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Killing Fields: South Africa's Human Rights Record in Southern Africa

NCJ Number
122493
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1989) Pages: 89-115
Author(s)
C Luyt
Date Published
1989
Length
27 pages
Annotation
The South African government's declared policy of attacking and killing exiled members of South African opposition political movements in other nations in Southern Africa constitutes a serious violation of human rights in the region.
Abstract
The rights of the majority in South Africa are already denied by the apartheid policy and the repressive measures used to sustain it. The execution of South African exiles further denies the right of political expression to the majority and grossly violates the rights of the victims, whose lives are taken by executive death warrant without regard to procedure or hearing. Although the authorities have tried to justify their actions after each killing expedition, eyewitnesses and observers have consistently refuted their versions of the events. Thus, the official defense of killings across borders fails to justify conduct that constitutes murder in the territories in which it occurs. The expeditions also violate the human rights of the peoples of Southern Africa by disregarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the independent countries in the region. The expeditions have been supplemented by clandestine violence, which also forms part of the pattern of human rights violations. Description of activities in specific countries, notes, and 18 references.