S. African Appeals for Unity to End Bloodshed
Acting President Roelof F. (Pik) Botha appealed to South African leaders Friday to unite in ending bloodshed that has ranged recently from the brutal stabbing of an American student to shootings in black townships.
Foreign Minister Botha, acting president while President Frederik W. de Klerk is touring South America, said in a statement that “the rest of the world sees us as a country of violence where human life is not respected.”
Police reported finding five bodies in black townships east of Johannesburg on Friday and eight people--black and white--were wounded when gunmen fired on a luxury double-decker bus.
Two young men arrested Thursday are to appear in court Monday in the slaying of Amy Elizabeth Biehl, 26, a Fulbright fellow from Newport Beach, Calif., who was stabbed to death Wednesday by a black mob near Cape Town.
Researchers from the University of South Africa told a seminar Thursday that South Africa had the world’s highest per capita rate of violent crime.
They said the annual murder rate of 53.5 per 100,000 people compared with 17.2 for the United States and 22.6 for second-place St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
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