South African Police Accused of Assaulting Children, Other Detainees

Police have assaulted scores of South African political detainees, including children, who are being held under a national state of emergency, the opposition Progressive Federal Party said Wednesday.

Helen Suzman, party spokeswoman on law and order, told Parliament that sworn affidavits from one district of Natal province alone contained the names of 119 people, two of them aged 15 and 12, who said they had been assaulted by police.

The 15-year-old, who was not identified, was allegedly given electric shocks. Another detainee was put in a police van that was then sprayed with tear gas, she said.

Because of press censorship, the media are barred from publishing reports on detention conditions unless they emanate from Parliament, whose debates are open to news coverage.

Cases a ‘Microcosm’

Suzman said the 119 cases occurred near Natal’s Kwamashu black township. “They are a microcosm of what is going on across the length and breadth of the country,” the veteran Parliament member said.

Figures compiled by the Progressive Federal Party and other monitoring groups suggested that between 20,000 and 25,000 people were held at various stages under the emergency, including 6,000 under the age of 18, she said.

Suzman, speaking during a no-confidence debate, said that about 5,000 are being detained now. The government imposed the emergency last June to curb political violence that has left about 2,300 dead.

Parliament resumed this week as President Pieter W. Botha called a whites-only general election for May 6. It was the first time in months that the opposition has been able to air allegations of police brutality.