The release of all political prisoners in South Africa has been a constant demand of successive Irish Governments as well as of the Twelve as a whole over the years. The South African authorities can be in no doubt, therefore, that their release constitutes in the view of the Twelve one of the essentials for the creation of a climate in South Africa conducive to genuine negotiations aimed at the abolition of apartheid.
According to information available to me, the prisoners on Robben Island, having met with their lawyers, decided on 8 March to suspend their hunger strike.