Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Oct. 4, 1980, edition 1 / Page 13
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A Weekly Digest Of African Affairs SAT., OCTOBER 4, 1980 THE CAROLINA TIMES 13 SOUTH AFRICA 'Siege Trial' Watched Closely AN On September 11, a South African appeals court commuted the death sentence of James Mange, a black man convicted of conspiracy in what was perhaps the country's most intense criminal trial in recent years. Mange's reprieve follows ten mon ths of clemency appeals from dozens of govern ments and international agencies, and, as Julie Frederiskse reports, it coincides with another pivotal court case: JOHANNESBURG If (he death sentence had been carried out on James Mange, defenders of the South African legal system would no longer be able to claim that no one has ever been executed for a purely political crime. Solomon Mahlangu, hanged in 1978, who like Mange was a self-avowed guerrilla of the African national Congress (ANC), was convicted on a criminal charge the murder of a white civilian in downtown Johan nesburg. Neither Mange, who will now serve twenty years, nor his eleven co defendants killed or in jured anyone. They were convicted of involvement in plot to attack a police station in Cape Province, though they had no weapons in their posses sion at the time of their ar rest last year. The success of the ap peal for clemency in the Mange case is seen here as evidence of the govern ment's reluctance to flaunt local and interna tional oponion; hanging Mange would have tar nished Prime Minister P.W. Botha's carefully .jcuiavaieLtefca,ijtlst Jnv age. It should also "be noted, however, that the South African appeals court has a generally more liberal reputation than the, lower courts, as evidenced in recent rulings opening up the fields of labor and influx control of broader interpretation. The appeals court ruling in the Mange case comes in the middle of a similar and potentially more sen sational political trial, one involving charges of treason and terrorism in connection with two guer rilla attacks in January: 1980. Those accused of, carrying out the raids were, allegedly trained in socialist countries as ANC guerrillas. The trial takes on added importance because, unlike the spate of guer-. rill a attacks against police i stations in black1 townships over the past few years, the attacks in January targeted white; areas. In the firsNncident, a police station in the tiny, white farming community ' of Soekmekkar was riddl ed with bullets from Soviet-made AK assault rifles. In the second inci dent, three guerrillas arm ed with AKs and hand grenades marched into a bank at midday in the Pretoria suburb of Silver ton, took hostages and demanded the release of . political prisoners. The five-hour siege ended when a police SWAT team stormed the building in a shoot-out that left three guerrillas and two of the hostages dead. As in the Mange case, the Silverton-Soekmekkar defendants were nowhere near the scene of the at-, tacks when they were ar rested. The prosecution, consequently, has depend ed chiefly on the testimony of security police and unnamed witnesses, who have turn ed state's evidence to link the nine accused to the. armed incidents, allegedly planned by the ANC. The mood of the cur rent trial, known as the' Silverton siege trial, can not be compared with the Mange case, for that was he most bizarre political . trial this country has ever . seen; Mange and his co-'; defendants refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court, fired their legal counsel, interrupted the trial with renditions of freedom songs, and were finally incarcerated in a glass cage in the cour troom. The Sliverton siege trial may be less spectacular in its proceedings, but it may also ultimately prove more significant on a symbolic level. A recent poll, for ex ample, found that 75 per cent of South Africa's black majority population supported the siege. "It's not necessarily that we blacks all endorse violence,' said one observer, "but the Silver ton incident is the kind of thing that makes the whites take notice. That's why we're all watching this trial very closely." Meanwhile, school boycotts which began in April this year are still oc curring. On September 17, the Minister of Education and Training announced closure of primary and secondary schools in the western cape. Earlier in' the month, Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage schools in (he eastern cape were clos ed indefinitely. Both ac tions followed continuing protests by students demanding changes in the country's segregated schools policies. UGANDA More Election Snags AN The historic na tional election shceduled for September 30 has now been officially postponed. Nevertheless, as a special correspondent who recent ly visited Uganda report partisan political maneuvering intensifies with each passing week: KAMPALA An elec tion timetable has been finalized and December 10 is the designated voting day. The first step laid out governing coalition that ousted former dictator Idi Amin. When the Military Commission seized power and gave the go-ahead to partisan, political activity, however, they reconciled themselves to the new ar rangements. Now both the DP and the UPM are beginning to reconsider their initial compliance. On September 16, the Na tional Consultative Coun cil, Uganda's interim parliament, met to vote on an election bill which call ed for a 126-seat parlia ment. The DP and UPM joined forces to propose an amendment to the bill which would raise the number to 140, their argu ment being that more seats would allow for a more representative breakdown of the population. The amendment was defeated by a margin of 48 to 39 with two absten tions. Of the 48 votes against the amendment, 47 came from the UPC, which had organized all party council members to vote as a block. In addition, at the onset of the council meeting in question, the minister of public service and cabinet affairs, Wilson Okwenje, a UPC member, warned all Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers that for reasons of "collective responsibility" they were beholden to vote with the government bill, and thus against the amendment. Both DP and UPM ministers and deputies refused to abide by the directive, only to find out through a radio broadcast the following morning that they cquld choose to resign frorr government or be fired. This an nouncement came from the lips of Paulo DP has asked the ultimate decision-making power, which now lies with the Military Commission, be restored to the council. Charging that the Military Commission ap pointed a number of ministers and deputy ministers "solely for the purpose of increasing the strength of the UPC in the council," the DP has demanded that these government officials no longer be allowed to par ticipate in council affairs. They have also accused the six-man electoral com mission of favoring the UPC and are calling for the electoral commission to be reconstituted. Other DP demands are for the release of all political prisoners, in cluding members of the Democratic Party, who they claim are being held in military prisons and policy stations. In addi tion they are calling for more Tanzanian police reinforcements, or if necessary, police assistance from friendly Commonwealth countries, aI P J v2 fats Heads Together United Slates Ambassador Donald McHenry 0) confers with Secretary of State Edmnnd Mnskfe dnrino I mini unH have further asked Na,ions Assembly speech by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko last week. Cromyko accused the U.S. fhfr rSmnnwMhh ' Pulng a foreign policy "of pressure and blackmail." UPI Photo tisan and chair man of the Military Commission. Later that day, a Con sultative Council meeting attended only by UPC members unanimously passed the election bill and voted in a UPC member, Francis Butagira, as chair man. This session was either boycotted by DP I and UPM partisans or was unkown ip thenL. Military Commission i chairman Muwanga later ' backed down from firing the DP and UPM i ministers, but with the 1 UPC now enjoying greater control over the council, opposition from the dissidents has mounted. Both parties have decided to boycott all council meetings until the Military Commission nullifies the decisions made at or after the September 17 meeting. The DP has gone fur ther, threatening to withdraw its cooperation from the government unless a list of demands are met. Among them, the sion, however, the demar cation of constituencies, has already been delayed past the September 20' deadline, and a mood of skepticism as to how, when and if elections will take place has set in among the Ugandan population. Recent events have heightened rather than ap peased apprehensions, and the main question now is whether the elec tion will be rigged to facilitate the coming to power of former Ugandan president Milton Obote's Uganda People's Con gress Party (UPC). At this point it is not at all clear which of the two major parties contesting the elections, the more conservative, traditionally Catholic, Democratic Par ty (DP), or the UPC, would win a 'free and fair' vote. What has become apparent, however, is that the main issue in the elec tion is the personality and past performance of former president Obote. In comparison, other " more substantial would-be party distinctions fall by the wayside. Both the DP and the recently-formed Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM), headed by the vice-chairman of Ugan da's ruling Military Com-! mission, Yoweri Museveni, have lashed out: at the UPC for using their' advantage in the present; government to entrench; themselves during the jn-J terim period before elec-' tions, and for giving themselves undue advan tage at election time. Some Ugandan politi cians have alleged that the Military Commission's take-over from former Ugandan President God Trey Binaisa last May was a move to bring Obote back to power. This sug gestion was initially scoff ed at by members of the DP, who were willing to go along with the coup, . since it enabled the resumption of political party activity. The UPM came into be- i ing after the May coup. Museveni and its other . founders had originally advocated holding dec- , tions under the umbrella v of the Uganda National' Liberation Front, t that a Commonwealth team come to Uganda to observe the "whole elec toral process." The fourth party con testing the elections, the Conservative Party, which seeks a federalist arrange ment in Uganda, has no members on the Con sultative Council and not much national following. With the UPC defen ding the legitimacy of their recent moves in the council and denying they have been involved in any election malpractices or have any intentions of rig ging elections, reconcilia tion between the parties will be difficult to say the least. . Asking .,. , TanzflDiaiL. President Julius Nyerere, fwho still has 10,000 troops and 1,000 police in the country, to mediate in the dispute, may be a last resort. But, according to Tanzanian military per sonnel in Ugandawhat the Tanzanian authorities want most at present is to wash their hands of the whole Uganda situation. Fears of a possible move from within the ranks of the Ugandan ar my have escalated with the increased political tension. Despite the Military Com mission's promises to put an end to the insecurity plaguing the country and stomp out the rampant corruption when they assumed power from former President Binaisa, lawlessness, especially purportedly politically motivated crimes, he has been on the increase. And the black market rate of exchange, the gauge of the relative stability of the Ugandan economy, has gone up. Although unconfirmed, there have been numerous reports of intimidation and fighting among various tribal and political groupings within the army as well as among the civilian population. A microcosm of the na tion's political divisions can be found at Mekerere University in Kampala, where students have split into two distinct groups, UPC versus the others, each claiming to be the legitimate representatives of the student body. Initially most Ugandans saw elections as a way out of the present instability, ,bu.t..thc feeling now, is that they win merely exag gerate already existing divisions and obfuscate the real issues those of reconstruction of rehabilitation of an economy already devastated by eight years dictatorial rule under Idi Amin. Arthritis Sufferers! Now.Getrsfief f or painful inflammation and protection for your stomach! For minor arthritis pain. Arthritis Pain Formula has 50 more medicine than ordinary headache tablets. Plus two antacids for double stomach protec tion. Try Arthritis Pain Formula, the arthritis specialist, from the makers of Anacin.' 8lDiEAinrui Fronvfeet, hands, elbows. 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The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Oct. 4, 1980, edition 1
13
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