World IN BRIEF : SOUTH AFRICA : Ex-Defense Minister, 19 Others Indicted

A former defense minister was charged with murder in a landmark indictment that alleges collusion between President Nelson Mandela’s chief black rival and apartheid-era security forces. Gen. Magnus Malan and 19 others, including some of his top generals, were charged in 13 murders committed in 1987 by members of a Zulu paramilitary unit trained by the white-led armed forces. The charges underpin longstanding allegations that the former white-minority government tried to destabilize the black opposition by fueling fighting between Mandela’s African National Congress and its main rival, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Buthelezi was not charged, but the indictment says he handpicked a Zulu paramilitary unit and asked the apartheid-era security forces to train it for “offensive capability” to protect him and other Inkatha leaders.