- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT VISITS ROBBEN ISLAND PRISON
- Date: 12th August 1998
- Summary: ROBBEN ISLAND, SOUTH AFRICA (AUGUST 12, 1998) (RTV) ROBBEN ISLAND APPROACH FROM THE BOAT, WS EXTERIOR PRISON AND WATCH TOWER, PAN ACROSS PRISON COURTYARD (3 SHOTS) WS MEDIA GATHERED AROUND YASSER ARAFAT LISTENING TO HISTORY OF ROBBEN ISLAND SCU SCU AHMED KATHRADA, FORMER INMATE, SAYING: "WE HAVE TO THANK PRESIDENT ARAFAT, THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO SUPPORTED US STRONGLY IN OUR STRUGGLE." (ENGLISH). SCU ARAFAT LISTENING AND CUT AWAYS JOURNALISTS (3 SHOTS) PAN/SV EXTERIOR PRISON CELLS AND THEN ARAFAT WAVING THROUGH WINDOW OF NELSON MANDELA'S OLD CELL (2 SHOTS) SV ARAFAT SIGNING VISITOR'S BOOK AND CLOSE UP OF HIS ARABIC WRITING (2 SHOTS) SCU SA-EB EREKAT, PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR TRANSLATING WHAT ARAFAT WROTE IN THE BOOK: "LONG LIVE THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF PALESTINE AND SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND COMPREHENSIVE PEACE. THE WORLD AND ITS FREE-LOVING PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER AND ADMIRE THE STRUGGLE OF PRESIDENT MANDELA AND HIS COLLEAGES AND COMRADES. YASSER ARAFAT, AUGUST 12, 1998." (ENGLISH) (2 SHOTS) MV ARAFAT AND DELEGATION MOVE AWAY
- Embargoed: 27th August 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROBBEN ISLAND AND CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA8KYV4M2XPJXVYL1TX6ZYUDZR5
- Story Text: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has visited Robben Island, the South African prison which was home to President Nelson Mandela for most of his 27 years in jail.
During an address to parliament in Cape Town Arafat urged the international community to help save the Middle East peace process.
Arafat, on his first state visit to South Africa, toured Robben Island on Wednsday (August 12 in the company of former inmate Ahmed Kathrada.
Mandela, freed in 1990 and elected president four years later, spent almost 19 years in jail on the island.
Robben Island was the main jail for black male anti-apartheid prisoners from 1961 to 1991 when the last political detainee left the island.
Kathrada thanked the Palestnian leader and his organisation (PLO) loyally supporting Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) during the apartheid years.
After walking around the prison and standing in Mandela's old cell, Arafat signed the visitors book in Arabic.
"The world, and especially all those freedom loving people, will always remember the struggle of President Nelson Mandela, his colleagues and heroic comrades," he wrote.
Arafat was later driven to the South African parliament in Cape Town whre he addressed parliamentarians in Arabic.
After praising Mandela for struggling to attain freedom and democracy for black South Africans he said instability had returned to the Middle East because of Israel's refusal to implement peace accords.That has opened the way for the return of war in the Middle East he said and urged the internatinal community, and the United States in particular, to put pressure on Israel to implement the peace accord.
Arafat wants Europe and the United States to impose economic sanctions on Israel, as it did with the South African government in the apartheid years.
He also stressed that there would be no peace in the region without the return of Jerusalem to Palestinian hands. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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