- A mass killer solves
the food problem

How do you explain away

people?

2 In an interview last week,
premier’’ Khier Samphan, of

the band of Khmer Rouge kil-

lers still operating along the

hampuchea-Thailand border,
ed.

_Asked by reporters if he felt
his government ‘‘made mis-
takes’’ during its four years,
Samphan said the situation
was complicated. ‘‘But we had
one major achievement: we
solved the food problem. for
our people ...”

The Khmer Rouge certainly
went about solving the food
problem in their own way.
Three million out of Kam-
puchea’s 7 million people were
killed, cities were emptied,
currency banned. The
economy was dismantled in
perhaps the world’s most chil-
ling human experiment.

Samphan denies this hap-
pened. ‘‘We never engaged in
mass killings,’’ he says. Asked
why the almost unanimous tes-
timony of the refugees con-
tradicts him, he replies, ““They
are not correct”. It brings to
mind the denials by nazis of the
existence of death camps dur-

—— INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

the murder of three million —

ing World War II. Samphan
denies there were mountains of
human skulls found in bomb
craters, the Toul Sleng prison
where 6,000 were tortured to
death, and thousands of sur-
vivors of the Maoist experi-
ment who speak of the night-
mare. He rejects an inter-
national tribunal’s verdict
which condemned the leaders
of the Pol Pot gang as mass
murderers.

Incredibly, Samphan talks
about returning to power and,
equally incredibly, the western
media reports his views with-
out comment. It’s comparable
to Hitler rising out of his

bunker to hold forth on the fu-
ture of Germany — and being
listened to.

It sure isn’t
the Good Old Days

In the hierarchy of Jimmy
Carter’s friends none stand so
high as British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. She has
been mightily praised by Car-
ter and has praised him in re-
turn. She leads the pack, telling
the Soviets that British rockets
will remain aimed at them.

She was compared to
Winston Churchill by visiting
Chinese premier Hua
Guofeng. She intends to re-
establish relations with Chi-
lean dictator Pinochet.

Thatcher has loudly con-

‘demned Vietnam abroad and
has launched a major attack on
organized labor at home. In
short, the British Tory PM is
an arch cold-warrior.

One of her latest moves has
been to back Carter’s Moscow
Olympic boycott call.
Thatcher made the president
happy by promising British
athletes will not go to the
Summer Games because he
needs all the help he can get in

_his sputtering crusade.

But she has a problem: the
British Olympic committee

just announced it will go to
Moscow. It’s an embarrassing
situation and a far cry from the
days when the word of Bri-
tain’s monarch was law.

And to add insult to injury,
the Irish Olympic Committee
announced it, too, would not
back any boycott.

And, to add more insult to
injury, the Commonwealth is
slipping too. The Australian
government, 100% behind a
boycott only weeks ago, today
says the decision is strictly up
to the athletes.

He loves me,
He loves me not...

Carter’s flip-flop on the UN
vote calling on Israel to dis-
mantle its settlements on oc-
cupied Arab land is quite amaz-
ing. Before the President
caved in to the Zionist lobby in
this election year, here’s what
was said:

“‘We regard settlements in
the occupied territories as il-
legal under international law
and an obstacle to a successful
outcome to the current negoti-
ations.’’ — that was U.S. Am-
bassador to the U.N., Donald
McHenry right after voting
with the rest of the Security
Council for the resolution.

‘‘We view our vote as con-

‘Just hours before the Israeli

-dle the issues — cuddling up to

sistent with our long-standing
policy.”” — this was Presiden-
tial Press Secretary Hodding
Carter explaining the correct-
ness of that vote.

Then something hit the fan.

Cabinet met (and decided to
increase its settlements pro-
gram) Jimmy Carter torpedoed
friend and foe alike and called
the vote ‘‘a mistake’’. ‘‘We’ve
lost all our credibility’,
moaned the UN representative
from Kiwait, ‘‘we’ ve been bet-
rayed.”’

Israeli Prime Minister Begin
didn’t buy the tale of ‘‘a mix-up
in communications’’ and the
hawks in Tel Aviv went wild.

Everyone will venture their
own guess why the White
House blundered into this
cul-de-sac. A ‘‘mix-up in
communications”’ it was not.
The real answer lies in the im-
possibility for Carter to strad-

“*moderate’’ Arab regimes in
the oil rich Middle East, court-
ing Jewish votes at home, pan-
dering to the hawks and re-
ligious zealots in Tel Aviv,
bailing out Sadat’s faltering
regime in Egypt, selling out
Palestinian rights ... :

Insulated as he is in the Rose
Garden, the real world still
finds its way through.

THREE ESCAPE APARTHEID JAIL
For militants of the movement

By TOM MORRIS

On December 12, 1979, three

litical prisoners, members of
the African National Congress,
South Africa, made a dramatic
escape from a maximum security
prison in Pretoria. The three men
had served 18 months of their sen-
tences when the escape occurred
and one of them, 31-year-old
Timothy Jenkin, is in Canada ona
speaking tour, telling the story of
the escape and. organizing sup-

port for James Mange, currently ~

in a South African jail under sen-
tence of death.

Jenkin had been sentenced in
June, 1978 to 12 years under
South Africa’s notorious Ter-
rorism Act, His comrade, Ale-
xander Moumbaris also received
12 years and the third, Stephen
Lee, was serving 8 years. All

were convicted of being members ~

of the banned ANC and distribut-

ing materials advocating the posi-
tions of both the ANC and the
South African Communist Party.

In a Tribune interview, Jenkin

. described how the three began

planning their escape from the
moment they arrived at Pretoria
prison. “We studied every possi-
‘ble way out,’’ he said. ‘‘ And final-
ly, on Dec. 12, we made our way
through 10 doors and walked out
the front door of the jail to free-
dom.” : :
The escape was front-page
news in South Africa. No one had

ever broken out of a maximum

security jail before and the myth
of the invincibility of the prison
system was shattered.

In their first press statement in
Lusaka, Zambia, on Jan. 2, the
three said that “‘a battle has been
won whose significance goes
beyond the number of prisoners
that escaped. We have shown

The Ontario Committee of
the Communist Party has cal-
led on South African Prime
Minister Botha to drop the
death sentence imposed on
James Mange, ANC liberation
fighter condemned to die “‘for
his ideas and beliefs which he
shares with hundreds of mil-
lions of democrats the world
over.”’

The letter also called on

political prisoners being held in
South African jails. Another
letter to Prime Minister
Trudeau urges him to speak
out in the name of Canada
against the brutality of apar-

SAVE JAMES MANGE!

Botha to free the thousands of .

theid and for the release of
James Mange.

‘capture doesn’t mean surrender

_ that, for militants of the liberation.

movement,. capture does not
mean surrender ...””

Details of the escape, and of
their journey out of South Afri-
ca’s well-guarded borders under-
standably were not revealled.

Tens of thousands of liberation < :

fighters remain in prisons=

throughout South Africa. ButS}»

Jenkin did say that the under- |
ground machinery of the ANC &
and the South African Com-#

. 2
role in the successful escape. 2
EL?

Leaflet ‘‘Bombs’’

Jenkin and his colleagues were
active in the ANC, their work
consisting of writing and dis-
seminating the organization’s
message. Strictly illegai (you can*
be jailed for five years simply for
possessing an ANC leaflet). in-
genious methods have been de-
vised to spread the policies of the
ANC throughout the country.
One consists of a ‘‘leaflet bomb’’,
a device with a small pre-set
charge which sends leaflets, hid-
den in a bag or box, soaring into
the air. These are very effective,
Jenkin said. You can drop the
package, set the device and be far
away when the leaflets are re-
leased. The charge, he em-
phasized, is harmless.

In the 27-page indictment, Jen-
kin and his comrades were
charged with setting 26 ‘‘bombs’’.
It was fascinating to read sections
of the messages calling for inten-
sified struggle against the racist
regime contained in the court’s
document. ‘‘All this was read in
court,’ Jenkin said. ‘So even
while we were on trial, the mes-

- Sage of our movement was being

spread.”’

The Terrorism Act, under
which the men were charged, car-
ries sentencing from a minimum

lle

ee

“We studied every way out,” explained Jenkin.

of five years to a maximum of
death. Jenkin described the
weeks of interrogation, the
methods of the police, the com-
plete lack of civil rights during de-
tention. “‘Detainees have no right
to a lawyer, no access to friends.
The police may hold you in-
definitely without charge,’’ he
said. ‘‘Many of the murders by
police of political prisoners take
place during this process.”
Prison Apartheid _

Asked about conditions in pris-
on, Jenkin said, ‘‘you must re-
member we are white: — that’s
extremely important in South Af-
rica because the racist mentality
of the authorities extends to pris-
oners. While we were treated
reasonably well in the all-white
Pretoria jail, Black prisoners with
whom we came in contact (they
brought the food) were badly mis-
treated.

“You could see the guards’ at-
titude change at once’’, he said.
Jenkin briefly described the hor-
rible condition of Black prisoners
in such notorious places as Rob-
bin Island.

The Lusaka press statement
summed up the fighting attitude of

these three brave men: “‘*... we
now look forward with
heightened enthusiasm to contri-
bute with full strength to the ongo-
ing struggle to liberate South Af-
rica from all forms of oppression.

‘**While we join our voices to
those of concerned humanity in
the demand for immediate and
unconditional release of all politi-
cal prisoners in South Africa, our
foremost concern is in the fate of
our dear comrade James Mange
to whom we bow our heads in
respect for the heroism and self-
sacrifice, and whose murder the
fascist oppressors intend to add to
their sinister constellation of
crimes.

‘*We shall not rest until James
Mange and all other political pris-
oners of war in South Africa are
liberated.””

At a public meeting in Toronto,
March 2, at which Jenkin spoke,
the audience was asked to en-
dorse a letter to South African
prime minister Botha demanding
the release of James Mange.
Another letter was sent to Man-
ge’s mother pledging solidarity in
a8 campaign for her son’s free-

lom.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 14, 1980—Page 9