DECLARATION adopted by the conference on 26 September.
'By bringing us together in Harare, the Conference provided the international community with a unique opportunity to hear from those directly affected, the truth about the violent repression inflicted by apartheid, including the beating, shooting, torture, detention and imprisonment of children. It enabled us and the whole international community to break through the veil of censorship and secrecy imposed by the apartheid regime's two-year-old State of Emergency.
'We heard moving testimony from children about their harrowing experiences of torture and injury at the hands of the regime's agents. Doctors and other professional workers concerned with the welfare of children, informed us about the reality of how children are treated under apartheid. Lawyers explained the absence of any effective legal provisions for the protection of children and their vulnerability in the face of the apartheid regime's determination to maintain the oppression of the majority of South Africans.
'The cruelty and brutality which were exposed induced a profound sense of shock, outrage and anger. The deliberate and systematic targetting of children by the armed agents of the regime puts apartheid South Africa beyond the pale of civilised society. It exposes the political and moral bankruptcy of a system bent on destroying any form of opposition. Such a form of government is totally illegitimate.
'We strongly condemn all those who collaborate with the regime in executing its policies, in particular the lawyers and judges who lend legitimacy to an inhuman and illegitimate system and the medical practitioners who conspire in keeping secret the brutality against children. We call upon the international community to sever all relations with professional bodies which fail to condemn these practices.
'We commit ourselves to act in a concerted way to keep the world aware of the plight of South Africa's children. We will continue, and extend, the task of monitoring and exposing the repression and abuse of children.
'We urge lawyers, medical practitioners, social and religious workers, and all others whose work involves special responsibilities for children, to play a part in the struggle to protect the children of South Africa and help free them from apartheid.
'We appeal to the international community to work for the imposition of sanctions against the regime, and urge all governments to declare their support for all those who, even at risk to themselves, are prepared to act in defence of the children of South Africa.
'We recognise that the children of South Africa cannot lead a normal life as long as the apartheid system remains. The children themselves, having recognised this fact, have displayed heroic courage in their readiness to engage their ruthless oppressors in daily struggle. Their commitment and determination is an inspiration to us all. We pledge ourselves, collectively and as individuals, to use all our resources to work towards the realisation of a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa and thereby ensure a speedy end of the racial tyranny whose violence spares neither old nor young - in South Africa, Namibia and throughout Southern Africa.'
## CHILDREN: CALL FOR ACTION After three days of evidence on the subject of Children, Repression and the Law in Apartheid South Africa, delegates to an international conference in Harare called for action against the apartheid regime and those who collaborated with it.
The conference was convened by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston. The opening session was addressed by the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the President of the African National Congress.
Almost 300 South Africans, the majority of whom had come from inside the country, met with over 200 representatives of more than 150 organisations from all over the world. There were lawyers, medical practitioners, religious and social workers, community and political activists, representatives of youth, student and women's organisations, trade unions and professional bodies. The delegation from inside the country included children, along with those whose work and experience bring them most directly into contact with child-victims of repression.
The conference was organised to focus attention on the repression of children, in particular in the period since September 1984 when troops occupied black townships. The violence against children was placed in the context of the apartheid system generally and the oppression of South Africa's black majority. Frank Chikane, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, placed the 'war against children' in the 'whole context of conflict and destabilisation'. He said that 'the apartheid regime has turned the region of Southern Africa into a sub-continent of refugees and exiles'.
## TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE A special feature of the proceedings was testimony given by five children who described their experience of brutality and torture at the hands of the regime's forces.
- Nthabiseng MABUSA, aged 13, spoke from a wheel-chair which she has had to use since being shot during a raid by the South African Defence Force on her aunt's house in Gaborone on 14 June last year. Hearing shots from the living room of the house, she went to investigate: 'I... saw a masked man. I turned to run and was shot. I continued to try and run away but another man stood up in front of me and knocked me down. I was shot in the back as I lay on the ground.' Although she survived she is now paralysed from the waist down.
- William MODIBEDI, aged 11, from Kagiso, spoke of his 'two months and two days' in detention. His experience was described in FOCUS 69: he was made to stand for long periods and had four teeth knocked out by a policeman during interrogation. A dummy connected to electric wires was put in his mouth and he was given electric shocks.
- Mzimkhulu MGAMLANA, an 18-year-old boy from Port Elizabeth who is now studying at the ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania, said he had been arrested in a pre-dawn raid while asleep with his mother, sister and her young children. He stated: 'In the police station they connected an electric tube to my leg and switched it on. It was bad, I was shaking. They were asking me questions about my friends.' He said that the food which his mother brought for him was eaten by those who were detaining him.
- Naude MOITSE, who is now 22, described several periods of detention during school boycotts in 1984. Last year he decided to leave South Africa. 'Some policemen took me to John Vorster Square. I was made to stand up for more than 12 hours. When I fell they picked me up and kicked me. They gave me no food.' The same thing happened to him again two days later. One of the torments during his detention, he said, was hearing the cries of children in other cells.
- Buras Ntlabeni, aged 17, left South Africa in January this year. He had been president of the Tembisa Students' Congress. He described his treatment at a police station after being detained: 'I was strapped and put in a rubber suit from head to foot. A dummy was placed in my mouth so I wouldn't scream. There was no air. They switched the plug on. My muscles were pumping hard. I couldn't see anything. When they switched the plug off they took the dummy out and said I should speak. When I refused they put the dummy back and switched on again.'
This detailed first-hand testimony was underlined by more general evidence from lawyers, social workers and academic researchers. Peter Harris, a lawyer, assured the conference that 'electric shock treatment ... is being practised in South Africa'. Professor Don Foster of the University of Cape Town said that the use of torture in South Africa had become central to maintaining power: 'There is massive evidence of the systematic use of torture', he said. He stressed it was important to realise that psychological methods were used in torture, as well as physical methods.
Sessions of the conference dealt in detail with the treatment of children in detention and in court, where most children face trial without their parents or guardians and without legal representation. Children's experience of prison was described, as well as the role of the military, police and vigilantes in the repression of children.
