Newspaper Page Text
2A
January 30, 1997
World / National View
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Sudan claims more
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than 300 Ethiopian
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soldiers killed
KHARTOUM, Sudan
(AP) Sudan says it has killed more than 300
Ethiopian soldiers aiding rebels in their three
week offensive in southeastern Sudan, a gov
ernment-owned Sudanese newspaper has re
ported recently. _
The government also | SN
said it has created a com- ot Sutong
mittee with sweeping pow- 1 .
ers to put down the rebel- | SR /
lion in the south and east,/ ~ )
which Sudan claims is" swoan [
backed by Ethiopia and ) f
Eritrea. Both countries '« = /.
deny involvement. N
The Al-Sudan al-Hadith TN
newspaper quoted Col. Babikr Gaber Kabalo,
governar of the Blue Nile region, as saying the
killing of more than 300 Ethiopian soldiers by
government forces shows the neighboring
county is taking part in Sudan’s civil war.
“We are now preparing to take back the
border posts,” Kabalo said, adding that govern
ment forces were advancing toward Geissan on
the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, one of the first
posts to fall to the rebels. The rebels claim to
have taken more than 11 villages on the border.
There is no way to independently confirm
claims by government or the Sudanese rebels.
Both sides have claimed hundreds of deaths.
Kabalo accused the Ethiopian soldiers of
murdering Sudanese prisoners of war, starving
the prisoners and raping women.
A government statement read on national
television Sunday night said a 41-member mo
bilization committee will be headed by Vice
President Maj. Gen. Zubair Mohamed Saleh.
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AUGUSTA FOCUS
?i??i’?fimer S.A. policemen
admit to ’77 killing of Biko
The black activist’s killers
are filing petitions for
amnesty. Despite Biko’s body
being brutally battered, the
police say there was no
intention to kill him.
By Alexandro Zavis
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
JORANNESBURG, South Africa
Five former police officers plan to seek
amnesty for the 1977 killing of activist Steve
Biko, whose death galvanized apartheid’s
opponents and exposed to the world the
brutality of the white-led government.
The officers will petition South Africa’s
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the
panel led by retired Anglican Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and charged with investigat
ing apartheid-era crimes.
Reports that five men planned to file an
amnesty petition were published Monday in
The Port Elizabeth Herald. Truth Commis
sion spokeswoman Christelle Terreblanche
confirmed that the panel was expecting am
nesty applications related to Biko’s death.
A source close to the five men, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told The Associated
Press that the amnesty applications would
assert that Biko was “handled robustly,” but
that there never was any intention to kill
him.
The Herald identified the former officers
as Col. Harold Snyman, who led the team
that interrogated Biko; Lt. Col. Gideon
Niewoudt, a detective sergeant at the time;
Ruben Marx, a warrant officer; Daantjie
Siebert, a captain; and Johan Beneke, a
warrant officer.
Biko, 30, died on Sept. 12, 1977. He had
been arrested and apparently beaten in
Port Elizabeth on the Indian Ocean coast.
Denied medical attention, he was driven in
the back of a police van nearly 700 miles to
Pretoria, where he died in prison. At the
time, police denied beating him.
The charismatic black leader had devel
oped awide following during the early 19705,
urging South African blacks to take pride in
their culture and to fight for control of their
country.
The white government labeled him a ter
rorist.
At his funeral, pictures of his battered
body were widely distributed and later pub
lished around the world. He came to symbol
ize the victims of apartheid brutality.
“He was very broad-minded and working
to unify all the black organizations,” said
Donald Woods, a white former newspaper
editor whose friendship with Biko was de
picted in the 1987 British film Cry Freedom.
“It was a great tragedy that he was
killed, but his death had enormous impact
overseas,” Woods said.
Soon after, the United States imposed
an oil and arms embargo on South Africa.
The Truth Commission will investigate the
death and decide whether to grant amnesty to
the former police officers. The panel was given
the power to grant amnesty in order to promote
reconciliation after decades of white-minority
rule, which ended with the country’s first all
race elections in 1994.
Biko’s widow, however, wants justice for her
husband’s death. Last year, she and the families
of two other apartheid victims went to South
Africa’s highest court to challenge the
commission’s right to forgive certain crimes.
The court rejected their application, saying
amnesty was essential to learning the full truth
about apartheid.
Former members of the police and army were
reluctant to come forward with what they knew
until last year, when the Truth Commission
pardoned a white former police officer convicted
in a criminal court of 11 political murders and
sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The commission since has been inundated
with new amnesty applications.
“In the absence of evidence that would enable
a prosecution, I prefer to see the truth come out
at the Truth Commission,” Woods said.
No one was convicted in Biko’s death, al
though an inquest concluded he probably had
received fatal head injuries while being ques
tioned by police. :
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Welfare changes
slow to trickle to
many recipients
By Russ Bynum
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
RTLANYA
Kechial Copeland learned from
agovernment form letter thatshe’s
got only four more years to count
on a welfare check.
The 26-year-old mother of two
knows little else about the sweep
ing welfare changes in Georgia,
only what she picks up in gossip
with her neighbors in Atlanta’s
Carver Homes housing project.
Nearly a month after Georgia
began overhauling welfare, cru
cial information about the reform
is only slowly trickling out to the
people who will be affected most.
“We’re just all going by what
people are saying. And a lot of
people don’t know,” said Ms.
Copeland, who’s collected welfare
for five of the past six years.
“It’s confusing because you’d
expect with something that’s go
ing to have a tremendous toll on
your life they’d talk to you about it
one-on-one,” she said.
The lag underscores the mas
sive challenge of having to move
most of the state’s 84,801 adults
on welfare into jobs within four
years.
And it means some recipients,
such as Ms. Copeland, have no
idea what kind of child care or job
training they’ll receive to help
Commissioners
From page one
If someone wants to put it on the
agenda.”
Commissioner Henry Brigham
said of Mr. Perkins, “I take a
stand on helping him get rein
them make the transition before:
their benefits run out.
Gov. Zell Miller’s plan to cap
cash benefits at four years — a_
year less than the limit required:
by federal law — was approved by
the federal government last week.
The plan also requires recipients
to find jobs or training immedi
ately. '
Of Georgia’s 309,227 welfare
recipients, 27 percent are adults.
The rest are children. »
The Legislature, which is in ses-.
sion through mid-March, still has
a chance to tinker with the details
of Miller’s plan.
Meanwhile, welfare casework
ers are scrambling to comply with
the new rules.
In Fulton County, where Ms.:
Copeland lives with her daugh
ters, ages 2 and 5, about 240 case
workers handle 18,677 cases _
nearly 80 cases apiece. Since Jan.
1, caseworkers have been meeting
with recipients to go over, the
changes and get them started ona
job search or training course.
The crush has made it nearly.
impossible for people such as Ms.
Copeland to get information over
the phone, much less get an ap
pointment to meet with the case
worker.
stated.” He said he would sup
port a motion to give such em
ployees preference in other de
partments, “If you knew there
was something open.”
When asked if it will be on the
agenda in the future, he said, “I
don’t know. I would support it
when it would come.”