White supremacist held

Press, 13 December 1982, Page 8

White supremacist held

NZPA-Reuter Pretoria The South African security police have detained nine white men. including the leader of an extreme Rightwing organisation. Arms and explosives also had been seized, a police statement said. The nine are being held under South Africa's tough internal security laws. The statement said that the police had arrested a white member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement) on December 6. Arms, ammunition and explosives also had been seized. More investigations had led to the arrest of eight other men and seizure of more arms. : ncludine auto-

matic weapons. Among those arrested was the movement's leader. Eugene Terr'Blanche. The names of the others were not disclosed. The movement advocates banning political parties, an authoritarian government, and strict enforcement of apartheid. It was formed in 1973. and has a three-pronged emblem reminiscent of the swastika, black-clad security guards, and a motor-cycle unit called the Stormvalke (Storm Falcons). But Mr Terr'Blanche, aged 38. a farmer, has denied that his movement is based on the Nazi model. Mr Terr-Blanche’s wifesaid that the police had detained him at his home at

Ventersdorp. which is about 100 km west of Johannesburg, and took him to nearby Klerksdorp for questioning. The police action comes a few days before the Day of the Covenant public holiday on Thursday. The Day of the Covenant honours a vow made by Afrikaner pioneers heading north from the Cape that they would forever observe December 16 as a religious holiday if they survived a battle against the Zulus at Blood River in 1838. In 1979 some members of the movement tarred and the feathered a Pretoria. professor who called for the desanctifying of the Day of the Covenant.