Conference turris::scandia

134.0. "Sweden and the African National Congress" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Tue Sep 09 1986 09:06

Associated Press Mon 08-SEP-1986 22:43                             Sweden-ANC

                     Bomb Damages ANC Office in Stockholm
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A bomb damaged the Stockholm office of the
    African National Congress anti-apartheid organization on Monday, but
    caused no injuries, police said. The mid-afternoon explosion in an
    office building in central Stockholm knocked down walls and blew out
    most of the top floor. 
    
    The ANC, the main guerrilla group fighting the South African
    government, had not received any threats in Stockholm and no
    organization immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But
    police suspected that the attack was directed against the ANC since the
    other offices on the same floor were unoccupied. 
    
    Police said the bomb appeared to have been planted at the ANC's front
    door. Two ANC officials who were inside escaped injuries because the
    door was made of steel. "We were sitting there and all of a sudden we
    smelled a gunpowdery type of smell and then there was this explosion,"
    Mohamed Hussein, one of the two officials, said in a radio interview. 
    
    The Swedish government has supported the ANC for years and given
    humanitarian aid to it. 

Associated Press Tue 25-NOV-1986 18:49                    South Africa-Sweden

                      Visas Denied for Church Officials
    
    JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - The government has denied visas to
    the archbishop of the Church of Sweden and four colleagues, a church
    official said Tuesday. 
    
    The Rev. Per Svensson, spokesman for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
    South Africa, said church officials in Sweden confirmed that the South
    African Embassy in Stockholm had denied the visas. The Church of Sweden
    is Lutheran. "It was quite strongly worded, and no reasons were given,"
    Svensson said by telephone from from Cape Town. 
    
    The archbishop, Bertil Werkstrom, and four colleagues were to have
    arrived in South Africa last Sunday for a weeklong visit at the
    invitation of the Lutheran Church here, Anglican Archbishop Desmond
    Tutu and the South African Council of Churches. 
    
    The dean of the western Cape province branch of the Lutheran Church,
    Dean J.A. Steenkamp, said the action showed "that talk of religious
    freedom in South Africa is talk, nothing else." 
    
    On Saturday, officials of the South African Young Women's Christian
    Association said 15 members of the American YWCA were denied visas for
    a 10-day fellowship visit.