The press release says attached is a recent news release from Amnesty International headquarters in London announcing a worldwide campaign of pressure to end human rights abuses in South Africa; also attached is an open letter to President Botha of South Africa from Amnesty International Secretary General Thomas Hammarberg. The press release says in Hawaii, local Amnesty International groups will sponsor forums and issue symbolic pass books to high government officials on Friday, March 21 in observance of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in which 69 Blacks who were protesting the pass book law in South Africa were brutally murdered by South African police. The press release says pass books or...
The press release says attached is a recent news release from Amnesty International headquarters in London announcing a worldwide campaign of pressure to end human rights abuses in South Africa; also attached is an open letter to President Botha of South Africa from Amnesty International Secretary General Thomas Hammarberg. The press release says in Hawaii, local Amnesty International groups will sponsor forums and issue symbolic pass books to high government officials on Friday, March 21 in observance of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in which 69 Blacks who were protesting the pass book law in South Africa were brutally murdered by South African police. The press release says pass books or "reference books" are issued to all Blacks over 16 and are a means of controlling African freedom of movement and employment; failure to have a pass book can and often results in arrest by the police; in 1984, over 238,000 Blacks were arrested under the pass laws; once arrested, very serious human rights abuses frequently occur. The press release says attached are eyewitness examples of the treatment received by Blacks under detention. The press release says the eyewitness reports are: 1) Excerpts from an Amnesty International report titled "South Africa: Imprisonment under the Pass Laws," January 1986, by Professor Kevin Boyle of Ireland and 2) excerpts from an Amnesty International report titled "Torture and Ill-Treatment", March 1986. The press release says for more information: Russell Shenn, AI-Hawaii S. Africa Campaign and Vernon Budinger, AI Campus Network. The press release discusses State President P.W. Botha, international public opinion, opposition organizations, non-violence political activities, anti-apartheid campaigners, the death penalty, shot dead, troops, immune from prosecution, assassination, detention without trial, political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, political detainees, incommunicado detention, an independent judicial commission, the Internal Security Act, Simon Tseko Nkodi, Billy Nair, the UDF (United Democratic Front), the Natal Indian Congress, Vusi Dlamini, COSAS (Congress of South African Students), Yunis Shaik, the Garment Workers Union, Mbulelo Goniwe, the Cradock Residents' Association, Johnny Mashiane, emergency regulations, Dr. Wendy Orr, black trade unionists, Vusumzi George, the Motor Assemblers' and Component Workers' Union (MACWUSA), Louis Le Grange Square police station, Nelson Mandela, the ANC (African National Congress), Reverend Simon Farisani, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Venda, Auret van Heerden, and Soweto student leader Linda Mario Mogale.
