Army called in, one black killed: witnesses

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 10

Army called in, one black killed: witnesses

NZPA-Reuter Port Elizabeth The police have used shotguns, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds in a black township after the funeral of four black people killed in earlier unrest. Eyewitnesses said the police killed one black and wounded 10. The police said they had found no injured. Earlier yesterday, the South African Army was called in to help the police try to prevent rioting in townships around Port Elizabeth and nearby Uitenhage.

Eyewitnesses said soldiers manned roadblocks and patrolled with the police in armoured vehicles. ■ A judicial inquiry

resumed yesterday into the killing of at least 19 blacks by the police in Langa

township on March 21. Residents say those killed were marching peacefully to a funeral but the Government says a riot patrol was attacked with petrol bombs and fired in self-defence.

The use of the Army yesterday came after a crackdown on political dissent on Friday when 29 opposition groups, including the 2 million-strong United Democratic Front, South Africa’s biggest anti-apart-heid organisation, were forbidden to meet in the Eastern Cape for three months. Military experts said troops had been put on stand-by but not used during

nationwide unrest in 1976 in which about 575 people died. They had since helped the police in riot control. Seven thousand soldiers marched into Sebokeng black township last year to back up the police during house-to-house searches after rioting. The use of the Army in a civil disturbance was sharply criticised. Mr Adriaan Vlok, Deputy Minister of Defence and Law and Order, said yesterday that the troops were assisting the police under a long-standing arrangement but he declined to give details. More than 300 blacks have died in 13 months of disturbances which began with complaints by blacks over their education.