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USENET INTER PRESS NETWORK NEWS UPDATED TWICE WEEKLY: TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS LAST UPDATE: 8-10-93 AT 8:30 A.M. From uwvax!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!psgrain!ee.und.ac.za!csir.co.za!nuustak.csir.co.za!pwade Tue Aug 10 07:58:19 CDT 1993 Article: 17716 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!psgrain!ee.und.ac.za!csir.co.za!nuustak.csir.co.za!pwade From: pwade@nuustak.csir.co.za (Peter Wade) Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: South Africa Newsletter Date: 4 Aug 1993 06:29:48 GMT Organization: CSIR - Water Technology Lines: 260 Message-ID: <pwade.112.0@nuustak.csir.co.za> NNTP-Posting-Host: 146.64.37.2 X-Disclaimer: None of the opions expressed herein are the official X-Disclaimer: opinions of the CSIR or any of its subsidiaries. X-Disclaimer: ** So don't freak out at _us_ about anything ** PETER'S INTERMITTENT NEWSLETTER - 3 August 1993 =============================================== I apologize for the somewhat sombre note of this Intermittent Newsletter. In the interests of getting the picture across I feel I can't leave anything out, tempting though it is to resort to such tactics to elevate the mood of the missal. There simply has not been much of cheer in the media of late. It would be nice to believe that this was caused by media editors collectively being manic depressives with the same period. The Draft Interim Constitution was tabled in the Negotiating Council on Monday July 26. A two-phased transition to democracy is envisaged - the first being preparation of the transitional executive council and subcouncils for elections on April 27, and the second occurring after elections, and will see the new representative parliament ruling, and preparing the final constitution, which should be in place in two years. The main points of the Draft Interim Constitution are (as reported by Esther Waugh, Political Correspondent of the Star): a three-tier government; a 400-member assembly; a senate with 10 members from each state/province/region (SPR) government; strong SPR governments; a commission on SPR governments; a two-phased transition; an elected constitution-making body (CMB), comprising the assembly and the senate; constitution to be adopted by a two- thirds majority of the CMB; a constitutional court; constitution to be completed within two years of the first session of the new parliament; deadlock-breaking mechanism for the adoption of the final constitution; guaranteed fundamental rights during transition; independent ombudsman and human rights commission; a financial and fiscal commission. I guess that about takes care of all the available manpower of the country for about two years. I wonder who will be left to do the work ? Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini held an imbizo (traditional gathering) at the FNB Stadium on Sunday 25th July, which was attended by about 50,000 Zulus. In his address, he spelled out his requirements for self-determination of the Zulu people. The bottom line is: *) The right of Zulus to self-determination *) The refusal to countenance the dismantling of KwaZulu until agreement had been reached on "a new constitutional dispensation which pleases KwaZulu" *) The right of KwaZulu - defined as the "whole of Natal" - to have its own constitution. King Goodwill mentioned that the Zulu kingdom of his forbears had ben made part of South Africa without the agreement of the Zulu people, or the then-king Dinizulu, and he demanded that nobody ever again tries to drag the Zulus into a political dispensation in which they disagree. After the gathering, a large security force escorted Zulus from the rally. About 2,000 boarded a train that had been specially organized for them. They had to disembark at Pilot Station, and were escorted on foot to their hostels in Katlehong, after police discovered sabotage of the railway line. A 30m section of track had had the springs removed, and had been knocked out of alignment in what was an obvious attempt to derail the train. The IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) and COSAG (Concerned South Africans' Group) walked out of the multiparty forum in the World Trade Centre when the date for multiparty elections was set. They have not yet returned to the forum. Both parties seem to have been attempting to derail the talks in one way or another, and the strategy adopted by the other parties has been to pass motions on "sufficient consensus", the exact details of which elude me, but the import of which was to allow consensus to be declared in spite of "filibustering" and delaying tactics of the IFP and COSAG. The most recent move in this game has been the threat of the KwaZulu government to take the issue of "sufficient consensus" to court, where it will also try to invalidate the April 27 election date. Since the KwaZulu government would be taking the issue to court instead of the IFP, the South African taxpayer would foot the entire bill of the venture. The stalemate is fairly serious for the National Party, say "political observers", since if negotiations continue much longer without the IFP, FW de Klerk faces an almost certain split in his cabinet, and further delays in the installation of the Transitional Executive Council could stall elections. The government and the IFP have commenced bilateral talks to investigate the deadlock. In the last Intermittent Newsletter I mentioned that the violence in the East Rand was on the increase. I realize now that this is a bit of a wimpy way of stating the true situation, which is actually quite serious. It came to me over the weekend that I, like many others, am becoming shellshocked. We are becoming used to violence as a way of life, and only occasionally does the full import of our situation strike us. Take the weekend of the 24th and 25th July for example. I quote an article by Anna Louw of the East Rand Bureau of the Star newspaper of Monday 26 July almost verbatim: Two well-planned attacks by AK-47 gunmen travelling in a minibus in Daveyton on the night of Sunday 25th July have left eight people dead and 14 wounded, bringing to 42 the number of people killed in East Rand townships at the weekend. The two assaults, less than two hours apart, were carried out by the same ruthless gang, police said. The modus operandi was to stop outside a house, spray it with bullets, and drive on. The Benoni-Boksburg local peace committee chairman Con Toux said the attacks were a flagrant attempt to rekindle violence in the township when community leaders were working for peace. A peace agreement was signed by the various paries on Saturday, and attempts were being made to bring the situation in Daveyton under control. At the weekend, 33 people were killed in Katlehong and Tokoza and nine were dead following attacks in Daveyton and the Chris Hani squatter camp - 23 victims died on Sunday. Many of the people killed were shot dead. May homes were set alight. Two people were burnt to death when their home was petrol bombed in Twala section in Katlehong. A man was burnt to death when his home was set alight in Tokoza. A policeman and six other people were killed in Daveyton and two civilians burnt to death in the Chris Hani squatter camp. Police came under continuous fire in Daveyton and at least ten AK47 attacks on Police vehicles were reported. Germiston fire chief Simon Bakhuizen said rescue workers were operating around the clock from a Defence Force base at Alrode in Alberton. "My men used an armoured ambulance to protect them from automatic gunfire and petrol bomb attacks while they attended to the wounded in Katlehong and Tokoza", he said. July has been a bad month for South Africa, with 550 people killed in political violence. 284 people were killed in the East Rand Townships between July 1 and July 31, 142 of which were killed after July 19, the day 7 IFP members were executed near Wadeville. 665 people were killed in the East Rand since July 3. The frequency of deaths on the East Rand seems to be on the increase, with 87 dead since this past Saturday afternoon. The quality of the weaponry available to warring factions is staggering - recently the Kwesine hostel in Katlehong was attacked by anti-IFP people with RPG rockets. On the evening of Sunday 25 July at least 11 people died and 48 were wounded when hooded gunmen fired on about 1,400 worshippers with automatic rifles (AK47's and R-5's) and hurled grenades into the St James Church of England in Kenilworth, Cape Town. Afrikaner Volksfront leader General Constand Viljoen said that the Kenilworth killings justified his call that Afrikaners should arm themselves. Democratic Party Law and Order spokesman MP Robin Carlisle visited St James church, and said "Tell General Constand Viljoen and all those other bastards who are advocating violence to come to the church to see for themselves". Vuyo Tekani, a primary schoolteacher, and alleged member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) is being held under section 29 of the Internal Security Act in connection with the massacre. Originally it was thought that the victims were all white, and the five assailants were all black. Thus it was thought that was the reason that a R250,000 reward has been offered for information leading to arrests. However, not only is the former untrue, but an identical reward has been offered for info leading to the arrest of perpetrators of violence in the East Rand. In addition, when a black woman was shot dead while waiting at a bus-stop by a white man in an apparently racially-motivated attack, police offered a reward of R75,000 for info. On the weekend of July 31 and August 1, at least 55 people were killed in the East Rand townships, with 31 killed in Tembisa, and 24 reported killed in Tokoza, Katlehong and Phola Park. The Tokoza violence was sparked by a clash between residents and the notorious "Toaster gang", who fled into Tembisa hostel. Later, hostel residents attacked the township. The Star of Monday August 2, shows a policeman questioning five-year old Mzulisi Mashobane, in front of a fire-gutted minibus containing the remains of 12 people, including his parents. His mother saved him by throwing him out of a window when the minibus was stopped and boarded by a group of armed men. Mzulisi looks shocked, and the policeman is holding his hand, and looking very sad. A personal comment - I am currently experiencing a deep depression and anguish about my country. From the conversation of colleagues (of all "races"), and personal communications over the net, I see that I am not alone. We casually read numbers and statistics on violence, but to me each violent death is a human tragedy. There is a current popular observation that the violence in the country escalates in intensity and becomes more horrific, the closer we are to some kind of peaceful settlement. The popular theory is that the acts of meaningless violence are perpetrated by individuals comprising a "third force" who are hoping to create a civil war. These people feel threatened by a peaceful solution, and must be of the opinion that a civil war will benefit them. AK47's are everywhere. However, I stress that the average man whom I experience in South Africa is an eminently reasonable person, with a wealth of goodwill that I have never experienced elsewhere. The depression and anguish we feel represents a victory for those ghouls who are trying to destabilize our country, and to promote internecine conflict. We cannot allow them to succeed. They are fools who think they can win such a civil war. A civil war in South Africa, with its delicately balanced armed forces and socioeconomic blocs, cannot have a victor, just degrees of losers. We *have* to maintain our cool while we identify the perpetrators of violence and prevent them from continuing. The police force has to be viewed by the general populace as the arm of a just law, and protector of the innocent. It has been suggested by the ANC that a small step in this direction would be joint control of the security forces by an interim government. Other efforts are under way to patch up the image of the police force. A series of agreements brokered by the Vaal/Reef Peace Secretariat, and endorsed by the SAP, ANC and IFP has resulted in the creation of a prisoners' Visitors' Programme in the Vaal/Reef area. An agreed panel of civilians will have access to police cells around the clock, to interview any prisoner, and to report on the interview. Police are also required to keep a register at local stations of people who have been arrested and where they are being held; to provide specific responses to requests for information in specific cases and to inform the Local Peace Committee chairman of any extensive major SAP action, or reaction to a political clash. This should ensure no more incommunicado detentions, and eliminate the "perception" that security force operations are arbitrary by nature. Hopefully people on the ground will one day no longer see the law enforcement system as alien and inimical to community life. According to the region's media officer, Rankowa Molefe, The ANC's entire Western Transvaal leadership was dismissed and replaced, following an internal investigation into corruption and mismanagement. {I cannot imagine such an action being perpetrated by the National Party}. An "election poll" was conducted by Radio 702 and the Star newspaper of 817 eligible voters on the Witwatersrand, 71% contacted by telephone, and the remainder were contacted in areas without telephones. The poll implied that current support for the ANC is 54%, NP is 16%, IFP is 9%, DP 3%, CP 2%, AWB 1%, and 10% are either undecided or tight-lipped. Cyril Ramaphosa of the ANC and Roelf Meyer of the NP are the most popular politicians who are not (yet) party leaders. Two dinosaur fossils, and dinosaur eggs and embryos have recently been discovered at the Golden View Holiday Resort near Clarens in the Orange Free State. Gideon Groenewald, the geologist who discovered the fossils, says the largest was a Massospondylus, and the smaller has yet to be identified. The fossils are probably between 200 and 200 million years old. The predicted cold snap on the highveld came and went, and temperatures have risen once more. Green grass is poking out of blackened tufts left over from the veld fires. The early morning chorus of bird song is including new voices. I think it is safe to say that no matter in what light we view our country, Spring, with its surge of renewal, still comes every year. ================================================================ DISCLAIMERS: 1) The labels "white", "black", "indian" and "coloured" are used simply in a historical sense to identify people who were placed in these categories by the Population Register in South Africa. The author of the newsletter is of the opinion that the concept of race is all in the mind. 2) News is often slanted in the direction of people doing dreadful things to each other. A billion acts of kindness and cooperation would go unnoticed, giving the impression that it is a sick world we live in. 3) The latter is particularly the case at the moment. From uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!ogicse!psgrain!ee.und.ac.za!ucthpx!uctvax.uct.ac.za!mark Tue Aug 10 07:59:11 CDT 1993 Article: 17723 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!ogicse!psgrain!ee.und.ac.za!ucthpx!uctvax.uct.ac.za!mark From: mark@uctvax.uct.ac.za Newsgroups: sanet.talk.politics,soc.culture.african Subject: Re: Voting age (was Re: St. James ...) Message-ID: <1993Aug4.143744.204670@uctvax.uct.ac.za> Date: 4 Aug 93 16:37:44 GMT Article-I.D.: uctvax.1993Aug4.143744.204670 References: <ian.743694943@aim1> <232i3g$n3m@shrike.und.ac.za> <pwade.111.0@nuustak.csir.co.za> Organization: University of Cape Town Lines: 159 I am posting the article which prompted my initial comment on the issue of voting rights for children. I feel that the objections raised by various people have all been predicated on a particular notion of childhood, which this article exposes. [The following article appeared in "Democracy in Action - Journal of the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa", Vol 7 No 4, 15 July 1993.] Vote: teenagers denied a human right? ------------------------------------- "It is difficult to take this silly business very seriously." "Such a liberty has never been recognised in any civil society. I consider it a disgrace." Responses to Nelson Mandela's call in May 1993 for the voting age to be lowered to 14? No. They are in fact, comments made 150 years ago to the Governer of the Cape in response to the suggestion that the vote be extended to women. A brief analysis of the reactions to Mandela's call as reported in the media - front page reports, feature articles, editorials, letters from readers - confirms the similarity in type and tone to the reaction over a century ago to the idea of votes for women. Outrage, derision, mockery, disbelief, disgust greeted Mandela's call, as the Cape Times, The Argus, Weekly Mail and South show: "deeply disturbing"; "such a suggestion would not receive serious consideration in a civilised country"; "a ploy"; "a major political embarassment"; "absurd suggestion"; Only 14-year olds will take him seriously"; "ludicrous"; "beyond serious contemplation"; "the idea is nonsense"; "Mandela is crazy"; "horrified"; "irresponsible". Cartoons and jokes abound - stereotypical cartoons of what look like English schoolboys running wild in classrooms, babies in playpens, comments like "Pimple Power". Similar hilarity and scorn were a feature of the reactions to proposals for the vote to be extended to women. Speaking in the suffrage debate in the House of Assembly in 1920, JX Merriman opined: "The more you read of the doings of those unsexed women who are rambling about the country, the more you feel anxious about the future of civilisation. Modesty and Purity apparently have fled to another planet". Two Cape Times editorials are particularly interesting in this regard. On 30 April 1921 one pronounced that "because of a difference which no laws and no amount of education or intelligence can ever change, women are not fitted for voting". Some 72 years later, on 25 May 1993, another declared that "a leader of Mr Mandela's stature can only weaken his own position by sponsoring a lost cause. The sooner the whole episode is forgotten, the better". This kind of comparative approach shows up the rather smug comfortableness and arrogance that seems to be a feature of most of the reactions to Mandela's call. Of course the "experts" are wheeled in - important political commentators, psychologists, teachers, chilrens' experts. A psychiatrist consulted by the Argus said "a 14-year-old does not have the intellectual maturity to make a rational decision about how to vote" and a psychologist agreed: "It is generally accepted that a person of 14 is not mature by any stretch of the imagination and cannot be regarded as informed or sophisticated enough to have the vote". "Experts" also pronounced women unfit to vote on the basis of their inferior intellect and lack of maturity. Writing in the London Times in 1921, Sir Almroth E Wright warned that "no doctor can ever lose sight of the fact that the mind of woman is always threatened with danger from the reverberations of her physiological emergencies...it is with such thoughts that the doctor lets his eyes rest on the militant suffragist. He cannot shut them to the fact that there is mixed up with the women's movement much mental disorder". In his book, "Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children", John Holt reminds us that childhood is not a natural state, but a rather recent invention. A passionate advocate of children's rights, he laments "all those attitudes and feelings, and also customs and laws, that put a great gulf or barrier between the young and their elders, and the world of the elders; that make it difficult or impossible for young people to make contact with the larger society around them, and, even more, to play any kind of active, responsible, useful part in it; that lock the young into eighteen years or more of subserviency and dependancy, and make of them a mixture of expensive nuicance, fragile treasure, slave and super-pet". Holt says that one of the most important rights that should be available to the young is the right to vote. "It is first of all a matter of justice. To be in any way subject to the laws of a society without having any right or way to say what those laws should be is the most serious injustice". He adds that "the possibility of voting will stimulate an interest in voting. The possibility of exercising responsibility draws people towards it". Martin Hoyles points out in "Changing Childhood" that it was only in the 17th century that the concept of childhood arose which stressed innocence and weakness, and became linked with the idea of subservience or dependance. Noting that historically children have been involved in political issues, he says that of "all oppressed groups in society, children have perhaps the hardest task in asserting their right to equality. Indignation is often expressed that women or blacks are treated like children, but not so often that children are treated the way that they are". In "Down with Childhood", Shulamith Firestone explains how the fiction of childhood parallels the fiction of femininity. Both women and children were considered asexual and thus "purer" than men. Their inferior status was ill-concealed under an elaborate "respect" while both were considered mentally deficient. The pedestal of adoration on which both were set, made it hard for them to breathe. Moreover, because the class oppression of women and children is couched in the phraseology of "cute" it is much harder to fight than open oppression. A final similarity to note in reactions could be called the prophecies of doom, the predictions of total chaos that people warn would be the inevitable result of such "absurd notions" being taken seriously. Contemporary readers are warned from the right that "the blacks are calling for the vote for 14-year- olds because they want to make South Africa ungovernable", and from the left (Azapo) that "we must find a way of accommodating the youth while not ending up with a monster that could swallow us all". The monster threatening to swallow the nation in 1877 was "petticoat parliament". A few years later in 1891, Samual Smith, MP, was saying: "If we abandon the caution of the Anglo- Saxon race, and plunge into wild experiments like women's suffrage, I much fear that dark days will befall this nation, and that the splendid fabric of centuries will totter to its fall". How would it change things for children to have the vote? How, for example, would it affect the situation and problems and needs of the 100 million streetchildren in the world if those in power depended on them for their vote? Could it be that we don't want to let children vote for the same reasons that men didn't want to let women vote? That we want to keep children as an oppressed, disenfranchised "class"? Could it be that in another 70 years from now, we might be amazed and embarrassed that there could have been a time that people did not consider it "right" and "normal" for children to have the vote? [Anne Schuster is a writer who has done research on children's rights and children in courts]. From uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!thrip.watstar.uwaterloo.ca!NBOARDI Tue Aug 10 08:01:06 CDT 1993 Article: 17735 of soc.culture.african Xref: uwvax soc.culture.caribbean:3300 soc.culture.african:17735 soc.culture.african.american:30677 Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean,soc.culture.african,soc.culture.african.american Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!thrip.watstar.uwaterloo.ca!NBOARDI From: NBOARDI@CIVIL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Nosakhere Boardi) Subject: MAYBE THEN Message-ID: <NBOARDI.40.744549219@CIVIL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca> Lines: 37 Sender: news@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1993 11:13:39 GMT MAYBE THEN Imagine Black women on a pedestal, And White women down below. Imagine White women paying good money To get big, puffy-ass afros. Imagine White women despising, And hating their natural hair. Imagine White women with jherry-curl juice, Dripping down the back of their ear. Imagine one White woman asking another, "Why don't you do something with that?" "How do you expect to get a man?" "Natural hair is straight-up whack!!" Imagine when ninety-nine Percent of White girls by age four, Must treat their heads with chemicals, And then chemicals forever more. You see, the day when womanhood, Is defined by short, coiffed, natural, and black, Is the day when I'll believe That we have our sanity back. And if you want to convince me That you "fry" to add variety, Then try your natural hair for a change. Maybe then, Maybe then I'll believe. by Nosakhere Bediako Boardi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOSAKHERE BOARDI From uwvax!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.bu.edu!jimi Tue Aug 10 08:06:15 CDT 1993 Article: 17776 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.bu.edu!jimi From: jimi@bu.edu (James Yuma) Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: For Jamal's Eyes: The Zairian Tragedy (Part One) Date: 7 Aug 1993 22:43:35 GMT Organization: Boston University Lines: 106 Message-ID: <241b6n$qbu@news.bu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: acs2.bu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0] For Jamal's Eyes: the Zairian Tragedy (Part One) [Following your request in one of your recent postings, here's the first installment of my *synopsis* of the Zairian tragedy.] NOTE: I use the name *Zaire* for the sake of convenience only. As has already been decided by the *Sovereign National Conference*, the legitimate name of that African country is the *Congo*--not to be confused with its neighbor *Congo Brazzaville*. *Zaire*-- a mispelling of the Kikongo word *nzadi* (= the river)--was used by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century and imposed by Mobutu to the people of Zaire in 1972. 1. Who is responsible? Mobutu's career is fraught with deceit, blood, and grand larceny. But as I attempt to make sense of the curse that's befallen my country and my people, a troubling question creeps in my mind: who is responsible? I don't know if I should lay the responsibility of the Zairian people's misfortune on Mobutu's feet or instead at the doorsteps of his long-time mentors--the US government and its dreadful instrument of foreign policy: the Central Intelligence Agency. Or, perhaps, taking a more cautious and objective outlook, should I say that in the heyday of the Cold War--when Third World countries were in a kind of a catch 22 situation--Mobutu was a distaster that was begging to happen to Zaire. Like it or not, at that time, you had to be politically (and economically) overrun by one or the other of the two superpowers. And in the particular case of Zaire-- which became a virtual US colony under Mobutu's 28-year rule--another parameter was added: a sheer contempt for the Zairian people, which I'd be tempted to equate with racism. For three long decades, incompetent or rather mischievous CIA bureaucrats have given false readings on the Zairian situation to seven successive US presidents! Today, as a result of the continuing backing of Mobutu by incompetent CIA bureaucrats, thousands of people--mostly women and children--are dying in Zaire and Angola...This question of responsibility is an open one... 2. Lumumba hires Mobutu as one of his private secretaries In 1957, when Patrice Emery Lumumba's political fortune was on the rise, he was approached by a 27-year-old good-looking man who claimed to have been impressed by Lumumba's political vision. [With mentors like N'Krumah and Nehru, Lumumba was professing Third World empowerment as a pillar of his political philosophy.] That charming and cunning young man was none other than Joseph-Desire Mobutu. A primary school dropout who was drafted by the Belgian colonial army from the streets of Kinshasa where he was a small-time conman, he had just completed his 7-year army duty with the rank of sergeant. Mobutu had people believe that he was earning his living as a reporter for an obscure paper of the Zairian capital of Kinshasa. But unbeknownst to his friends and his own wife--the late Marie- Antoinette, he was a well-paid operative of the Belgian political police in Zaire: the infamous *Surete Nationale*. His supervisor at the *Surete Nationale* was Victor Nendaka who was already on the CIA payroll. [ After independence, he became the head of the Zairian intelligence service and, with Mobutu, he played a key role in the CIA-funded conspiracy to assassinate Lumumba.] The brand of fiery nationalism that Lumumba was preaching was, to say the least, very disquieting for the US which didn't know how to deal with Third World independent-minded leaders. You had to be a subservient friend or a callous foe. Thus, Mobutu was planted in Lumumba's inner circle in order to closely monitor him and to bring his sudden downfall if need be. Some of the best of Lumumba's advisors resented the aggressive way Mobutu used to earn Lumumba's confidence; and they even tried to warn Lumumba against that young man from nowhere, whose shabby background had been poorly investigated. Another source of concern in Lumumba's entourage was Mobutu's *security mentality*: he almost succeeded in isolating Lumumba's from his top advisors. In his book, *The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba*, Thomas Kanza, Lumumba's top advisor offers this snapshot of the mole: "[Mobutu] was Lumumba's guardian angel on all his trips to Belgium. They often worked together on the vast piles of mail that Lumumba had to answer." Other advisors started wondering aloud how a man with such truncated education could justify the prominent role he was claiming for himself around Lumumba. But what they didn't know or didn't want to admit to themselves was that Lumumba was a very impressionable and sensitive man who could easily fall prey to the charm of a seasoned conman like Mobutu. Ultimately, Lumumba's laxism towards Mobutu--a paid agent of a foreign government--would ultimately cost Lumumba his political career and his own life. Thomas Kanza offers these recollections: "Mobutu succeeded in winning Lumumba's confidence to such a degree that Lumumba considered him his go-between in finding the support he would need from all parts of Europe when he became prime minister. I chanced to find out that Mobutu and I had been born on the same date, 14 October, two years apart. Lumumba was amused to hear this, and said, *Well Thomas, I always trust Libra people because they are thoughtful; they never decide anything without considering it carefully first. They are sincere in their friendships, determined in their decisions, and stable in character. Generally, they are pleasant to deal with.* It sounded as though he knew the Libra horoscope by heart. "I was by no means surprised to find Joseph Mobutu next in the presidency of the council, a key position in the government. This position put him just where he needed to be so as to observe, coordinate and check everything connected with the prime minister's office [.]" *TO BE CONTINUED* From uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!edison.usask.ca!f54oguocha Tue Aug 10 08:06:58 CDT 1993 Article: 17781 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!edison.usask.ca!f54oguocha From: f54oguocha@edison.usask.ca Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: SOCCER NEWS: SENEGAL VS ZAMBIA RESULTS Date: 8 AUG 93 20:00:44 GMT Organization: University of Saskatchewan Lines: 32 Message-ID: <8AUG93.20004430@edison.usask.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: edison.usask.ca Results of AFRICAN matches played on 07 August : ------------------------------------------------ African Group B -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Senegal 0-0 Zambia played in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire P W D L F A Pts Maxpts Morocco 3 2 0 1 5 3 4 6 Zambia 2 1 1 0 2 1 3 7 Senegal 3 0 1 2 1 4 1 3 ELIMINATED !!! (07 Aug) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Zambia must draw with Morocco in Casablanca or Rabat and win Senegal convincingly at Lusaka to pick up the ticket to US'94. Failing this, Morocco will be there once again. For now, the road is tight but Morocco seems to have the upper hand. Cheers guys! Oguocha. Source: Harinderpal Singh Grewal harin@iti.gov.sg National Computer Board, Singapore harinder@itivax.bitnet From uwvax!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!netnews.upenn.edu!zorn.sas.upenn.edu!user Tue Aug 10 08:08:01 CDT 1993 Article: 17786 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!netnews.upenn.edu!zorn.sas.upenn.edu!user From: kitaro@sas.upenn.edu (kitaro) Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: NIGERIAN STALE NEWS Message-ID: <kitaro-050893132525@zorn.sas.upenn.edu> Date: 5 Aug 93 17:23:37 GMT Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Followup-To: soc.culture.african Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 89 Nntp-Posting-Host: zorn.sas.upenn.edu Disturbances in Lagos Since the cancellation of the results of the June 12 presidential election, sporadic rioting has been taking place in Nigeria's biggest commercial metropolis. MONDAY, JULY 5, NIGHTMARE The protest, organised by the trade unions and by the Campaign for Democracy,wasto have been a peaceful one. However this was hijacked by those who saw no need for it to be non-violent, assisted by "Area Boys", % the mass of urban youths, jobless, largelywas homeless, laden with the deadweight of a comatose economy and intent on visiting the revenge of their collective deprivation on society. Had there really been a chance that the bloody destruction in Lagos could be averted? The events that led to the unfortunate development point to an answer. On Junc 23, whcn the military government canccllcd the election and suspended the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the din of disaproval seemed to have overwhelmed the cheers of those who wanted fresh elections or the prolongation of military rule. The reason that the steps were taken to prevent "our legal system from being rediculed and politicised both nationally and internationally" appeared not to have impressed Chief Moshood Abiola, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (#DP) who countered with the proverb that "You cannot kill a newborn baby simply because the midwife is a bad woman." A new set of structures was put in place to "midwife" the transition-to-civil-rule programme to a new baby of democracy when President Ibrahim Babangida m ade a national broadcast on June 26. He pledged that he was still committed to the handover date of August 27. A reconstituted NEC would organise new polls from which a genuine democracy would emerge. But while repons said the nadonal executive of the National Rcpublican Convention (NRC) had accepted to fight the new elections, the SDP will not be a party to it. Meanwhile Nigeria was taking a ternble battering in the international media just as tension was simmering at home. Students of the University of Ibadan in Oyo State took to the streets on June 28 and were quickly joined by the townsfolk. By the time it ended, over 100 inmates of the Agodi Prison, including convicted armed robbers, had been set free by the demonstrators. The Agodi customary court building was torched. Two days later university students visited the headquarters of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Yaba, Bafyau, the president. He had refuted press reports that the NLC had given a 48 hour ultimatum to government to release cancelledelection results or face a nationwide strike action. Not finding Bafyau, the students seized, and manhandled Comrade Salisu Mohammed, a hapless member of the NLC national executive council. Then they sacked the premises, sending workers and visitors fleeing in all directions. There are Other reported demonstrations in parts of the old western region Two new devel- opments immedi- President Babanglde atcly showed that, if anything, the stalemate was getting farther from a resolution and the government was minded to take a tougher line. First, government issued a statement warning that there were "subterranean moves" to bribe the National Assembly into scuttling the last aspects of the transition programme. According to a release by Mr Ndaka lrabor, the press secretan/ to Vice-President Augustus Aikhomu, "the Federal Government is aware of subterranean moves to corruptly induce the National Assembly to subvert the rest of the transition-to-civil-rule programme. "Government wishes to advise that it will not be in the nation's interest or that of the enhancement of democracy, for members of the legislative body to allow their exalted position to be cornpromised." By the time the legislators denied the stoW of overtures to bribe them, Government issued an ultimatum to the executives of the SDP and NRC. They had until Thursday June 8 to accept to run in the scheduled new election or all democratic institutions already in place, including the national and state legislatures, as well as gubernatorial posts and party executive portfolios, would be dismantled. All these, the government threatened, would be replaced with an interim administration appointed by itseI~ But on Manday July 5, the riots erupted. After its second day the BBC claimed over 20 protesters had been shot. But according to Colonel Fred Chijuka, the director of Army public relations, soldiers did not open fire on any protester. The situation was serious enough for General Sani Abacha, the 'Defence Secretary and Chief of Defence Staff, to issue a 24 hour ultimatum to Governor Michael Otedola to restore order in his state. But the upheaval was beyond the oldest Nigerian governor and knight of the Catholic Church who ran a successful printing empire before he became the chief executive of Lagos State. By the third day army tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs) rumbled into the streets of the former Nigerian capital to enforce peace. The SDP still will not have stuck with the rescheduled elections, preferring instead the institution of an interim government. ,, 12 - 18 July 1993 THIS IS A NEWS ITEM I SCANNED FROM THE WEST AFRICA MAGAZINE. THIS IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT WITH THIS SORT OF PROGRAM.IF SUCCESFUL, MORE WILL COME. BABATUNDE ELEGBEDE From uwvax!uwm.edu!wupost!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sgi!cdp!NFMail!blythe.org!ww Tue Aug 10 08:08:24 CDT 1993 Article: 17787 of soc.culture.african Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!wupost!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sgi!cdp!NFMail!blythe.org!ww From: ww@blythe.org Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Date: 08 Aug 93 21:09 PDT Subject: Somalia: Report Documents US-UN Abu Message-ID: <mkuZ8B40w165w@blythe.org> Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway <notes@igc.apc.org> Lines: 128 Subject: Somalia: Report Documents US-UN Abuses From: ww@blythe.org (Workers World Service) Reply-To: ww@blythe.org (Workers World Service) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit SOMALIA REPORT DOCUMENTS US-UN ABUSES By Paul Ahuja A July 30 news report documents brutal abuses against the civilian population carried out by the U.S.-led "peacekeeping" forces occupying Somalia. The report was published by African Rights, an African-led human rights organization. "There is no doubt," its authors conclude, "that members of many military contingents serving with UNOSOM [UN Operation in Somalia] have engaged in abuses of human rights, including killing of civilians, physical abuse, theft and irresponsible disposal of ordnance." African Rights is led by Rakiya Omar, former director of Africa Watch. Omar, a Somali woman, was fired from her position as Director of Africa Watch after opposing the U.S.-led military invasion of Somalia. After her dismissal, Omar and Alex de Waal, Omar's former assistant director at Africa Watch, formed a new organization. The founders describe African Rights as "an organization that will work on issues of conflict, famine and civil reconstruction in Africa." The July 30 report is based on eyewitness testimony of members of African Rights, other human rights groups and Somali civilians. It details many abuses by U.S., Italian, French and Belgian troops. The report's summary states that if these abuses continue, "UNOSOM will find itself at war with a large segment of the Somali population, in all parts of the country." The original aim of African Rights' most recent trip to Somalia was not to investigate human rights abuses. The goal was to attempt to find solutions to the problems of civil reconstruction facing the Somalis. However, "the abusive behavior of the troops was so blatant, and impinged on the mission's planned activities so much, that the issue was impossible to ignore." MILITARY ACTION UNPRECEDENTED During June and July the UN forces in Mogadishu engaged in offensive military action on a scale unprecedented in the last 30 years of UN operations. This includes several night-time bombings of Gen. Muhamud Aidid's house and headquarters, beginning on June 12. The next day, UN soldiers opened fire with machine guns on unarmed protesters, killing dozens of Somalis. A few days later, June 17, UN forces launched an artillery and missile attack against Digfer Hospital, where they claimed snipers were hiding. On July 12, according to the Red Cross, U.S. helicopters fired 16 TOW missiles into a Somali residential area, killing at least 54 people. African Rights states in their report that "UNOSOM forces are operating with near total impunity" and that "official UN accounts of events are often highly inaccurate." WHO POLICES THE 'PEACEKEEPERS' To date no cases of abuse by UN soldiers have been brought before the Secretary General, the Security Council or any other UN office. The U.S. Marine Corps, which tries its own soldiers in cases of abuse, has so far found only one soldier guilty of abuse. The Marines found Gunnery Sgt. Harry Conde guilty of "excessive force" in an incident in which he shot two Somalis. Last Feb. 2, Sgt. Conde shot and killed 13-year-old Ahmed Abdi. At his Court Martial, Conde claimed the youth was trying to steal his sunglasses. The second person Conde shot was a bystander, 17-year-old Ahmed Mohamed Hassan. The youth was wounded. According to a Pentagon news release, the Marines punished Sgt. Conde by demoting him one rank and ordering him to pay a fine of $1,706--one month's pay. Workers World asked opponents of the U.S. intervention for their reaction to the African Rights report. Monica Moorehead of the International Action Center said: "This report confirms what we have been saying since last December. The U.S./UN presence in Somalia is not about feeding people. "It's about the colonial-type reconquest of an African country. The generals will use whatever force they deem necessary." The IAC has organized several nationally coordinated protests against the U.S. presence in Somalia. According to the African Rights report, "Some UNOSOM commanders seek to justify the behavior of their forces by claiming that matters would be much worse were they not present, or indeed were worse before international forces arrived." African Rights says this is false: "In Mogadishu and its immediate vicinity, Somalis and humanitarian agencies are unanimous in their verdict that the security situation has never been worse." The report concludes: "There is no doubt that members of many military contingents serving with UNOSOM have engaged in killing civilians. Many UNOSOM soldiers have also displayed unacceptable levels of racism toward Somalis. "These are not cases of undisciplined actions by individual soldiers, but stem from the highest echelons of the command structure. ... UNOSOM has become an army of occupation." -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.) + Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective + + We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox! + + Modem:718-448-2358 Fax:718-448-3423 E-mail: nyt@blythe.org + 
