Word: pretoria
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...atmosphere in the Pretoria courtroom last week was hardly serious. The five defendants, decked out in colorful beach shirts and khakis, smiled and waved to security policemen as they appeared briefly in the dock to be freed on bail. They had good reason to be happy. Despite international anger, the South African government opted to deal lightly, almost casually, with their crime: the hijacking of an Air India jetliner the previous week, after an abortive attempt to overthrow the socialist government of Seychelles...
...pact between seven major industrialized nations that would cut air flights to countries that harbor hijackers. As expected, the loudest protests came from Seychelles President Albert René. After forlornly requesting extradition of the raiders, he asked the United Nations to conduct an inquiry and charged again that Pretoria had organized the coup. That accusation was buttressed by a Durban newspaper report that several of the mercenaries were South African policemen...
STILL, SOUTH AFRICA need not settle for the morally reprehensible status quo of apartheid. The West could encourage such reform. Gradually and peacefully implementing Black rule is far more sensible. It could negotiate with Pretoria to provide economic support in return for South African adoption of a restricted franchise based on educational criteria--with free education available to all. In this scenario--utopian as it may be--more and more Blacks would gradually gain voting rights; eventually, they would take over the reins of government...
...harvest, will be able to get only a fraction of the crops to ports in South Africa without the engines. Says a U.S. diplomat in Salisbury: "I used to think that South Africa believed that it was in its best interests to have a stable Zimbabwe. Now I think Pretoria may have decided it's best to have a Zimbabwe that's in trouble so it can point to another black majority country that has failed...
South Africa has little to gain from cooperation with the United States besides the degree of legitimacy that American backing gives in international circles. Pretoria evidently found the new Reagan administration's support helpful last January when it reneged in its agreement to submit the territory to U.N.-monitored elections. U.S. backing of its puppet government in Namibia bolstered the Botha regime's smug refusal to recognize the Soviet-backed Southwest Africa People's Organization as the best representative for the peoples of Southwest Africa. Reagan and the United States can feel justified in demanding the guarantee of minority rights...