Speaker. the Government of South Africa took action last Friday that flaunts the rule of law and destroys any faith that Pretoria subscribes to the concept of an independent judiciary. South African Minister of Justice Kobie Coetsee withdrew the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Namibia from a case brought on behalf of a group of Namibians and Angolans who have been unlawfully imprisoned by South African military forces for the past 6 years. These prisoners are survivors of a 1978 South African military attack in which at least 600 persons were killed at the Cassinga refugee camp in Angola. These survivors have been denied access to friends and relatives and allegedly subjected to extreme hardships. physical mutilation and torture. They have never been charged with any offense nor brought to trial. The Government of South Africa says it is acting under a security regulation that allows the detention of individuals who pose a threat to the nations security. It says it rescinded the courts jurisdiction under a provision of its national defense law that protects the nation from terrorism. No evidence that these refugees threatened South Africas security has ever been presented. But in any case. they are entitled due process under the law and other internationally accepted human rights. The Reagan administration has asserted that the rule of law is a "precious inheritance" in South Africa. But any civilized society which honors the rule of law would allow the refugees to be charged and tried in a court of law. Namibian church leaders and friends and relatives of the detainees filed an urgent application in March 1984 in the Namibian Supreme Court charging that at least 100 survivors of the attack are still being held illegally at Mariental. 160 miles south of the Namibian capital of Windhoek. Within the past few days. the outcry over the cancellation of court jurisdiction over the case has elicited an announcement by the Administrator General of Southwest Africa that 54 detainees will be released gradually from time to time.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees