World Notes South Africa

Black Leader Steve Biko has been a martyr to South Africa's antiapartheid movement since his death in 1977 from brain injuries suffered while in police custody. In Pretoria last week, the South African Medical and Dental Council acted against two white government doctors for their treatment of Biko. Surgeon Benjamin Tucker was found guilty of "disgraceful" conduct, including failure to examine Biko properly and allowing police to move the badly injured prisoner 700 miles overland to a prison hospital. The panel also ruled that Surgeon Ivor Lang was guilty of "improper" conduct for, among other things, failing to notice a wound on Biko's forehead.

The council acted only after the supreme court of Transvaal province ordered it to look into Biko's death. Although it could have permanently barred both men from practicing medicine, the council merely barred Tucker for three months and suspended the sentence. Lang was dismissed with a reprimand.

Shortly before, leaders of the antiapartheid United Democratic Front coalition accused government-backed "death squads" of killing four black activists whose bodies were found in the Port Elizabeth area. The government denied any involvement.