Police Barged Into Church Service, Boesak Says

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A small group of policemen entered a church Sunday and held the congregation at gunpoint to try to halt his sermon, the Rev. Allan Boesak said.

Boesak said he told the police leader to “sit down and listen to the word of God.” But the police arrested two teen-agers inside the church and later fired tear gas into Boesak’s car, overcoming him for a brief time, he said.

Boesak, who is of mixed race and considered Colored under South African law, is a founder of the United Democratic Front, a broad coalition of anti-apartheid groups, and president of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

He said five officers, some of them carrying rifles, barged into the Holy Trinity Church in the mixed-race suburb of Elsies River.

“I was preaching when they came in and told me to stop,” Boesak said. “It was a military operation. I could see them running into the churchyard and splitting off to the left and right.”

Boesak said the armed men kept the congregation inside the church for 90 minutes while they prayed.

“Capt. (Ockert) Van Schalkwyk came up and told me to stop preaching,” Boesak said. “He said he had something to say to the people. I refused to let him speak.

‘No Place for a Policeman’

“I told him there was no place for a policeman in church. I told him to sit down and listen to the word of God.”

Most of the worshipers were relatives of people detained under a five-week-old state of emergency, and Boesak said they came to the church for an interdenominational service.

He said officers arrested a 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl inside the church as well as a caretaker who was outside.

Boesak said that he heard the boy “stop his prayer, and I opened my eyes to see them leading him away. They did not like what he had to say to God.”

The minister said the girl was arrested when she handed out food to people who had come more than 100 miles for the service.

Boesak said the worshipers kept praying aloud until police let them leave, and then “I got into my car and drove about 25 meters when they fired two rounds of tear gas.”