South African political activist, founder and leader of teh Black Consciousness Movement,
born Kinwilliamstwon, Cape Province. He became involved in politics while studying
medicine at Natal University, and was one of teh founders (and first president) of the
all-black South African Students Organization (1969). In 1972 he became honorary president
of the Black People's Convention, a coalition of over 70 black organizations. The
following year he was served with a banning order severely restricting his movements and
freedom of speech and association, and in 1975 the restrictions were increased. He was
detained four times in the last few years of his life, and died in police custody,
allegedly as a result of beatings received. He was the subject of a film made by Richard
Attenborough (Cry Freedom , 1987).
Sadly, the story of Steve Biko's death is not unique, it is a tragedy that is replayed countless times every day in repressive third-world countries, invariably those whose governments can afford to stay in power despite popular support through corporate investiture from first world nations. (For example, IBM, Pepsi-Cola, Bank of America, and General Electric were all heavily invested, and still are, in South Africa when Biko was savagely murdered behind bars.) The World Bank and the International Money Fund have a lot to do with this international extortion, euphemistically known as "development."
We can make this stop, but they have to hear our voices. Please support Amnesty International.
GO ON TO READ THE DETAILS OF HIS DEATH
South Africa: Lawyer says Biko died after beating
Mail&Guardian, 11. September 1997
Johannesburg - Black consciousness leader Steve Biko died as a result of a beating
administered by security policemen, not while being restrained, the Biko family's lawyer
George Bizos suggested on Thursday.
Cross-examining Biko's chief interrogator, former security policeman Major Harold Snyman,
Bizos dismissed Snyman's testimony that Biko suffered a fatal head injury during a scuffle
with four policemen who were trying to restrain him. Snyman is one of five former security
policemen who have applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty for
Biko's death in detention.
Bizos suggested to Snyman that he was not telling the truth when he referred to a scuffle,
adding that he believed Snyman had turned a beating into a scuffle.
Snyman replied that he could not recall details of the "scuffle" as it had taken
place 20 years ago, but he did recall that while trying to restrain an
"aggressive" Biko, three members of his team, Gidoen Nieuwoudt, Daantjie Siebert
and Johan Beneke had punched him a number of times.
Bizos: "Is this not a strange way to restrain a person who is so heavily outnumbered?
Punching must be the least effective way of restraining him."
Snyman: "Yes, that is so. But Biko was a strong man and force had to be applied to
shackle him again."
Bizos submitted that with five security policemen present in the interrogation room, there
could have been a policeman holding each arm and each leg, with "one to spare".
He added: "Punching must be the least effective if the intention is restraint."
Snyman also said he was unable to recall if anyone had attended to Biko's more obvious
injuries, such as a bleeding lip. "Would you have forgotten if any humane behaviour
was shown towards a man treated so inhumanely?" Bizos asked.
"I put it to you that someone who beats someone else up is not likely to behave in a
humane manner. But if the injuries had been sustained accidentally, as you claim, you and
your colleagues would have done the decent thing. But because you hated who and what Biko
was and what he stood for, you did nothing."
Snyman denied that he hated Biko, but admitted that things done to Biko in police custody
had been inhumane. The hearing continues.
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South Africa: Still far from truth, says Biko family
The Star (SA), 11. September 1997
Port Elizabeth - We are still no closer to the truth. That was the reaction from Steve
Biko's family and friends after Harold Snyman, one of the policemen involved in Biko's
death, had completed his first day of testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission's amnesty committee.
"Our only interest in the proceedings were to get to the truth about Steve Biko's
death," said Peter Jones, who was arrested with Biko in 1977 and survived 18 months
in detention. Speaking on behalf of the family at a news conference after the close of
proceedings yesterday, Jones said the family had doubted the amnesty applicants' sincerity
from the start.
"From the outset we were sceptical about whether they would share the truth with us.
We have spent an entire day hearing Snyman's application, and it is very clear to us that
these people are prepared to continue lying.
Biko's widow Ntsiki Biko said that nothing new had emerged from Snyman's testimony.
"Snyman is lying even worse than he did at the inquest."
At the start of the hearing, Biko family lawyer George Bizos SC outlined the grounds on
which the family would oppose amnesty for the five former policemen who have applied.
"There is no full disclosure in the detailed statements made to the amnesty
committee. Statements made at the inquest have merely been modified to try to explain away
concrete evidence which did not fit in with the false evidence given at the inquest,"
Bizos said.
He also said the policemen did not have a political motive when they fatally injured Biko.
"Torturing helpless detainees for the purposes of extracting information to the point
that they end up dead is not a political objective."
In his cross-examination of Snyman, Bizos consistently questioned the retired policeman's
claim that Biko's interrogators did not intend to injure or kill him.
Although the five men have applied for amnesty for assault and culpable homicide, Snyman
denied they had unlawfully assaulted Biko. He referred to the events which caused Biko's
fatal injury as a "scuffle", maintaining that they were merely trying to
"restrain" him.
Bizos said that if the policemen did not assault Biko, they would not need amnesty.
"On your version, the police did nothing wrong. Biko's death was not your fault, it
was his own fault. Is that what you are saying?" Bizos asked.
"That is correct. We had to restrain him," Snyman answered.
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