4,000 More Held Without Charge in S. Africa

About 4,000 more people, most of them blacks, have been detained without charge for a month or more under the state of emergency, the South African government reported Thursday.

Of these, 281 were children 14 and younger, and three were no more than 11 years old, Parliament was told in Cape Town.

The government reports, required by South African law, increased to almost 13,500 the number of people who have been jailed for more than 30 days without being brought to trial under the eight-month-old state of emergency.

But Adriaan Vlok, the minister of law and order, asserted in an accompanying statement that even with the inclusion of others who have been held for less than a month and whose names need not be reported, the total number of detainees did not approach the figures of 20,000 to 30,000 cited by the government’s critics.

1,000 to Face Trial

Vlok also said that more than 1,000 of those on the latest list of detainees given to Parliament have now been charged with offenses ranging from murder and arson to stone-throwing and property damage and will be brought to trial.

He defended as unfortunate but necessary the detention of children, noting that under South African law 14-year-olds are legally responsible for their actions.

“I wish to point out that it is not so-called callousness towards ‘innocent youths’ that is at issue,” Vlok said, “but the combatting of revolutionary-inspired crime.”

Helen Suzman, a member of Parliament from the opposition Progressive Federal Party and a veteran civil rights campaigner, replied angrily that detention without trial, particularly of children, is “a disgrace to a civilized country, which South Africa purports to be.”

Thousands Not Reported

Suzman said she believes that “many thousands” of others have been detained for less than 30 days and that “large numbers” are being held under other security laws that permit detention for six months but do not require that it be reported to Parliament.

“The minister’s figures are a considerable underestimation of the true position,” she said. “The story is a very sad one, and he is doing his best to hide what this government has done and continues to do.”

Suzman estimated that at least 5,000 people are now being detained without charge, and government spokesmen did not dispute her.

Reporting Restricted

The emergency regulations, which give the police and army what amount to martial-law powers to deal with political violence, severely restrict what correspondents may report about the civil unrest and the government’s efforts to quell it.

Detentions, for example, may not generally be reported without official permission, nor may the conditions in which people are detained. Newsmen are also prohibited from first-hand coverage of political violence and from reporting any security force action related to it.

Suzman and other Progressive Federal members of Parliament have said they will use their immunity from censorship regulations to challenge the government’s version of events and call it to account.

President Pieter W. Botha, meanwhile, declared the government’s intention to maintain strict regulations on the news media because the major South African newspapers have refused to accept a system of self-censorship.

Editors Balk

Botha said that negotiations between the government and the Newspaper Press Union, which represents the major English and Afrikaans-language papers, had collapsed, with editors refusing to have the Media Council, a watchdog group, enforce the emergency regulations and to give the council greater punitive powers over its members.

Two English-language newspaper groups, South African Associated Newspapers and the Argus Company, noted in separate statements that they are challenging the latest press regulations in court and that the approaching parliamentary election has already made censorship a hot political issue.

“We believe that the people of South Africa need as much information as possible in these difficult times so that they can make decisions based on all the facts,” Argus said. “Ignorance of matters surrounding the turmoil in our country will not help to end it. An informed public is clearly better able to contribute towards solutions that will bring turmoil to an end.”

The Botha government contends that South Africa is faced with a Communist-led “revolutionary onslaught” that has succeeded in turning both the domestic and foreign news media into propaganda tools for its cause and that, as a result, it has no choice but to restrict what may be reported here and abroad.

Disputed by Rights Groups

When Vlok gave Parliament the lengthy list of those detained for more than 30 days since September, civil rights groups that had been monitoring the detentions immediately disputed the government’s portrayal of what is a highly controversial issue here.

They challenged Vlok, who has sought to maintain a dialogue with his critics, to disclose precisely how many people have been detained since June 12, when the emergency was imposed, how many are still being held and how many of these are under 18, or children as defined by South African law.