S. Africa Vows to Stand Firm in Face of Hunger Strike
A hunger strike by about 225 South African political detainees, at least seven of whom have been hospitalized, grew into a crucial test of the government’s detentions policy Thursday, and the minister of law and order declared he would not be pressured into freeing anyone.
“This hunger strike is an organized attempt to cast the authorities in a bad light and blackmail us,” said Adriaan Vlok, the white minority-led government’s chief police official. “We cannot allow ourselves to be blackmailed.”
The strike, the largest of its kind in South Africa’s history, began 17 days ago to protest government detentions and urge the release of the estimated 1,000 people held without charge under emergency powers. About 32,000 political activists have been detained since June, 1986, the date South Africa imposed sweeping security legislation, for periods ranging from a few days to 2 1/2 years.
The protest quickly spread and human rights activists now say that 121 detainees in two Johannesburg-area prisons and 105 at a prison in Port Elizabeth are refusing food, vitamins and medication. They are accepting only water, salt and sugar.
Some detainees are said to have lost as much as 30 pounds. Seven were hospitalized Wednesday night. The government declined to say whether it is considering force-feeding the strikers.
Meanwhile, 43 lawyers in Johannesburg representing more than 100 of the striking detainees began a two-day sympathy fast Thursday, saying they have run out of legal options to help their clients win release.
Under the state of emergency, police may arrest and hold indefinitely anyone the minister of law and order believes is a threat to public safety or the maintenance of public order. No detention order has been overturned in court.
Human rights organizations in South Africa contend that the government uses detentions to silence its critics, and many of those now in detention belong to anti-apartheid organizations opposed to violence.
But Vlok said all the detainees were “being held in prison for good reason.”
He said formal charges have not been brought against the detainees because in most cases it was impossible to find witnesses willing to testify.
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