Soweto Killing Breaks a Calm
A policeman was killed Friday in Soweto in an attack blamed by police on black guerrillas, breaking a monthlong lull in political murders in South Africa’s biggest black township.
The Human Rights Commission monitoring violence said Soweto, home to more than 3 million blacks, was clear of political murders in January for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years.
But in a detailed monthly report on political violence in the country, the commission said there was a marked shift in attacks to Natal province.
Safoora Sadek, national director of South Africa’s Human Rights Commission, attributed the decline in Soweto to increased world attention and a September record of understanding between the African National Congress and government to try to halt the slide into anarchy.
Police blamed Friday’s assault on the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA).
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