----- 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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