Fellow Peace-loving Citizens of Africa and of the world,

If Biko also had a Winnie "Mandela", he possibly would still be alive today!
Those who have something never know the value of that thing until they have
lost it.  I have always wondered why God makes it possible for somebody to
meet the wrong person.

Winnie "Mandela" is a force to reckon with.

It is because of what she stands for that is why her name has been smeared
and continue to be smeared in the west, and even amongst our own people -
the puppets.

I am calling upon you all yee African Women - what happened to all those 27
years that a young very beautiful black woman threw away waiting, but
actively fighting for the freedom of her man and freedom of her motherland?

Why couldn't Winnie be told much earlier that there was no man/marriage to
wait for?

Without Winnie, there would be no Mandela today!!

LONG LIVE WINNIE MANDELA !

Best regards,

Nyar'Onyango

*************

----- Original Message -----
From: "uga749d" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 1:01 PM
Subject: ***CRY MY CONTINENT!!** Biko family call for decision on alleged
killers


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 11:45 AM
> Subject: [unioNews] Biko family call for decision on alleged killers
>
>
> Sun 12 Oct 2003
> <H3>Biko family call for decision on alleged killers</H3>
> SAHM VENTER IN JOHANNESBURG
>
>
> SOUTH Africans were shocked when they heard the news that five police
> officers accused of killing the black rights activist Steve Biko
> would not be facing the courts.
>
> But officials then backtracked, denying any such decision had been
> made - prolonging the agony for the friends and family of Biko, who
> have been waiting 26 years for an end to one of the most shameful
> episodes of the apartheid era.
>
> Now Biko's family are calling for an urgent decision on whether the
> officers will face charges, either for his death or for assaulting
> him in the hours before it.
>
> Biko has been revered as one of South Africa's favourite sons ever
> since the black consciousness leader was found dead in a Pretoria
> prison cell in September 1977.
>
> After being left chained to a fence in a standing position for two
> days, despite being barely conscious, the 30-year-old was driven 750
> miles naked, shackled and seriously injured in the back of a police
> Land Rover from Port Elizabeth to a police cell in Pretoria. He died
> a few days later after his head injuries were left untreated.
>
> Millions of South Africans mourned his death and were outraged when
> the then justice minister Jimmy Kruger said Biko's death "left him
> cold".
>
> But in 1999 the five police officers appeared before the Truth and
> Reconciliation Commission, formed to help heal apartheid's emotional
> and psychological wounds, and were refused amnesty from prosecution
> because they had lied and not admitted to committing a crime.
>
> To qualify for amnesty from the commission - which was headed by
> Archbishop Desmond Tutu - a perpetrator had to make a "full
> disclosure" and prove that the crime had been politically motivated.
>
> The police officers told the commission that Biko tried to attack one
> of his interrogators while in custody in Port Elizabeth, and claimed
> his head accidentally hit a wall as they tried to restrain him.
>
> Last week Chris MacAdam, a lawyer for the National Prosecuting
> Authority in South Africa, caused outrage when he issued a statement
> saying there was insufficient evidence to support a murder charge
> against the four police officers still living, or to bring charges of
> culpable homicide or assault.
>
> But an advocate at the prosecuting body, Lungisa Dyosi, told Scotland
> on Sunday that no decision had been made. He said: "The national
> director is still considering the matter, and a decision will be made
> in due course."
>
> MacAdam refused to comment further.
>
> Biko's widow, Nontsikelelo Biko, was this weekend in talks with
> leaders of the Steve Biko Foundation in the family's home town of
> King Williams Town, to discuss what could be done to force the
> authorities' hand. And her son Nkosinathi told Scotland on Sunday
> he "had no idea" when they might get an answer.
>
> "We are not able to comment on this because we have not yet received
> a letter," he said.
>
> The family's lawyer, George Bizos, who has spent decades helping
> political activists including Nelson Mandela, called for an end to
> the Bikos' agony. "I am concerned about the apparent contradictory
> statements about whether there is going to be a prosecution or not.
> The matter has dragged on since 1977."
>
> Dr Xolela Mangcu, head of the Steve Biko Foundation, said the family
> was "still waiting for an official letter". He added: "I don't know
> the details of how this got to happen."
>
> Peter Jones, an activist and close friend of Biko who was arrested
> with him in August 1977, told the Truth Commission that he had been
> tortured by the same five policemen.
>
> Last night he said: "Steve Biko has just become a kind of symbol for
> our nation that is not capable of being ignored. He was one of the
> most promising leaders of the century."
>
> Nontsikelelo Biko has always maintained her husband was murdered and
> that his killers must be brought to trial.
>
> In October 1995 she travelled to Pretoria, where she laid a wreath in
> the cell where her husband died. She said then: "The perpetrators
> must be brought to court. They must be charged properly and they must
> be sentenced accordingly."
>
> <B>Appealing for justice</B>
>
> ROCK star Peter Gabriel is among the celebrities who have long
> campaigned for justice on behalf of Steve Biko's family.
>
> He wrote the song `Biko' shortly after his death and it was the first
> anti-apartheid anthem broadcast outside South Africa.
>
> "I'd been following the story of Biko's imprisonment," Gabriel said.
>
> "I felt that he'd be protected because there was so much publicity
> about him. So when it was announced that he'd been killed, it came as
> a shock."
>
> Film director Richard Attenborough also took on Biko's cause,
> adapting the books by Donald Woods, a newspaper editor and close
> friend of Biko, about his life into a Hollywood film, Cry Freedom.
>
> The film tells the story of their friendship and Woods' escape to
> tell the world about Biko's struggle. The film's stars were among
> those who paid for a statue of Biko in London, unveiled by Nelson
> Mandela in 1997.
>
>
>  ©2003 Scotsman.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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