3 Africans Admit Breaking China’s Law : 1 Remains Jailed After Brawl Triggered Racial Unrest in 4 Cities

Three African students held by police in connection with a brawl that triggered racial unrest in four cities have admitted that they broke the law, an official report said today.

One of the three remained under arrest in the eastern city of Nanking, apparently facing trial, while two others were being punished with 15 days of “disciplinary detention,” the Xinhua News Agency said.

A fourth African was released and returned to his school this evening, the report said.

In related developments, about 45 African students held 10 days at a guest house after the brawl returned to their university in Nanking today.

In Hangzhou, about 150 miles to the southeast, African students ended a 10-day class boycott after their college’s president agreed to give them a direct telephone line and write an open letter saying none has acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Ghana warned that it might recall its students because of the treatment of the Africans.

Besides Hangzhou and Nanking, racial incidents have occurred in Beijing and Wuhan, an industrial city in central China.

The incidents began Dec. 24 in Nanking, when African students refused to register their Chinese girlfriends to attend a dance at Hehai University. The disagreement led to a fight and nearly a week of anti-African protests by Chinese youths.

Xinhua said Alex Dosoo of Ghana beat and seriously hurt a university worker during the brawl. He was the only African to be arrested.

The news agency said Alpha Robinson of Gambia and Dossoumou Boni Lodovic of Benin “tried to stir up trouble” during the fight and were being given 15 days’ detention under China’s public order regulations. All three admitted they broke the law, it said without elaborating.

The four were among about 140 students, most from Africa, who tried to flee to Beijing in the face of the Chinese protests but were taken by police to a guest house outside Nanking and held incommunicado.

The four were taken into custody Saturday at the guest house by about 400 police who, according to fellow students and African diplomats, used electric cattle prods and wooden clubs. Chinese officials deny any violence was used.

Police took most of the other students back to Nanking, but 45 remained at the guest house until today, when they returned to school voluntarily in order to meet with a group of African diplomats.