ECSA Bulletin

The newsletter says Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators against South Africa's interim government in Namibia were brutally beaten by police last night in the black township of Katutura, outside Windhoek, the capital of Namibia; according to a spokesperson for the Council of Churches in Namibia, the hospitals and clinics in the township were filled with people who had been clubbed and teargassed by South African Police; the violence came unexpectedly, according to eyewitnesses; about 4,000 persons had attended a rally at the junior sports field in the township; the meeting had been organized by SWAPO and other political parties opposed to the government that South Africa was installing at a celebration on the other side of the capital. The newsletter says a special contingent of the police codenamed Koevoet violently attacked people who were returning to their houses after attending a meeting at the Katutura junior sports grounds on Monday, 17 June 1985. The newsletter says on June 16, the day before South Africa installed a new government in Namibia, thousands of Christians gathered in open air meetings and rural village churches praying for deliverance from the suffering they have endured under South African rule. The newsletter discusses Gary Nelson, UNITA, SWAPO (South West African People's Organization), SWANU (South West African Nation Union), SWAPO-Democrats, Paul Lusaka, Andreas Shipanga, Resolution 435, Cuban troops, South African President P.W. Botha, the multiparty conference, Moses Katijiuongua, Cabinda, the Damara Council, NUDO-PP, Vekuii Rukoro, Katutura hospital, Council of Churches in Namibia, Howard Phillips, the Conservative Caucus, the American Committee to Rescue Africa From the Grip of Soviet Tyranny, Howard Pollock of the National Rifle Association, James van De Graaff, Rep. Philip Crane, William Cheshire, and Marion H. Smoak, U.S.-Namibia (South West Africa) Trade and Cultural Council, Senator Jesse Helms, Sam Nujoma, the UN Security Council, the Western Contact Group, Cuban troops in Angola, the Reagan Administration, Anglican Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South West Africa/Namibia (Rheinish Mission), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South West Africa/Namibia (ELOC), the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the Evangelical Reformed Church, the United Congregational Church, Zephaniah Kameeta, the Lutheran cathedral at Oniipa, Minister of Law and Order Louis Le Grange, Ovambo, and Kavango. The newsletter includes reprints of two newspaper articles "Botha presses on with his own Namibia set-up" by Allister Sparks and "Namibia marches teargassed as new government installed" by Barry Streek. Contents: 'INAUGURATION DAY' NAMIBIA: AN AMERICAN WITNESS SOUTH AFRICA'S KOEVOET POLICE ATTACK PEACEFUL MARCH IN WINDHOEK • STATEMENT RELEASED BY THE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN NAMIBIA • NAMIBIA - The 'Inauguration' • NAMIBIA - At The United Nations • OPEN LETTER TO THE STATE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA BY THE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN NAMIBIA • TO THE BRITISH MEMBERS OF PARLLAMENT VISITING NAMIBIA • CHRISTIANS THROUGHOUT NAMIBIA PRAY FOR PEACE AND DELIVERANCE • 'The Devils Are Really Now Among Us.'