Violence Erupts in Soweto as Police Bar Mass Funeral : Thousands Protest; 5 Feared Dead

Thousands of black youths today burned barricades, stoned buses and marched in protest in Soweto as security forces fired warning shots and tear gas to block a mass funeral for at least 20 blacks killed by police.

Unconfirmed accounts quoted Soweto residents as saying as many as five people may have been killed in clashes with security forces. But the government Bureau for Information said it had no reports of injuries or deaths.

Witnesses said one woman was killed when militant youths trying to enforce a protest strike chased her with whips in a train station and she fell in front of a train. They said a man was injured when he jumped from a train to escape the youths.

Tens of thousands of blacks in Soweto, the huge black township outside Johannesburg, joined the protest strike. The South African Press Assn. said all Soweto shops were closed, and witnesses said youths attacked commuters trying to get taxis or heading for bus stops.

Police using tear gas and firing guns in the air blocked a mass funeral for blacks killed by police in the Aug. 26-27 riots in Soweto. Black clergy said they interposed themselves between mourners and security forces to prevent violence as thousands of mourners left Jabavu Stadium in Soweto’s White City neighborhood with their hands raised.

‘Off Indefinitely’

“The funerals are off indefinitely,” said Simeon Nkoane, Anglican bishop in townships east of Johannesburg, after he and other clergy met at St. Paul’s Anglican church in Soweto to decide what to do.

The clergy had planned to defy a police ban on the mass funeral but yielded after police and soldiers surrounded St. Paul’s. Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas near the church and two helicopters hovered overhead.

Nkoane said Sowetans would not accept police orders to bury the riot victims four at a time and only on weekdays.

“People are angry. I’ve never seen them so angry,” he said.

However, the Rev. David Nkwe, rector of St. Paul’s, said police seized the bodies of 10 riot victims and buried them. It was not immediately clear whether the families of the dead agreed to the burials.

Unconfirmed reports said up to 17 people were buried in other parts of Soweto, but it was not clear if they were victims of last week’s clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the eviction of rent boycotters.

Thousands of Mourners

Witnesses said police broke up a service for some riot victims at Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church and lobbed two tear gas canisters into a bus carrying people to a cemetery. At the cemetery, witnesses said police fired more tear gas and moved in a dozen armored cars to disperse several thousand mourners.

The Bureau for Information reported an unspecified number of fire-bombings. It said eight people were arrested in connection with one gasoline bombing but gave no details.

The Natal Supreme Court, meanwhile, today declared four clauses of the emergency regulations relating to the press invalid.

The court ruled invalid a measure allowing the government to seize and ban publications deemed subversive and overturned a ban on reporting unrest without police permission.

The court did not, however, strike down the decree issued Wednesday to bar journalists from reporting security forces’ operations and banning them from being “within sight” of unrest.

Today’s work boycott, called to protest police actions, was widely effective. The independent Labor Monitoring Group said a survey of 100 Johannesburg employers showed that 72% of manufacturing workers from Soweto and 85% of commercial workers from the township stayed away from work.