Mine deaths fuel border tensions

Press, 17 December 1985, Page 6

Mine deaths fuel border tensions

NZPA-AP Johannesburg

Patrols are continuing in South Africa near the border with Zimbabwe after six whites were killed and five seriously injured when their light truck hit a guerrilla land mine yesterday. South African defence headquarters said the casualties were members of two Afrikaner families from Tzaneen, a rural centre in north-eastern South Africa.

The explosion occurred on a farm about 30km from Messina in the area where six land mine explosions have killed one person and injured seven, including five soldiers, in the last three weeks. Four other mines were found undetonated in the area.

The African National Congress, the main guerrilla group seeking to end white control, claimed responsibility for those mines. After the previous explosions, the Defence Minister, General Magnus Malan, said

that guerrilla tracks had been found leading to the border. South African forces would not hesitate to cross into Zimbabwe if necessary to attack the guerrillas, he said. Zimbabwe has denied that it harbours A.N.C. guerrillas. The latest explosion was believed to have caused the largest white casualty toll in a single incident since about 20 people were killed and many injured by a car bomb in Pretoria, in May, 1983. News of the deaths spread across South Africa on the “Day Of The Vow,” a triumphant holiday . for Dutch-descended Afrikaners marking the defeat of a large Zulu tribal force by an outnumbered group of white pioneers at Blood River in Natal province on December 16, 1838.

Afrikaners, whose ancestors arrived in southern Africa more than 300 years ago, make up a majority of South Africa’s five million

whites and dominate the Government.

In Durban, South African riot police yesterday fired teargas and whipped blacks in clashes with thousands of demonstrators pouring from an emotive anti-apartheid rally. The crowd had attended a rare open-air meeting organised by the largest group fighting apartheid race laws in South Africa, the United Democratic Front, calling for the release of the jailed black nationalist leader, Nelson Mandela. Eight former treason trialists, against whom the Government dropped charges last week, used the rally to relaunch themselves on to the political front line after being silenced during the trial. All were leading officials of the two-million-strong U.D.F. Charges against four others have also been dropped while four more remain on trial in Pietermaritzburg, near Durban.