78-13-B3

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Africa

Transcript A citizen of one of the new African states once assured me that Africans believe in one man, one vote--once. The newly elected then make sure there will be no need for another election by eliminating the opposition. Just recently there was a little news item which you might have missed. It didn't exactly wind up on Page One. It seems that Sierra Leone, once considered one of Africa's few relatively free nations, has verified that statement about one man, one vote, once. President Sioka Stevens has rammed through a new constitution for his country. It outlaws opposition parties. The only party permitted henceforth is his All Peoples Congress party known as A.P.C. Opposition members of parliament have been given 24 days to change their registration. The leader of the APC party (who happens to be President Stevens) is the only person eligible to run for President. No opposition is permitted. The counterbalancing office of Prime Minister has been eliminated and the President can only be removed for "gross violations" of the new constitution. There is word from another of the continent's new nations which has been largely ignored. Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish speaking nation in Africa is, or, perhaps I should say, was 95% Catholic. It had a population of 350,000, give or take a few when it became independent in 1968. Now there are 90,000 refugees in Spain and neighboring African nations and no one knows how many did not escape and were slaughtered. Some time ago the President of Equatorial Guinea issued an edict that his picture would hang above the altar and that when crossing themselves the citizens would say his name as well as that of God. When the church refused, the persecution began. The church has been outlawed, foreign priests expelled from the country. Native-born priests and nuns are in prison. News of their fate as well as the extent of the slaughter is not known because the only embassies in the country are those of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba, The People's Republic of China and North Korea. It is possible that the population has been reduced by half. Catholics for Christian Political Action has called upon all faiths and races to join in protesting this inhumanity. This laymen's organization is trying to get information to the public, but says it has so far been largely ignored. It forces us to ask ourselves, when we add this to Cambodia and to the persecution of the dissidents in the Soviet Union, if the world has lots its conscience. Certainly one group has. The World Council of Churches has given Joshua Nkomo's guerillas in Rhodesia a grant of $85,000. You remember Nkomo's guerillas--they're the Patriotic humanitarians who recently shot down the civilian passenger plane and slaughtered the survivors. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-13-B3 Production Date 09/19/1978 Book/Page RihoH-193 Audio Youtube? No
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