African Activist Archive

Funding appeal for the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa sent to people who have heard Leslie Liddell speak. Prisoners of conscience – especially children -and their families need assistance, although ever increasing censorship in South Africa may have led many to suppose that official violence has moderated. Violence against the population remains high, though much of it is being carried out by vigilante groups. The apartheid government continues to detain and torture both children and adults. Last year 18-year-old Sicelo Dlomo spoke about being tortured in prison in the CBS documentary Children of Apartheid; soon after the program was broadcast, police detained Sicelo in connection with it, and five days later he was found murdered in Soweto. The mailing says cases like this underline the urgency of finding and defending children as well as adults who are detained under South Africa's Emergency regulations or other repressive laws. The mailing says IDAF is uniquely qualified by over 30 years of experience in South Africa to address such cases. It was founded in the 1950s at the request of black opponents of apartheid to provide legal defense for anti-apartheid activists involved in the nonviolent Campaign to Defy Unjust Laws and to provide aid for their families. It defended Nelson Mandela and 155 others in the first great Treason Trial, which lasted from 1956 to 1961. Since then, IDAF has defended literally thousands of prisoners of conscience in South Africa, Namibia, and in Rhodesia (before independence). The mailing says IDAF also seeks to inform the public about the deplorable situation in Southern Africa, through books, pamphlets, newsletters, and other publications, as well as public appearances.

African Activist Archive

[Dear Friend, My friend and colleague Leslie Liddell, who has spoken to your group, has told us that you are both interested ...]

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