known to have been shot dead at a stadium near the
border between South Africa and the Ciskei and another six were killed a
few hundred feet away.
	``We know of dozens of demonstrators who were injured when the Ciskei
security force members opened fire without warning at the marchers,''
Smith said.
	The shooting took place at 1.30 p.m. shortly after the marchers had
crossed from South Africa into the Ciskei.
	Ciskei soldiers fired at the marchers without warning and later fired
volleys of tear gas as the marchers retreated into South Africa.
	Ciskei Defense Force chief Brig. Marius Oelschig told SAPA that ANC
supporters had fired first.
	Agence France-Presse correspondent Clyde Russell, who was at the head
of the march, was reported to have been shot in the shoulder, but was
not in a serious condition.
	The crowd of about 20,000 people, lead by ANC Secretary-General Cyril
Ramaphosa, were marching to the Ciskei capital of Bisho, 497 miles
southeast of Johannesburg, to demand the resignation of military leader
Brig. Oupa Gqozo.
	Gqozo seized power in March 1990 in a military coup which overthrew
incumbent President Lennox Sebe. Gqozo sides with the white-minority
South African government and opposes the ANC.
	The ANC argues Gqozo should resign as he is unelected and unpopular
with the population. There is also criticism of the white command
structure in his security force.
	The march signaled the start of the latest phase of the ANC-led
campaign of mass protests and industrial strikes launched June 16 in an
attempt to force the white-minority government into relinquishing power.
	The latest phase of the campaign will concentrate on the homelands
and is aimed at strengthening the ANC's influence in areas where black
authorities favor the South African government, and normally suppress
ANC activity.
	The ANC leadership believe Gqozo is the weakest link in the chain of
black political figures who are, actually or potentially, the ruling
National Party's allies in a democratic election.
	The liberation movement envisages the overthrow of Gqozo as the
beginning of a chain of events which will displace, or at least weaken,
the government's key black allies and weaken the government's position
at the negotiating table.
	The Ciskei government tried to declare the march illegal at the
weekend and brought an urgent court interdict Sunday night during which
the Ciskei police accused the ANC and its allies of having smuggled huge
amounts of weapons and ammunition into the Ciskei for use during the
march.
	The ANC contested the police's allegations and early Monday was
granted the right to march provided they adhered to conditions not to
enter the capital of Bisho and only to remain in the homeland for 4 1/2
hours.
	The ANC rejected the conditions and vowed to march on Bisho.
	Ciskei responded by positioning soldiers at the entrance to the
homeland and blocked the road leading to Bisho with razor wire.
	At the weekend the South African government declared five adjacent
areas surrounding the Ciskei as unrest areas and sent in police and
military units to patrol the South African side of the border.
	Minister of Law and Order Hernus Kriel and his police commissioner
Gen. Johan van der Merwe stationed themselves Monday in King William's
Town, the closest South African town to the Ciskei capital, to monitor
the situation.
	Ciskei is one of ten areas designated in 1959 by Pretoria as a
homeland for South Africa's black population. In 1970 the government
introduced legislation which deprived South Africa's blacks of their
citizenship and made them citizens of the homelands which are situated
in the poorer parts of the country.
	The 1970 law was relaxed 16 years later and allowed blacks living and
working permanently in South Africa to claim South African citizenship.
	The ANC does not recognize the homelands as independent or separate
from the rest of South Africa and plans for their reincorporation into
the country.
	Ciskei was declared independent in 1981, however it is supported by
the South African government and its independence is not recognized
outside of South Africa.
	Ciskei is a small, poverty-stricken overcrowded area whose economy
depends on agriculture and wages sent home by its male population who
seek work in South Africa as migrant laborers.

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