SOUTH AFRICA: PROTESTERS MARCH ON SCHOOL DIVIDED BY RACIAL TENSION скачать в хорошем качестве

SOUTH AFRICA: PROTESTERS MARCH ON SCHOOL DIVIDED BY RACIAL TENSION

(19 Mar 1998) English/Nat Police in South Africa on Thursday fired tear gas at black demonstrators who were marching on a school divided by racial tension. The school, just west of Johannesburg, has maintained a level of racial separation, despite 1994's all-race elections that put an end to white-minority rule and demanded full integration in schools. Following isolated clashes a month ago, the black residents of Vryburg have given their backing to the cause of students. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at about 2-thousand-500 black demonstrators marching towards the high school in Vryburg where racial violence has flared in recent weeks. Officers in riot gear tried to stop the march because no permission was given for the demonstration. At one point a protestor fired a pistol out of the window of his van as he drove past. The demonstrators - armed with sticks and machetes - initially retreated when police fired tear gas into the crowd, but then began to stone police. They were calling for the closure of Vryburg High School, the resignation of the principal, and for the school governing body to be disbanded. The school has failed to implement laws which followed 1994's first all-race elections which required it to fully integrate. Racial conflict has simmered for years in Vryburg, a small town 300 kilometers (180 miles) west of Johannesburg - which is known as a stronghold for white conservatives. Last month, police used stun guns as angry students threw petrol bombs. White parents recently took the law into their own hands and attacked black students with heavy whips, with black students took administrators hostage in retaliation. White students say that apartheid is part of everyday life at the school, and that integrated education is doomed by the incompatibility of whites and blacks. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Yes, I think there's still apartheid in the school, when Afrikaans and English speaking people get to each other, there's immediately ......" Q. Problems ? A." Yes" SUPER CAPTION: Student at Vryburg High School To avoid integration, the school set up two separate learning tracks in Afrikaans, spoken mainly by white students, and English, spoken mainly by black students. It also increased its annual fees from 800 rand (163 U-S dollars) to 1-thousand rand (200 U-S dollars) despite protests by black parents who could not afford it. No black pupils turned up for school at Vryburg on Thursday, although all the white pupils arrived for lessons. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...