From: paul@frcs.Alt.ZA (Paul Nash)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Killing (Masacre) in South-Africa
Date: 13 Sep 92 18:53:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: frcs.1992Sep13.185359.13037
Organization: Free Range Computer Systems CC

Thus spake ccml@hippo.ru.ac.za (Mike Lawrie):

> Here's a personal viewpoint:-

Here is another.

> 1/ the ANC want to topple the rulers of the "homeland" (sub-)states that
> are not controlled by the ANC

One hopes that we will soon have elections for a constituent assembly.
The ANC (or any political parties) are not allowed to organise in Ciskei,
Boputhatswana, etc.  It is not unreasonable for them to want to change 
this, and allow the "citizens" of Ciskei, who have never been consulted,
to hold a referendum about whether in fact they _did_ want to be a 
homeland.

> 2/ the ruler of the Ciskei is such a target (as is the ruler of Kwazulu,

Brigadier Oupa Qcozo is a military dictator, who came to power in a coup,
and has imposed martial law ever since.  His top military adivisors are
seconded from the South African Defence Force, and his ex-intelligence 
boss alledges that he (Qcozo) is paid by SA's National Intelligence
Service (aka Bureau of State Security).

> 3/ it was known with complete certainty prior to the march that it
> would result in deaths because the Ciskei ruler is not going to allow
> 4/ in spite of (3) the ANC proceeded to organise the march

The ANC actually managed to stave off a number of marches in the Ciskei
region.  However, they have lost a lot of support on the ground for 
allowing themselves to be duped by the SA Government's mal fides.  They
were faced with a situation where the march was likely to happen _anyway_,
and where they stodd to loose even more support by not taking part.

Furthermore, while the Nationalists keep talking about "negotiations",
the ANC cannot operate freely in the Nats' creations (like Ciskei and
Bop).  ANC members are killed daily in the townships.  The Nats are 
attempting to undermine what little exists of the so-called "peace
accord" (by replacing the _independant_ invesitgators with a multi-
party group, run by ex-magistrates and staffed by the SA Police and
SADF).

Lastly, the people who took part in the march are neither totally stupid
nor terminally naive.  In the same way that marchers in Soweto in '76 and
later knew that there was a possibility of bloodshed, and that protestors
in '86 knew the same thing, I doubt that the marchers at Bisho were 
fooled by a bunch of criminal politicians, as the SABC, Nats, DP et al
would have us believe.  That said, I am unsure of whether the march was
the right approach.

> 5/ the ANC has lost a great deal of sympathy amongst liberal whites in
> South Africa for this action

But gained a lot of support on the ground.  They have, of course, lost
support from the "peace commission", who feel that they (the monitors)
should have been warned before the Ciskeian troops started shooting, as
they weren't taking part in the protest, and were just there to watch.

	*****************************************************

A few other points:

6) It is interesting to note that there was a gap in the razor-wire
barricade, and that opposite that gap was a large contingent of Ciskeian
soldiers, hidden in the grass (and not visible to the demonstrators).
These were the troops who opened fire with live ammunition, without
any warning whatsoever, in a five-minute-long barrage of automatic and
semi-automatic fire.

Maybe the protestors were planning to break the law, but is summarily
death a reasonable penalty?  We _do_ still have large stocks of tear-
gas.  Just imagine the uproar if the (white) farmers protesting the
imposition of labour legislation that would force them to give workers
notice, etc, who broke their conditions in Pretoria, were summarily
shot to death.

7) While the SABC, Nats and DP alledge that the ANC started shooting,
_none_ of the journalists present made any mention of this, and when
questioned said that the army had started.  In addition, the SABC could
not find any evidence, other than one revolver tramped into the mud 
at the approach to the stadium.

8) It took the SA Government three days to express any sympathy with
the families of the dead, or condemnation of the military action, and
even then it was a throw-away remark in the State President's open
letter to the ANC.

9) The Supreme Court believes that the Ciskeian Defence Force (sic) is
searching for, and beating up, people who took part in the march.  They
refused to grant an interdict restraining the ANC from assaulting the
military, however, as they felt that there was insufficient evidence
that this was happening.
 
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 Paul Nash                                         paul@frcs.Alt.ZA
 Box 12475, Onderstepoort, 0110 South Africa         +27-12-5611879

      "You don't want to get locked into open systems" -- IBM
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african