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Comparing Human Rights: South Africa and Argentina, 1976–1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Christopher Merrett
Affiliation:
University of Natal
Roger Gravil
Affiliation:
University of Natal

Extract

Until recently it was rare to bring South Africa and Latin America into a shared focus for any purpose at all. Both regions habitually looked towards the United States of America and Western Europe and showed no interest in each other. With a few exceptions there was scant intellectual concern aroused by their common southern location. In the last few years, however, a number of academics have begun to show interest in comparisons and contrasts derivable from South Africa and Latin America. Our intention is to join this promising trend by examining the vexing question of human rights in South Africa and Argentina since the Soweto massacre and Peronist collapse in 1976. In that historic year of burgeoning abuse, Richard Claude complained that “comparative human rights research has not been systematic.” Concentration on definite themes in two appallingly delinquent countries may contribute to the general improvement he urged.

Type
Civil Wrongs
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1991

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References

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21 They may be grouped into a number of categories: youth (5); political (5); community (5); education (11); human rights (6); and trade union (1).

22 There have been allegations that these were produced by Joint Management Centres (JMCs) of the National Security Management System (NSMS), which formed a shadowy, but as yet underanalysed, effective government behind the parliamentary facade.

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24 For background to this incident, see Thornton, R.J., The Shooting at Uitenhage, 1985: The Context and Interpretation of Violence (Cape Town: Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1988Google Scholar). At least twenty people (including nine under 16) were killed, fifteen shot in the back.

25 A typical incident took place at Kwaggafontein, KwaNdebele on 4 June 1986, when a vigil for an unrest victim was raided four times by police using teargas, rubber bullets, and, finally, live ammunition. Several people died. See McCaul, C., Satellite in Revolt: KwaNdebele, an Economic and Political Profile (Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1987), 88.Google Scholar

26 Athletic endeavour has again been a target. On 16 July 1988 five freedom runners were arrested at Kenilworth in Cape Town en route from Tokai to Guguletu (see Human Rights Update, 1:4 [1988], 17).Google Scholar

27 For example, prosecutions for an innocuous activity like walking in a park in another magistracy.

28 Hassan Howa, former president of the South African Council on Sport (SACOS), had been refused a passport nine times by 1984.

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34 Munck, R., Falcon, R., and Galitelli, B., Argentina from Anarchism to Peronism, 210; J. E. Miguens, Los neo-fascismos en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Belgrano, 1983Google Scholar) gives more general coverage of the repression; J. F. Petras, et al., “Terror and the Hydra: The Resurgence of the Argentine Working Class,” in Petras, J.F., et al. , Class, State and Power in the Third World with Case Studies on Class Conflict in Latin America (London: Zed, 1981), 255–64.Google Scholar

35 This section relies on J. Simpson, and J. Bennett, The Disappeared: Voices from a Secret War, 212–5, and on many conversations with Argentine colleagues.

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38 For example, it has been estimated that 8 percent of the population of Alexandria in the Eastern Cape was held in detention from 1986 to 1988, see “Detentions in and around Grahamstown” (unpublished paper presented at the Black Sash [a women's human rights organization] conference, Johannesburg, March 1988), 2. Almost everyone involved in a street committee in the Eastern Cape townships was detained, with 256 in Duncan Village in June 1986 alone (see Webster, D., “Repression and the State of Emergency,” South African Review, 4 (1988), 154)Google Scholar.

39 Survey of Race Relations (1985), p. 463, quoting Sir Sridath Ramphal. Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

40 So many were detained that jail cells filled up, and a six-month remission on 31 May 1986 (Republic Day) was held for common criminals to make room for political detainees. Subsequently on 15 June 1986 an entire congregation at an Anglican Church in Elsies River was detained.

41 Detention as a way of life for political activists is illustrated by Port Elizabeth Youth Congress president Mkhuseli Jack, detained eleven times in twelve years, for a total of nearly four years by June 1988.

42 Webster, D., and Friedman, H., Suppressing Apartheid's Opponents: Repression and the State of Emergency, June 1987 to March 1989 (Johannesburg: Southern African Research Service and Ravan, 1989), 5.Google Scholar

43 Solitary confinement, a gazetted punishment, was abused in this way.

44 The Minister of Justice has admitted to nine instances from 10 Feb 1987 to 31 Jan 1988 (see Human Rights Commission, Detention,” Work in progress, nos. 56–57 [1988], 34)Google Scholar.

45 Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, then Secretary General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, was physically abused at a place he was subsequently unable to locate and later sued the authorities (see also Sparks, A., “The Torture of Dean Farisani,” Reality, 14:6, [1982], 1516)Google Scholar.

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48 The father of eight detained children from Alexandria committed suicide in September 1986 (see Human Rights Index,” South African Journal on Human Rights, 2:3 (1986), 395)Google Scholar.

49 Five died in Emergency detention from 12 June 1986 until 31 December 1989, including the first woman.

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56 Suney of Race Relations (Johannesburg: SAIRR, 1984), 894.Google Scholar

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58 These suspended titles included New Nation, South, Weekly Mail, Grassroots, and New Era.

59 For further information on Sisulu, see Zwelakhe Sisulu: Released but not Free, new ed. (London: Article 19, 1989Google Scholar). His father, Walter, was a convicted political prisoner, sentenced to life in the mid-1960s, and released only in late 1989.

60 Foster, D.W., “Argentine Sociopolitical Commentary, the Malvinas Conflict and Beyond: Rhetoricizing a National Experience,” Latin American Research Review, 22:1 (1987), 734Google Scholar. Full Spanish details of Aguinis', Duhalde's, and Garbetta's books are cited there. See also Sosnowski, S., ed., Represión y reconstrucción de una cultura: El caso argentino (Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 1988)Google Scholar.

61 Graham-Yooll, A., Portrait of an Exile (London: Junction, 1982), 4555Google Scholar; Corradi, J.E., “The Culture of Fear in Civil Society,” in From Military Rule to Liberal Democracy in Argentina, Peralta-Ramos, M., and Waisman, C.H., eds. (Boulder: Westview, 1987), 113–29Google Scholar; Graham-Yooll, A., The Press in Argentina, 1973–1978 (London: Writers and Scholars, 1979)Google Scholar; Corradi, J.E., The Fitful Republic: Economy, Society and Politics in Argentina (Boulder: Westview, 1985), 115–34Google Scholar; Crawley, E., “Targets of Terror,” Times Literary Supplement, 19 08 1986Google Scholar.

62 L. Schoultz, Human Rights and United States Policy towards Latin America, 50–52. See Ibid, 72, for the compliments of Esteban A. Ferrer of the Council of the Americas. President Videla was in the United States to sign the Panama Canal treaties.

63 Budlender, G., “Law and Lawlessness,” South African Journal on Human Rights, 4:2 (1988), 144Google Scholar.

64 Police Conduct during Township Protests, August to November 1984 (Pretoria: Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, 1985)Google Scholar.

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66 Weekly Mail, 9 May 1986; Duflou, J., “A Study of 93 Deaths from Gunshot Injuries during Security Force Action in the Greater Cape Town Area, 1985,” South African Medical Journal, 70 (19 07 1986), 89.Google ScholarPubMed

67 Subsequently he was an Independent Member of Parliament, in the House of Assembly, who joined the Democratic Party in May 1989.

68 Democratic Movement under Attack: A Report on the State of Emergency, South Africa, July-Sept. 1985 (Bramley: DPSC/Descom), 21.Google Scholar

69 Translated from the Afrikaans: “Botha het gese ons kan julle doodmaak soos fliee” (Ibid., 23).

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72 At Ekangala, for example, KwaNdebele's Mbokotho instituted a reign of terror against Action Committee supporters who opposed the bantustan system and had led a campaign concerning bus fares. At Leandra, Chief Mayisa of the Action Committee was murdered by Inkatha, a right-wing vigilante group (Inkatha is not to be confused with the Zulu organization of the same name: Such groups in South Africa often borrow names from other organizations). For further information, see Haysom, N., Mabangalala: The Rise of Right-wing Vigilantes in South Africa (Johannesburg: Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986)Google Scholar.

73 An attack on Mmashadi High School at Siyabuswa, KwaNdebele by Mbokotho on 28 February 1986 was assisted by police in casspirs (armoured personnel carriers). See McCaul, C., Satellite in Revolt: KwaNdebele, 79Google Scholar. The assault, at Siyabuswa in late 1985, of dissident Moutse residents opposed to incorporation into KwaNdebele was personally supervised by the Chief Minister C. M. Skosana and P. M. Ntuli, Minister of the Interior and bantustan strongman.

74 Ibid., 84.

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76 Now Everyone Is Afraid: The Changing Face of Policing in South Africa (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1988), 8386 and 124–5Google Scholar.

77 Aitchison, J.J.W., Numbering the Dead: Patterns in the Midlands Violence (Pietermaritzburg: Centre for Adult Education, University of Natal, 1988), 27.Google Scholar

78 Kitskonstabels translates from the Afrikaans as “instant police.” They are South African Police auxiliaries with as little as six weeks in training and backgrounds that often make them totally unsuitable for disinterested policing. Since 1985 more than 1,000 complaints have been lodged against a similar but different force, the municipal police, for offences ranging from murder, rape, and torture to robbery and crimen injuria (general-purpose charges including insults and using foul language). Full details are given in Greenflies: Municipal Police in the Eastern Cape (Cape Town: Black Sash, 1989)Google Scholar.

79 Kruger, F., “‘Wild Rats’ of the Township,” Weekly Mail, 15 04 1988, 6Google Scholar; Harris, P., “The Role of Right-Wing Vigilantes in South Africa,” in States of Terror (London: Catholic Institute of International Relations, 1989), 113Google Scholar.

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81 Webster, D., and Friedman, M., Suppressing Apartheid's Opponents: Repression and the State of Emergency, June 1987 to March 1989 (Johannesburg, Southern African Research Service and Ravan, 1989), 22.Google Scholar

82 These included, for example, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) House, Johannesburg; Wilgespruit Community Centre, Transvaal; and Community House, Cape Town (all May-August 1987); Khotso House, Johannesburg and Khanya House, Pretoria (September-October 1988).

83 AD AC News, 9 (July 1984).

84 Van der Vyver, J.D., “State Sponsored Terror Violence,” South African Journal on Human Rights, 4:1 (1988), 7071.Google Scholar

85 The End Conscription Campaign (ECC) and South African Council of Churches (SACC) were recent victims of disinformation and smear campaigns, at least one orchestrated by the South African Defence Force (SADF).

86 The definition of activist is problematic: Many of those murdered in general political unrest have been low-profile community organization members. Yet another prominent person assassinated in recent months was Dr. David Webster, University of the Witwatersrand social anthropologist and human rights activist, shot dead outside his home on the morning of 1 May 1989. Prior to her death in May 1989, Mrs. Ndlovu had briefed the press on the role of the police in the Pietermaritzburg violence.

87 The existence of a renegade ANC hit squad, the Askari Group, came to light in the Yengeni Rainbow) Terrorism Trial in Cape Town, May 1989. “Askari” is a name of Arab derivation used to describe soldiers in East Africa, but the South African connection is not clear.

88 For further details on the situation in Transkei, see Flanagan, L., “Putting the Dead on Trial,” Work in Progress, 59 (1989), 1013Google Scholar; and Southscan, 4:25 (June 1989), 189.

89 Three witnesses testified in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court in August 1988 that they had seen the PEBCO Three at Alexandria Police Station (Weekly Mail, 12 August 1988).

90 C. McCaul, Satellite in Revolt: KwaNdebele,” 90. A recent disappearance involved Stanza Bopape of Community Resources Information Centre. Police claim that Bopape, shackled hand and foot, escaped while in the presence of three policemen who were changing the wheel of a vehicle on 12 June 1988, but confirmed his detention on 14 June. One year later friends and supporters placed advertisements in the antiapartheid press appealing for news of him.

91 Disappeared: Technique of Terror: A Report for the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (London: Zed, 1986), 3942.Google Scholar

92 Hit Squads: Can They Be Tamed?Work in Progress, 64 (1990), 1417.Google Scholar

93 Quoted in Simpson, J., and Bennett, J., The Disappeared: Voices from a Secret War, 66.Google Scholar

94 “The Generals' Day in Court,” Newsweek, 23 September 1985. Emilio Massera was sentenced to life imprisonment, yet at the beginning of July 1989 he was recognized walking freely down the street. Pressed by a federal court, Defence Minister Horacio Juanarena stated that Massera was allowed to go for treatment of a liver complaint. However, the ex-Admiral was seen sixty blocks from the hospital and was not in custody (SAPA/AP report in the Natal Witness, 5 July 1989). Many military detainees were set free by the new Peronist President, Carlos Menem, on 12 October 1989 as part of an amnesty on the Day of the Race.

95 Quoted in Hodges, D.C., Argentina, 1943–1987: The National Revolution and Resistance, 201Google Scholar; Marshall, A., “The Fall of Labour's Share in Income and Consumption: A New ‘Growth Model’ for Argentina?” in Lost Promises: Debt, Austerity and Development in Latin America, Canale, W.L., ed. (Boulder: Westview, 1989), 4765.Google Scholar

96 “Editoriales de Criterio. El peronismo gobernante y la guerra interna, 1973–1976,” in del Barco, R., et al. Historia politico argentina, 1943–1982 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Belgrano, 1985), 104–47.Google Scholar

97 Luna, F., “El Proceso, 1976–1982,” in R. del Barco et al., Historia politico argentina, 1943–1982, 148–69Google Scholar. See Somos, Ano, 11:6 (6 de octubre 1988), 6, for the details of the security officers robbing the supermarket.

98 E. E. Mignone, C. L. Estlund, and S. Issacharoff, “Dictatorship on Trial,” 120, n.2.

99 Hodges, D.C., Argentina, 1943–1987: The National Revolution and Resistance, 199.Google Scholar

100 E. E. Mignone, C. L. Estlund, and S. Issacharoff, “Dictatorship on Trial,” 118, 120.

101 Telia, Guido di, Argentina under Perón, 1973–1976: The Nation's Experience with a Labour-based Government (London: Macmillan, 1983CrossRefGoogle Scholar) is a highly scholarly “insider” account.

102 Godio, J., Perón: regreso, soledad y muerte, 1973–1974 (Buenos Aires: Hyspamerica, 1986)Google Scholar; Pereyra, E.P., Los últimos días de Perón (Buenos Aires: Ediciones la Campana, 1981)Google Scholar.

103 Gillespie, R., Soldiers of Perón: Argentina's Montoneros (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982), vGoogle Scholar; see also Szusterman, C., “Review and Commentary,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 16 (1984), 157–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cox, R., “The Second Death of Peron,” New YorkReview of Books, 8 12 1983, 1822.Google Scholar

104 Moneta, C.J., Lopez, E., and Romero, A., La reforma militar (Buenos Aires: Editorial Legasa, 1985Google Scholar) contains three excellent discussions and various presidential and congressional statements on the position of the armed forces in Argentina.

105 Fisher, J., Mothers of the Disappeared (London: Zed, 1989)Google Scholar.

106 For a social democrat's perspective, see Johnstone, F., “South Africa,” in J. Donnelly, and R. E. Howard, International Handbook of Human Rights (New York: Greenwood, 1987), 339–58.Google Scholar

107 Bindman, G., ed., “South Africa: Human Rights and the Rule of Law, 124.Google Scholar

108 D. Webster, and M. Friedman, Suppressing Apartheid's Opponents, 32–33.

109 E. H. Mignone, et at, “Dictatorship on trial,” 124, n. 21. Human Rights Watch, an American agency monitoring government's attitudes to human rights organizations, in 1987 placed South Africa at the bottom of its league, alongside Chile, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. A number of activists were assassinated and organizations banned or restricted in the 1980s. In Argentina at the end of the dictatorship there were only eight major national human rights organizations, although their numbers had grown as the regime became weaker, a fraction of the South African number.