Biko death S.A. Govt tells papers

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 11

Biko death S.A. Govt tells papers

NZPA Pretoria A South African magistrate has assumed responsibility for establishing whether Stephen Biko. the country’s foremost young black leader, „died of head injuries inflicted by police or, as the Government is now implying, suffered the injuries by accident, possibly by walking into a door, banging his head on a wall, or falling on the floor, the New York Times News Service reports.

After 45 days of con-; troversy, an inquest into the: black leader’s death last month opened formally on Thursday in a sparsely-! attended courtroom here. 1 However, no new light was shed on the case, since Mr Martinus Prins, chief magistrate of Pretoria, adjourned the proceedings almost immediately until November 14, apparently to allow lawyers to study the autopsy report and an accompanying police dossier. Evidently officials of the National Government, in over-all charge of the police, already are satisfied that the death was accidental. After giving relatively little attention to the case for weeks, several pro-Government newspapers on - Thursday printed nearly identical stories based on official briefings at a high level.

-Isaying that the black leader! ■! "most probably” inflicted! pthe injuries on himself. i 1 The stories said that the ■1 brain injuries found by path- ■ jologists to be the primary >|cause of death were consistent with a slight “bump,” nori ■|a blow, as some anti-Govern-i! ment newspapers have •I suggested. The accounts ' acknowledged that this could • i have resulted from a rt“struggle” with police, for ; i example over handcuffing, . as the Government has hin- : ted previously, but they also 11 offered new possibilities, all ,;ot them accidental. : “Die Vaderland” said that "ithe injuries were such as -.could have been suffered . “by any person who has t slightly bumped his head, I either by a fall or walking I into a door.” “Die Trans--1 valer” said that Mr Biko , could have received the in-

juries “by bumping his head against the wall.” “Beeld” said that the injuries could have come from the black leader’s “walking into a wall, or injuring his head in any other way. I The three Johannesburg papers, all printing in Afrikaans, the language of the Dutch-descended minority that controls the Government, were joined by the “Citizen,” an English-lan-guage daily that was founded last year in opposition to the anti-Government papers that dominate among English-speaking readers. Citing unnamed forensic experts, it said that the injuries could have resulted from Mr Biko’s head coming into contact with an immovable object, “possibly the result of a fall or bump.” At E n g 1 is h-language papers, there was con-

sternation that the Government, critical of them for “speculative” reports at an earlier stage of the controversy, had inspired a fresh round of speculation, more favourable to itself. There was also irritation that the reports had been published immediately before the issue passed to the courts, barring any further press speculation. “They’ve had the last word — for now,” said one editor whose paper has angered the Government with its coverage of the case. The editor, obviously disturbed, said that the new ' accounts raised the possibility that the Government would take punitive action against opposition newspapers if the courts. eventually decided that Mr Biko’s 'death was not the result of police wrongdoing.