ne WORLD Terror a cover for . Africa vote fraud By KERRY McCUAIG The South African Government has put into affect all of its oppressive machinery in an attempt to quell waves of protest rocking the country. It is the worst mass brutality since the Soweto uprisings of 1976, when over 1,000 people (mainly school children) died. Since June 100 people have been killed in separate incidents. Travelling in armored vehicles police have used semi-automatic weapons, buckshot, rubber bullets, tear gas and plastic whips to put down demonstrators. The youngest victim was a five-year-old boy shot by police during a clash in a Johannesburg suburb. Another 14- year-old was found dead with three bullet holes in the back of his head. All meetings have been banned. The dead are spirited away to unmarked graves, no funerals are allowed. Black areas have been sealed off as residents continue to fight increased rent and utility rates and students boycott classes to call attention to underfunded and unequal education. These protests follow on the heels of police attacks on anti-apartheid activists who led a boycott against voting for the new tri-colored parliament. On the eve of the vote, August 22, for the Colored (mixed race) parliamentary chamber, most of the leadership of the United Democratic Front (UDF) was rounded up. The UDF, an anti-aparthied coalition formed two years ago with the backing of over 600 organizations in South Africa, was behind the successful boycott at the polls by the Colored and ‘Indian populations. . By official count, only 60 per cent of the 2.7-million colored were registered and less than 30 per cent of them eventu- ally voted. An even fewer number of In- dians, less than 20 per cent, voted Aug. 28, for the Indian House of Delegates. Pretoria’s new constitution, its latest move to appear more palatable to the international eye, has turned into an em- Backgrounder barrassment. It was repudiated in the United Nations August 17, by a vote of 13 against, none for (U.S. and Britain abstained), and the low voter turnout has now labelled it a sham inside the country. The constitution creates a tri-levelled parliament with separate houses for whites, Coloreds and Indians. The na- tion’s 22 million Blacks are still totally excluded. The chambers have separate powers over their ‘‘own-affairs’’ ... health, ed- ucation, culture, recreation ... 14 categories in all, except where there is a danger of challenging apartheid’s basic tenets. For example, the Colored House would be unable to open up Colored neighborhoods to Blacks, segregation in sports, health care and education would remain. All matters not designated own-affairs are known as “‘general-affairs’’ and these must be approved by a majority in each house, with the notable exception of ‘‘Black affairs’’, which are under the di- rect administration of the state president, who can only be white. This president has full power (without - appeal) to decide in disputes between the three houses and to determine which is an ‘‘own-affair’’ or a ‘‘general-affair’’. He is advised by a 60-member presi- dent’s council (appointed by him) which is numerically dominated by the whites. But the most insidious part of the new constitution is that participation in the parliament by Coloreds and Indians means they will be conscripted into ‘the South African Defence Forces (the apar- theid army). In its nationwide election boycott campaign the UDF drove this point home. Dr. Essop Jassat, head of the Transvaal Indian Congress, a UDF affiliate, told a packed anti-election meet- ing that a low percentage poll would on South African police stand over young Blacks detained in Johannesburg suburb. The death toll reaches 100 in a month of protest against rigged elections, rent increases and inadequate education. force the South African Government to move very slowly on sending young In- dian and Colored conscripts to the bor- der wars. He was quoted in the South African Star: ‘‘The candidates come here and You must keep in mind that many young people have fled the country because the situation became unbearable. Do you want to face the possibility that some day on some border in defence of apartheid our brothers and cousins may be shooting at one another? they tell you they will fight conscription. The question you must ask is ‘How’? Defence is not an own-affair and con- sequently the non-white houses will have no say in the matter,”’ he said ... ““You must keep in mind that many young people have fled the country because the situation became unbearable. Do you want.to face the possibility that some day on some border in defence of apartheid our brothers and cousins may be shoot- ing at one another?”’ The voting took place in the face of charges of voter registration in- accuracies, stuffed ballot boxes and un- savory candidates. Pretoria was sure to cover its behind. A law sneaked through last March makes it impossible to chal- lenge voters’ rolls. It said no error, omis- sion or inaccuracy — for whatever reason — shall cause a voters’ role to be invalidated. The UDF is still planning to challenge the lists in the courts. They found incidents of triplicate registration and the registering of dead and non- residents. Their findings were substantiated dur- ing the vote count when ballots in some areas exceeded the population. Even the white press questioned the candidacy of one man elected from the Natal North Coast region to the Indian House of Delegates. He was convicted in 1964 in Ireland of murdering a 16-year- old girl and cutting up her body for easy disposal. After serving a four-year sen- tence he returned to Natal, changed his name and became a wealthy business- man. A Yankee coalition of bankrupt ideas BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — First, there was last October’s invasion of Grenada by U.S.-led forces that was to brutally tread underfoot the islanders’ cherished feelings of independence, sovereignty and being some- thing of a master in one’s home for the first time. Now, open political interference and other insults that _ - are like a replay of the invasion. This is the way former Minister of Agriculture in the People’s Revolutionary Government of Maurice Bishop in Grenada, George Louison, characterized last month’s coming together of four rightist groups to form the New National Party to contest upcoming general elections in the Eastern Caribbean island state. Speaking here while in transit to London where he will | fulfill a number of speaking engagements, Louison told _ the Tribune that the merger was ‘‘a Yankee coalition, bankrupt of ideas’’. He said that the groups — the Grenada National Party of former island Premier Herbert Blaize, the Grenada Democratic Movement of Dr. Francis Alexis, the Na- tional Democratic Party of George Brizan and the Chris- tian Democratic Labor Party led by Winston Whyte — were riddled with CIA agents, convicted terrorists and others who could not win the influence of the electorate and the people. He also said that Eric Gairy, whose party, the Grenada United Labor Party, has announced that it will field a full slate of candidates on its own, should be locked up because the evidence is still there of the crimes he committed. “Besides the unsavory characters of their leaders and spokesperson, the. groups have no roots among the _ people,’’ he said. Louison, who is a leader of the recently-formed Maiurice - Bishop Patriotic Movement party, also criticized such regional administrations as the Barbados Labor Party regime of Prime Minister Tom Adams for their continued interference in Grenada’s internal af- fairs. The Barbadian politician, whose government has allowed the U.S. forces to use the island’s main airport as a staging area during the invasion, was present along with two other Eastern. Caribbean government heads during the negotiations among the four groups to form the new rightist and pro-Washington party. Turning to the MBPM’s work in the current period leading up to the election, Louison said the party is quite legal and will runa slate of candidates so as to achieve ‘“‘a voice in parliament’’ and as a way of ‘firming up”’ the party for future struggles and campaigns. Louison, who narrowly escaped being murdered along with Bishop and several other cabinet members and trade union leaders by forces who supported the Bernard Coard clique in the now disbanded New Jewel Movement party during the PRG period, listed four main reasons why the Movement continues to ‘‘steadily _improve’’. “The first thing to note is that those involved with the MBPM have a record, through the PRG, ef providing real benefits to the people. Secondly, there is the legacy of Maurice Bishop and the other martyrs whp are people who have made the greatest contribution to Grenada. The third factor is that the Movement alone stands for real independence. Grenadians to not want to be ruled from outside — they want a situation where they can once be masters in their own home. Finally, the MBPM, or those within it, is the only force which has been able to fight Gairy effectively over the years,”’ he argued. = With regards to the situation facing the islanders on the economic front since the invasion, Louison pointed out that they are ‘‘dramatically worse off’’ than before. He predicted a negative growth rate during the Interim Government's rule. This is in contrast to the 6.6 per cent growth under the People’s Revolutionary Government during 1982 and the four per cent growth during the period up to October last year, he observed. He said that the tourist industry was in shambles, with American troops and those of ‘‘regional lackey govern- ments’’ still occupying most of the island’s best hotels. Louison also explained that the present ruling authorities are cracking down on the trade union movement. ‘‘The workers at the new international airport site are not allowed to join a trade union and in fact have had their wages reduced,”’ he said. While in Barbados, the former PRG minister applied to the U.S. Embassy for a visa to enter the States where he had been invited by several organizations to give lectures and address communities. However, the visa application was turned down with the explanation that- Louison belonged to what Embassy officials called a ‘‘proscribed organization’’. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1984 e 7