Nations mourn black S.A. protesters

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 8

Nations mourn black S.A. protesters

NZPA-AAP-Reuter Johannesburg Diplomats from at least nine Western nations were joining mourners at a mass funeral yesterday for 12 blacks killed when South African security forces broke up a mass protest march two weeks ago. The death of 13 blacks at Mamelodi township, near Pretoria, which provoked international concern and domestic outrage, was apparently the worst single riot incident since police gunned down 20 people in an Eastern Cape township in March.

It had been planned that representatives from the British, Dutch, United

States, Canadian, Belgian, French, Italian, Swedish and West German embassies would drive in convoy to the dusty township for a funeral service in the local sports stadium. Australia was sending a representative to the funeral, which was for all but one of the victims. Residents said that the township was tense with police standing by. Nico Smith, a white antiapartheid minister, said that police had promised to keep a low profile at the funeral Funerals, virtually the only legal black gathering allowed in South Africa, have recently become the flashpoint for violence when

police move in to disperse mourners. Diplomats said that the strong Western presence at the funeral, unprecedented in size during the present unrest, was to convey the sympathy of those countries and could also be seen as a protest at police conduct in South Africa. The Law and Order Minister, Louis le Grange, had rejected as a blatant lie allegations presented by a white Opposition politician, Peter Soal, that riot police had fired guns and teargas cannisters from a helicopter hovering over Mamelodi when the 13 blacks died. The allegations were contained in affidavits