The report says Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet and painter, is the outstanding Afrikaans writer of his generation; he is also a political person and a patriot and someone who can appeal to South Africa's white youth and drive a wedge into the Afrikaner regime. Vorster et al recognize the threat Breytenbach, and those who support him, represent. In November, 1975 he was sentenced to nine years under the Terrorism Act for illegally entering the country and carrying on anti-apartheid resistance work. He was drugged and has been tortured and held in solitary confinement in a psychiatric wing of the Pretoria prison since then. At the trial, he bargained for the freedom of 11 people detained...
The report says Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet and painter, is the outstanding Afrikaans writer of his generation; he is also a political person and a patriot and someone who can appeal to South Africa's white youth and drive a wedge into the Afrikaner regime. Vorster et al recognize the threat Breytenbach, and those who support him, represent. In November, 1975 he was sentenced to nine years under the Terrorism Act for illegally entering the country and carrying on anti-apartheid resistance work. He was drugged and has been tortured and held in solitary confinement in a psychiatric wing of the Pretoria prison since then. At the trial, he bargained for the freedom of 11 people detained with him, and recently he has refused to renounce his affiliation with the continuing work of anti-government forces. The state is trying him again, again under the Terrorism Act. It is important that outside observers attend the trial. Writers active in favor of Breytenbach include Philip Levine, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joseph Brodsky, Reza Baraheni, Adrian Mitchell, Andre Brink. Ramsey Clark, Eqbal Ahmad, Richard Falk, Leonard Weinglass, and Daniel Berrigan are supporting his case. Please help make his case known; send letters to the South African government, Ambassador Andrew Young, the U.S. State Department, and Congress.
