Torture out, police told

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 8

Torture out, police told

NZPA-Reuter Pretoria New instructions have been issued to the South African police on the treatment of political detainees, said the South African Law and Order Minister, Mr Louis le Grange, yesterday. Announcing the new instructions after the deaths of two men held without charge this year, Mr le Grange said that the police had been told that a detainee must be treated in a humane manner at all times. “He shall not be assaulted in any manner or otherwise maltreated or subjected t any form of torture or inhumane or degrading treatment,” he said.

South African police treatment of detainees has provoked widespread protests

overseas and at home, notably since the deaths in police custody of the black activist, Steve Biko, in 1977, and the union organiser, Dr Neil Aggett, in February of this year. An inquest found that Mr Biko had died from brain injuries. Dr Aggett, who was the first white to die in security police detention, dictated a detailed complaint alleging ill-treatment only hours before he was found hanged in his cell at the Johannesburg police headquarters. He had been detained for 70 days. An inquest into his death will begin on December 20. In August Ernest Dipale, who was 21, a black student,

was found hanged in a cell at the same police headquarters. He had been arrested three days earlier and the police said he was to have been charged under this country’s sweeping security laws.

Race relations groups said that Mr Dipale was the fiftythird person to die in detention since 1953, the sixteenth by hanging. Mr le Grange said yesterday that the new instructions laid down that any complaint of assault by a detainee was to be investigated. The instructions also provide for regular visits by relatives, inspectors of detainees, magistrates, and doctors. The new instructions basi-

cally follow the recommendations of a Governmentappointed commission which, in a report issued in February only two days before Dr Aggett’s death, called for greater access to people detained without charge, including visits by a magistrate and a doctor at least every two weeks, and the appointment of inspectors of detainees.

The report, which came after a two-year study of security laws, was later accepted by the Government. A week before it was published, Mr le Grange had said in response to a question in Parliament: “All reasonable precautions are taken to prevent any of these persons (detainees) hurting themselves, or being hurt in any other way, or committing suicide.”

Mr le Grange said that the new instructions laid down that criminal action or disciplinary steps would be taken against, policemen who failed to comply with them. The police had also been told that a detainee must be informed as soon as possible of the reason for his or her detention. A detainee held for six months would then be allowed to make written representations to a board of review about his case, Mr le Grange said. Figures kept by race relations bodies put the number of people at present detained without charge at 190.