Free Republic

Nelson Mandela at the Communist Party’s first public meeting in post-apartheid South Africa, 1990. You're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so I figured I'd get a head start.One of the landmark events of my Gen X youth was the 11-hour, internationally televised “Free Nelson Mandela” concert in 1988. Because, come on: how could you not be anti-apartheid? It was a no-brainer, risk-free cause, the type you could support without having to think about it too much or inviting unpopularity or controversy, right? Actually, no. Lots of big-name musicians who now boast of being on that concert roster...

First up tonight at the DfB Theater is of the finest movies ever to come out of Australia. Edward Woodward turns in a superb performance in this true story about the real-life exploits - and still controversial - court martial of Harry "Breaker" Morant, an officer fighting on the side of the British during the Boer Wars in South Africa. Co-starring Bryan Brown (Cocktail, the F/X movies). In English with foreign subtitles.

A PARLIAMENTARY committee will today consider a petition calling for a crown pardon for Breaker Morant and two other Australian soldiers court-martialled during the Boer War more than 100 years ago. The vexed question is to be considered at a public hearing of the House of Representatives petitions committee later today. Harry Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton were tried and convicted by a British military courts martial in 1902 for executing Boer prisoners of war. Morant and Handcock subsequently were executed by firing squad in Pretoria.

NEW material calling for a posthumous pardon for three Australian soldiers court-martialled in controversial circumstances more than 100 years ago during the Boer War will be presented to Federal Parliament today. Lieutenants Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock and George Ramsdale Witton were convicted of murdering Boer prisoners, with Morant and Handcock executed for war crimes in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1902, despite a plea for court mercy. Witton was sentenced to life but was released two years later. But a petition based on an examination of the case by Navy Commander James Unkles, a Victorian lawyer with 30 years...

AN Army bugler sounded Last Post, old men saluted, and a true Anzac hero was officially farewelled in a windswept corner of Fawkner cemetery yesterday morning. For more than 50 years, Captain Edward Renata Mahunga "Tip" Broughton has lain in an abandoned, bare grave at Fawkner. He died intestate, aged 70, in 1955. Until yesterday, a weather-beaten bronze plaque was the only marker on the cracked grey clay of Tip Broughton's final resting place. The marker recorded that it had been placed by "the ex members of the 8th AEC, AMF -- mainly Dunera Boys -- in cherished memory of...

Australia probe 'looting' of Boer War graves March 07 2004 at 02:33PM Canberra, Australia - Australia will investigate claims that century-old graves of soldiers who died during the Boer War in South Africa have been looted, the government said Sunday. Veterans' Affairs Minister Dana Vale ordered the probe after receiving reports that valuable stones, plaques and crosses had been taken from the graves. Vale didn't say where the reports originated. More than 600 Australians died fighting alongside British and other Commonwealth forces in the 1899-1902 conflict against the Boers in what is present day South Africa. Vale said the protection...