WORLD : 4 S. Africa Blacks Seek Asylum
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Four black activists escaped from South African custody today and requested refuge at the West German Embassy in Pretoria, an embassy official said.
Embassy Counselor Klaus Bonnemann said the men, all detainees who had been on hunger strikes, arrived at the embassy this afternoon and said they belong to the banned United Democratic Front, the country’s largest anti-apartheid coalition. The men said they escaped from Hillbrow Hospital in Johannesburg, where they were being treated for fasting to protest their detention without trial, Bonnemann said. He declined to say exactly what the men want from the West German Embassy and added that no decision has been made concerning them.
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