Premier at Embassy : Fabius Stages Paris Protest of Execution

Premier Laurent Fabius drove to the South African Embassy on Friday and stood outside its door for a minute in a silent and conspicuous protest against the execution of black poet Benjamin Moloisi in Pretoria for his part in the 1982 murder of a black policeman.

Only a few hours after word of the death reached Paris, the 39-year-old French premier surprised embassy personnel by stepping out of his limousine and walking slowly, impassively, his hands forming fists at his sides, until he reached the front of the modern building on the Quai d’Orsay.

Fabius did not speak to reporters until the minute was over, then said: “It was an execution carried out by the racist regime of Pretoria in contempt for the rights of man. I simply came as premier after this scandalous execution to bow before his memory.”

The symbolic act of Fabius was the most dramatic in a series of protests by France during the day. President Francois Mitterrand, on an official visit to Brazil and Colombia, called the execution “a great shame for civilization.”

Assembly Halts Session

The National Assembly suspended its session for five minutes. The Foreign Ministry said South Africa’s refusal to listen to appeals for clemency compromised all efforts at dialogue that might lead to “a durable solution of the problems of the South African society.”

Poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, the former president of Senegal who is now a member of the French Academy, read a French translation on French television of Moloisi’s last message.

Demonstrators chanted in front of the South African Embassy for most of the day and into the night. A small group of protesters occupied the South African Consulate in Marseilles for half an hour.

The official protests were in step with the recent policies of the Socialist government of Mitterrand and Fabius. In July, France recalled its ambassador and suspended all new investment in South Africa to protest the imposition of a state of emergency there. Those measures, which reversed a long French tradition of opposing sanctions, were the most stringent taken by any Western country against South Africa.