ECSA Bulletin

The newsletter says the Council of Churches in Namibia has assailed 'certain members' of the Western Contact Group for 'obstructing and undermining' negotiations by linking negotiations for Namibian freedom from South Africa to withdrawal of Cubans from neighboring Angola. The Council of Churches calls upon the Contact Group 'to remove obstacles hindering the immediate implementation' of U.N. Security Council resolution 435 of 1978. The newsletter includes an open letter to members of the Western Contact Group and an open letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa from the Council of Churches in Namibia. The newsletter asks Americans to press their elected public officials - Senators, Representatives, local legislators – about this issue. People also are asked to write President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Schultz to demand that they drop the concocted Cubans-in-Angola linkage with Namibian independence. The newsletter reports that the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and individual members of churches are under attack as subversives, communists, and supports of liberation movements. The newsletter reports that William G. Paddock has refused to serve in the South African Defence Force (SADF) because it is fighting an unjust war in Namibia; a military tribunal sentenced him to one year in prison. The newsletter includes an interview with Paddock conducted by Father Jim Consedine. Israel, with close tied to Pretoria, is now engaged in building up the Zairian army. The mailing says Zimbabwe is targeted; Washington and Pretoria expect the South African-supported MNR to supplant the government of Mozambique; Lesotho bears repeated savage South African raids. The newsletter includes brief reviews of "Namibia's Stolen Wealth: North American Investment and South Africa Occupation," by Gail Hovey, with forward by Sean McBride (The Africa Fund, 1982) and "Transforming a Wasted Land" by Richard Moorsom (Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1982). The newsletter discusses the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Anglican Church, Lutheran Churches, Methodist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Bishop James Kauluma, Dr. Abisai Shejavali, Eloff Commission, South African Catholic Bishops, Security Police, Lt. Gen. Johan Coetzee, Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker, South African Security Forces, SWAPO, Koevoet, Luckas Hakandonga, Omungwelume Army Camp, ANC (African National Congress), Council for Namibia, bantustans, and Leonard Hamati. Contents: NAMIBIAN CHURCH LEADERS DENOUNCE 'CERTAIN MEMBERS' OF WESTERN CONTACT GROUP. CONDEMN SOUTH AFRICA'S RULE AND 'INTRANSIGENT ATTITUDE' TOWARD UNITED NATIONS PLAN FOR NAMIBIAN INDEPENDENCE • AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE WESTERN CONTACT GROUP • AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA • NAMIBIA - BACK TO BASIC PRINCIPLES • RESISTER • 'WORLD, MOURN WITH THE NAMIBIANS!' • THE DESPOLIATION OF NAMIBIA - New publications you must have