South Africa: Trying to Break the Hammerlock

Botha's crackdown brings an angry response at home and abroad

Violence continued at home and diplomatic pressure from abroad accelerated last week as South Africa entered the third week of its state of emergency, the most severe crackdown by the country's white minority government against the black majority in 25 years. As the number of blacks detained without charge passed 1,300 and the death toll in the black townships reached 24, the government banned the holding of mass outdoor funerals in some areas. The services had become the focal point of black grief and outrage. Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel laureate who has emerged as the leading voice of...

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