Speech #980255863

This resolution also calls upon South Africa to comply with the Charter of the United Nations. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and the Geneva Convention of 1949. and it calls upon the South Africans to release all those detained at the Mariental Camp. Mr. Speaker. the Mariental detainee situation is the result of a raid conducted by South Africa in 1978. against the Cassinga refugee camp. located within Angola. Using the pretext of engaging SWAPO forces. the South African military killed more than 600 Namibian refugees. many of them women and children. More than 100 survivors of this attack were removed from Angola and incarcerated in the Mariental Camp. where they have languished for over 6 years. I urge my colleagues to pass House Concurrent Resolution 298. in order to send the right signal to the suffering and struggling peoples of southern Africa and to gain the release of these refugees.*