Local News in Brief : Anti-Apartheid Protest
More than 500 demonstrators, many of them high school students, crowded into a carport outside the South African Consulate on Monday to protest that country’s apartheid policies and observe the birthday of the late Martin Luther King Jr.
Although several demonstrators briefly blocked elevators leading to the Consulate’s fourth-floor offices in the 9700 block of Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills police made no arrests.
The demonstrators cheered anti-apartheid speeches and clapped as a group of dancers swayed to the rhythm of music from Soweto, a black township near Johannesburg.
Hinyangerwa Asheeke, a United Nations representative from the South West African Peoples Organization, hailed the young protesters. “By choosing the Martin Luther King holiday for this demonstration, you are showing your solidarity with the victims of apartheid in South Africa and Namibia,” he said.
Telephone calls to the Consulate went unanswered, but David Richardson, a security guard at the high-rise building, said no officials had showed up for work.
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