Mass Funeral Turns Into Anti-Apartheid Protest

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa--At least 30,000 Black mourners, joined by hundreds of whites, turned a mass funeral for 17 Black riot victims yesterday into a vast demonstration of opposition to aparheid.

The throng packed a soccer stadium in Alexandra, a squalid Black township wedged among the richest white suburbs of Johannesburg. In the crowd were Black activist Winnie Manela and diplomats from seven Western nations, including the United States.

Among clergymen of all races was the Rev. Beyers Naude, 70, an Afrikaner whose spiritual journey from faith in apartheid to the struggle for Black rights has made him a symbol of white liberalism.

"No one is free in this country as long as the Black man is not free," Mike Beea, president of the Alexandra Civic Association, told the mourners. "We are simply saying, dismantle apartheid."

"When is this brutality going to stop?" he asked. "When is this barbarism going to end?"

Police with rifles manned all entrances to Alexandra and searched incoming cars, including that of Betsy Spiro, political counselor of the U.S. Embassy. They stayed well away from the stadium, but a helicopter circled overhead.