Forum More Truth Revealed in South Africa Everyday inside the racist regime of South Africa, more am! more evidence emerges about the systematic death-choke that apartheid maintains against the people ot South Africa. Now KW. tie Klerk has been forced to admit and confirm (jiat South Africa's military has an ongoing 'Covert third force" that has engaged in political assassina tion and terrorism against the* African National Congress and other anti-apartheid supporters. In fact, both black and white South Africans have been murdered by this "govern ment apparatus" of apartheid. We believe that President de Klerk knew about these illegal and barbaric actions of the "third force" long before the public disclosures of the past few accused had done or the fact that what they had done has now become public. For the first time the President of South Africa was forced to admit, "The findings will lead to the conclusion that some of the activi ties have led to the death of people.... Collabo rators of the south African Defense Forces have been involved, and in some cases are still involved, in illegal and/or unauthorized activi ties, and malpractice." Will those guilty of these crimes be prosecuted? Or better, the question is will the government of South Africa prosecute itself for violently violating the human rights of the peoples of southern Africa? During the remaining rounds of negotia days. The ok) say - ing, "The truth buried always eventually comes to light," is quite applicable- to this last difficult stage of the historic struggle to disman tle the brutal insti - tutionalized system CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR. of racism known as apartheid. As wc have previously argued, much of the dramatic increase in the fratricidal warfare between the African National Congress and Chief Buthelczi's Inkatha group has been orchestrated by forces within the military and government. These latest revelations of the extent to which repressive forces in South Africa have gone to destabilize the situation inside the nation, are also indicative of how the military intcllegence sector of the govern irienl sougkLJiL^estabiJi/e" othci nations in Angola, Namibia, Moz bia is particular, have all felt the terror of South Africa's efforts to stay in power by acts of low intensity military strikes" as part of an overall strategy of regional destabilization. Wc note, as we have in the past, that U.S. foreign policy toward South Africa during the last twelve years actually served to prolong South Africa's viability as a strong "strategic ally" both in political and military terms. The sad results is that millions of Africans have been killed with not even a hint from Washington, that the lives of the people who Itvc in the region of southern Africa should have been protected a long time ago from this atrocity against humanity. Without naming the accused otticcrs. Mr. de Klerk announced that 2 * military officer life - being "suspended or dismissed" because of their involvement with covert terrorist military operations in South Africa. Six of the 23 were ranked as full generals. Although President dc Klerk asserted that he was "shocked and disap pointed," it is not exactly clear whether his disappointment was because of what the southern Africa. tions to establish a transitional government, we believe the current command structure of the South African Defense Forces needs to be completely recognized by placing representa tives of the ANC and other civilians in charge of the armed forces during this critical transi tional stage. A failure to dislodge and purge the right-wing elements from the military will result in the escalation of political violence in South Africa. ? The African National Congress issued a statement in response to the disclosures by de Klerk. The ANC stated, "The steps announced by President de Klerk area a step in the right dirCctkui.Jnit arc not nearly enough. The cur rent rcvclatiofi^Tn-e-^curi^only the tip of the iceberg." We agree with thc^NC~arrtf-we-furi. ther call for a full disclosure of all joint intelli gence operations conducted by the South African Defense Intelligence with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the last twelve years. The people of South Africa and the people of the [ Jnited States have a right to know what were the joint agreements on intelligence gath ering between the United States and South Africa. "Constructive engagement:" strategies of the Reagan-Bush era have been very destructive to southern Africa. The issue of changing U.S. foreign policy ^initiative toward Africa in general and south ern Africa in particular will present a signifi cant challenge top the incoming Clinton Administration. The time for a progressive policy change is long overdue. As more of the truth creeps out of South Africa, the end of apartheid is at least in sight.. American Dream: The Real Bottom Line I was very honored when President-elect Clinton invited ine to address his Kconomic Summit in Little Rock on December 14,1992. I wanted to share with you a summary of that address as a reminder that, while- we have ,r much to celebrate, we still have a tremendous amount of work to do. Mr. President-Elect, I want to thank you very much for recognizing that children are a bottom-line economic issue, and that preven tive investment is al I of our children is (inly a moral impef&tive, but essential to saving our national economic skin;and that children are the key to our future productivity and work force development. As communism is collapsing all around the world, the "American dream"is collapsing all around America for millions of families youth and children in all races and classes. We are in danger of becoming two nations ? one with an estimated GNP of $1 .6 billion. But it is a human and moral travesty that 14.3 million children ai^jjoor in the richest land on earth, that an estimated five million children go hun gry sometime during the month,. and eight mil lion lack heath care in a country that has a CJNP of $5.9 trillion. We need to ask ourselves whether this is the best that America can do and why there are more por children in America today than in any year since ll)65, despite the net 88 percent growth in our gross national product (C?NP) during this period And con trary to popular myth, the majority of poor children are not Black, not on welfare and don't life in inner cities . I'hcy live in working families and in nearly one quarter of the I 1.7 million children who fell into poverty lived in two-parent white families. I think it's a mi . it human ;:nd moial tragedy that thousands ul children and adults are starving to death in v\ar torn poor Somalia. 'i ilies. I hope that every American led by you ? this new administration that brings us such hope ? and by our new Congress, will person ally and collectively struggle to reclaim our nation's soul and give our children back their hope, their sense of security, their belief in America's fairness ,and their ability to dream about and work toward a future that is attain able and real. And let me suggest two things that I know this great country can do in 1993 under your leadership. The first is to make sure that every one of our children is born healthy and is immunized against preventable diseases. The other thing that I know you have committed to doing is to see that every child gets ready for school . And a down payment on that is to see that every one of our children gets a head start by fully finding Head Start, making it full day, full year, taking it down to earlier ages. Repub licans and I A mounts? says Ihey are for Head Start. We know it works. Now is the time to just do it. 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