AROUND THE WORLD
AROUND
THE
WORLD
SOUTH AFRICA Save the Sharpeville Six! INTERNATIONAL solidarity must be urgently stepped up if the lives of the Sharpeville Six are to be saved. The six, five men and a woman, are under stay of execution until July 19.
They have been sentenced to hang after being accused of participating in an uprising in the Black township of Sharpeville. They were found guilty of the murder of a Black town councillor in 1984, even though there is no proof of their involvement in the killing. The two prosecution witnesses have said that they were tortured by the police to give evidence. In spite of the blatant frame-up and international protests at the sentences, the judge at their trial rejected the demand for a retrial as "frivo-
From 1984-86, over 2,500 Black people were killed in uprisings in the Black townships before the resistance was crushed by the introduction of the state of emergency, which has just been renewed for the third time. In the June 14 issue of the Financial Times, Anthony Robinson reports that since the introduction of the state of emergency, "hundreds of Blacks have been charged with criminal offences, including murder, for what opposition groups and many lawyers see as essentially political
"Twenty-six other people are facing sim-
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International Viewpoint #145 • July 11, 1988 ilar charges [to the Sharpeville Six] in the Northern Cape town of Upington, and 48 more Blacks are believed to be in Pretoria's 'death row' for crimes committed during the revolt. Last year, 164 people were hanged in South Africa, the overwhelming majority Black males." * PHILIPPINES Journalists detained IN THE Philippines, one Swedish and two West German journalists have been detained by the military. Obviously false accusations of murder, robbery and assault have been made against them with the help of bribed and beaten witnesses.
In the case of the Swedish journalist, Stallan Hermansson — who is also the chair of the Communist Youth, the youth organization of the Swedish Eurocommunist party — he is accused of taking part in guerrilla actions in February. But copies of his plane tickets, as well as evidence gathered from friends and colleagues, show that he did not even arrive in the Philippines until May 18!
The goal of the military with this frame-up is clear: they want to stop all journalists in the future from reporting on the army massacres, on the terrorism of the vigilante groups, or on advances made by the guerrillas. They want to silence all information coming from the Philippines. They are also exploiting the organizational image of "external, communist infiltration".
That is why solidarity is urgent and important. We must not let the Philippine military make an example of this case. Protest telegrams or letters should be sent to Philippines embassies and to President Corazon Aquino, Malacañang Palace, Manila, Philippines. * YUGOSLAVIA Protest against arrests The following petition is being circulated to protest against arrests in Yugoslavia:
On May 31 and June 4, two activists in the Slovenia alternative movement were arrested, as well as Ivan Borstner, a warrant officer in the Yugoslav army. They are all suspected of "having divulged military secrets", and all three are being held in a mili-
The undersigned protest against these arrests, and are demanding the immediate release of Janez Jansa, David Tasic and Ivan
We support completely the three demands put forward by the Ljubljana Committee for Human supported by more than 250 organizations, groups, journals, party and union branches nearly 16,000 individuals in
• immediate liberty, allowing the three to
• the possibility for the accused to freely
• the opening of an enquiry around the procedure and the conditions of the arrests.
This appeal has already been signed by hundreds of well-known personalities and politicians in France, Britain, Italy, Portugal, East Germany, Austria, the USA and the USSR. Further signatures and letters of protest can be sent to Yugoslav embassies and to Predsedstvo SFRJ, Palaca Federacije, 11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia. Send copies to the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, SKUC, Kersnikova 4, 61000 Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. * WESTERN EUROPE Right to vote for immigrants? FIRST, the good news. The Brussels Commission of the EEC has published a directive giving four million immigrants in Europe the right to vote in municipal elections in their country of residence by 1993.
Now the bad news. This directive will only apply to immigrants coming from other EEC countries. This means, for example, that in France it will only apply to 800,000 people, and in Portugal less than half of the immigrant population. Apart from the limitation to EEC citizens, such immigrants will only be able to vote if they have lived in the country during a period of six years, but individual states will have the option of prolonging this qualification to twelve Perestroika's pin-up UNDER the heading, "My God, she's beautiful", the front page of the June 19 Moscow News proudly proclaimed that 16-year old "schoolgirl Maria Kalinina has won the title of 'Miss Moscow 88'; 1m 76 tall, 62cm waist and 88cm bust."
But this first major Soviet beauty contest apparently did not pass without opposition. Organizer Leonid Yakubovitch declared that the event met with obstruction from the Moscow Komsomol's (CP youth organization) director of the methodological centre "who hampered our work a lot". Yakubovitch also received a number of anonymous phone calls. In the first he was offered money if he abandoned the contest, and in the last the caller promised to break his legs if he went ahead! Perhaps the Soviet authorities should take note that sexism leads to violence. *