Detainees in S.A. “vanished”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 13

Detainees in S.A. “vanished”

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, February’ 7. Fifty-two American Senators and Congressmen today asserted that some persons detained under South Africa’s Terrorism Act had vanished. Their fate was unknown.

The group denounced the recent arrest of the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg (the Very Rev. Gonville ffrenchBeytagh) by the South African authorities. The dean, a fierce critic of South Africa’s apartheid policy, was arrested on January 20 under the Terrorism Act and charged with assisting outlawed organisations and distributing the literature of outlawed groups. The United States congressional group, which includes the Democratic Presidential hopefuls, Senators Edmund Muskie (Maine) and Birch

Bayh (Indiana), said in a statement that the dean’s arrest “is a cause of anguish to men everywhere who believe in liberty, justice, and process of law.” The statement said: “Our concern, however, extends also to the manner of the dean’s arrest and detention. The Terrorism Act of 1967 permits persons suspected ofi subversive activities to be held incommunicado and without charges for an indefinite period.

“Some detained under the Terrorism Act have simply vanished, with no information on their fate available to friends and relatives.”

The group said the efforts of the South African Government to silence one of the church’s most outspoken officials was one more sign that South Africa was isolating itself from the currents of freedom, self-determina-tion, and justice throughout the world.