# 243 - WAR - Was Nelson Mandela a terrorist or not?

The best the BBC could do on their 10 o’clock news last night was to say Nelson Mandela was ‘branded’ a terrorist!

Surely he was either a terrorist or he wasn’t.

Here are a few facts:-

Nelson Mandela co-founded ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, MK for short,  which translated as Spear of the Nation, and was the armed wing of the ANC.

MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. It was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African government and the United States, and banned.

Their campaign involved bombings and also the use of landmines . The landmine campaign was short lived as the deaths caused were indiscriminate many of the victims being black labourers.

Analysing one period between 1976-1982 there were 150 cases of armed action killing 230 people. 30 were from the security forces and of the remainder 60 were white and 140 black.

Finally can I emphasis two things Nelson Mandela co-founded MK and, especially after Obama’s visit to Mandela’s jail, the USA agreed that the MK was a terrorist organisation and banned it.

The BBC’s news output is now so oftern nothing more than pure propaganda.