S.A. diplomat given 10 days to leave

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 3

S.A. diplomat given 10 days to leave

CHRIS PETERS

ZPA

staff correspondent Sydney The Australian Government has given a South African diplomat who beat up a woman during a protest in Canberra 10 days to get out of the country. The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator Gareth Evans, made the order yesterday in a curt statement after an outraged reaction to the beating on Monday during a demonstration marking the tenth anniversary of the Soweto riots. Australian officials are now waiting to see the reaction of the Pretoria Government, but expect that while the South Africans will not be pleased, they will accept that their official overstepped the mark. “It is not a diplomatic row yet,” a Department of Foreign Affairs official said. “If the South Africans react to this, It will be.”

Official violence, South African-style, came to Canberra as a demonstrator, Miss Kirsty-Vali-aho, climbed the spiked gates at the embassy, and ran up to the building and smashed one window with a rubber hammer, kicked in a second, then threw the hammer through a broken pane into a staff room. Television viewers were then treated to close-up coverage of the embassy official, since identified as J. E. Alberts, who is listed as an “administrative attache,” charge out of the embassy’s front door weilding a truncheon with which he began to beat Miss Valiaho. The protester was beaten to the ground and hit four or five times by the official who then retreated into the embassy as the Australian police rushed up and arrested the woman. She said yesterday that she had escaped with bruising, especially to

one leg. After questioning, Miss Valiaho was charged with trespass, causing damage to premises, resisting arrest, and hindering the police. Two other women were also charged with trespass. Senator Evans said yesterday that South African Embassy staff have the right to use reasonable force to remove or eject unlawful trespassers from embassy property, but if the force used was unreasonable the staff members would be liable to civil or criminal charges of assault Under the Geneva Convention, embassy staff also have a duty to respect Australian laws and regulations including those concerning assault and trespass.

The South African Embassy defended the official’s action, saying he reacted after the embassy property was being damaged. Earlier report, page 13.