From: mark@uctvax.uct.ac.za
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Bisho: Eyewitness #4 - Guy Jepson (Eastern Cape News Agency)
Date: 14 Sep 92 11:26:03 +0200
Organization: University of Cape Town

Eyewitness report:  Guy Jepson (Eastern Cape News Agency)

     There was  a stunned  silence, followed  by  shouts  of
"down, comrades,  down!",  when  the  Ciskei  Defence  Force
soldiers opened  fire on  the crowd of ANC marchers in Bisho
on Monday.
     I was  outside the  Bisho stadium,  at the front of the
procession as  thousands of  people surged  ahead  of  their
leaders towards the stadium entrance
     Scores of  youths were  swarming over the stadium fence
while the army helicopters circled overhead.
     Behind the  razor-wire barricade  which had been strung
out across  the road  to prevent  the crowd from marching to
Bisho,  stood   a  handful  of  National  Peace  Secretariat
observers and journalists
     A section  of the  crowd fell  face-down on the road as
the automatic rifles barked from behind the stadium and then
from the  line of  troops on  the University  of  Fort  Hare
property to our immediate right.
     Minutes before,  as  the  huge  banner-waving  marchers
moved towards  their positions,  the troops had cocked their
weapons, ready  to defend their homeland and their leader at
all costs.
     When they  opened fire,  thousands of  people broke and
ran away from the bullets in blind panic.
     I lay  prone on  the roadway,  holding my hands over my
head  as   the  soldiers  fired,  their  assault  rifles  on
automatic
     I turned  to my  left  and  caught  the  eye  of  Cyril
Ramaphosa.
     "This is  unbelievable," he said, and then put his head
down.
     Other senior  ANC alliance  officials including Raymond
Suttner and Tokyo Sexwale, were just metres away.
     Fear and disbelief was written into their faces.
     Still the  barrage continued.   There  was a brief lull
and  then   a  second,  more  sustained  burst  of  gunfire,
punctuated by  heavy, grenade-type  blasts.   Chris Hani was
barking out  instructions  to  a  gun-toting  youngster  who
looked as  if he  was going  to shoot at the soldiers.  "Put
that gun  away!   Do you want to cause a massacre?" the SACP
leader screamed.
     The young  man obeyed,  but the  massacre  had  already
happened.
     I scrambled  to my  feet and  began  photographing  the
mayhem.
     The injured,  some with gaping head wounds, were loaded
into cars  as  youths  came  running  out  of  the  stadium,
carrying more bodies.
     The Ciskeian  troops watched impassively, some lying in
the grass their rifles still trained on us.
     I felt  like crying as a woman, her face a bloody mess,
was gently lifted into a waiting car.
     A Red  Cross ambulance  passed up  and down the road as
women began  to sing  over the  moans of  the injured an the
bereaved.
     Groups of  churchmen standing  around  the  bodies  led
hymns as  the leaders  stood in  a huddle  with the National
Peace Committee chairperson John Hall.
     Monwabisi  Stuurman,  a  khaki-clad  ANC  marshall  who
helped carry  the dead  and  injured  out  of  the  stadium,
pointed bitterly at the silent line of troops
     "They didn't  even command  us to  disperse," he  said,
wiping his hands on his blood-stained trousers.