25 Years After Magoo’s Bar Bombing

<p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDDYIQTacHfou0pSYeonbQ-_u2DAoyr_eN9Yn4C5MTdMOYDFR0VdMGEG7Qs0KARif6o0AXeCkkdt4Q37Cja7PdXGKsJ0kPhYi5MTgk3ILqshkFmlxukvdUtAEBY2LPbCFSjou2oUbfcau/s1600/bar-bomb-magoos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDDYIQTacHfou0pSYeonbQ-_u2DAoyr_eN9Yn4C5MTdMOYDFR0VdMGEG7Qs0KARif6o0AXeCkkdt4Q37Cja7PdXGKsJ0kPhYi5MTgk3ILqshkFmlxukvdUtAEBY2LPbCFSjou2oUbfcau/s640/bar-bomb-magoos.jpg" t8="true" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 130%;"><strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">On this day 25 years ago in the ANC and Robert McBride’s bomb attack on civilians at Magoo’s Bar on Durban's Marine Parade, three young white women were killed and many bar patrons were wounded when former MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe - the former armed wing of the ANC) operative Robert McBride planted a powerful car bomb outside Magoo's on June 14, 1986</span></strong> <br /><br />Apart from the three women ‒ Angelique Pattenden, Julie van der Linde and Marchelle Gerand ‒ who died in the bombing, 73 people were wounded in the explosion outside the popular Durban beachfront Magoo's Bar. <br /><br />In June 1986, McBride taped together more than 100 pounds of explosives, attaching a mine with a 15-minute timer as his trigger, and swaddling this propulsive charge with bags of machine-gun bullets and metal scraps for shrapnel. He secreted his lethal contraption in the spare-wheel well of a powder-blue Ford Cortina, which he parked one Saturday night on a crowded beachfront esplanade in Durban. <br /><br />The bomber was out of earshot when his device exploded into two busy white bars. <br />Magoos bar and the nearby "Why Not" bar were targeted because they were believed to be frequented by apartheid security force personnel, who were regarded as legitimate targets in the ANC's armed struggle against the former government. Few, if any, of the victims were members of the security forces. <br /><br />That was not the first time the ANC had used car bombs and it was not the last time. <br /><br />McBride and a companion were convicted of the bombing, and McBride was sentenced to execution three times for his part in the attack. A pardon negotiated by Nelson Mandela saved McBride from death row. In 1999 McBride was released and granted amnesty for the Magoo’s Bar terror attack by the TRC due largely to the fact that the ANC claimed it had ordered McBride to attack the pubs, contrary to its initial denials that it was involved in the bombing. <br /><br />McBride, one of the most famous saboteurs in the furtive military underground of the ANC, then became a diplomat in the new SA government, then was recalled for sexual indiscretions (he sexually abused white female staffers at the Malaysian embassy where he worked). His reward was to be appointed as Police Commissioner for the second largest Urban Metropolitan police force in South Africa... a position from which he was suspended for four years due to a drunk driving charge. <br /><br />Yet another fine example of a black history maker.... <br /><br />The Constitutional Court recently ruled that 'Bomber' McBride may be called a murderer because of the cold-blooded multiple murders which he committed although he had received amnesty for the incident. But he still stands by the bombing, saying that if he was in the same situation, he would do it again. <br /><br />So, on this sad anniversary, our thoughts are with the next of kin of those victims who died and the 73 innocent victims who were injured in the deadly blast that night 25 years ago. <br /><br />The total number of people killed or injured in the 30 years of MK's campaigns is not known exactly. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961 and was subsequently classified as a terrorist organization by the South African government and the United States, and banned. Ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 acts of sabotage in the Rivonia Trial.<br /><br />Details are not available, but it is estimated that the MK High Command co-ordinated over 190 acts of sabotage between October 1961 and July 1963. A study by Tom Lodge of the University of the Witwatersrand estimated that there were 150 MK attacks between 1976 - 1982.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">SEE</span> </strong><a href="http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02949.htm"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>HERE FOR List Of MK Operations</strong></span></a></span><p>

25 Years After Magoo’s Bar Bombing

On this day 25 years ago in the ANC and Robert McBride’s bomb attack on civilians at Magoo’s Bar on Durban's Marine Parade, three young ...

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Super Roadblocks a flagrant abuse of State Power

<P><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">By Iain Robertson</span></em> <p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Super Roadblocks are our gift from Government over the Holiday Season. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0F_K0pO-QoPHdDaRrKsVkXkhy0lGR9GsAlUi-62JJNZr_rwHgrGldKYmeSSGQ6K3VeZPEtmSFB9hLN8TRwLfp8IiweisA8ZoY__smOpSU_o87N04dpBdfC-EbauQNUfiMCo2Oa1OmpbBV/s1600/Totalitarian-Demotivational.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB1NupHpDUGq-vDKUi9dG5wa827ykxwRIJrkQQbiCVo7VJE1WjxTAHi5IhEZRiJbhv7Bd9fZWmcf_NuMuONUstIMptmTYaLxR63LdJgiFaNN4LWn0MQ__AgODmgsrOSpjVC26AuoUrSAX/s1600/police_state.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539000546045902802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB1NupHpDUGq-vDKUi9dG5wa827ykxwRIJrkQQbiCVo7VJE1WjxTAHi5IhEZRiJbhv7Bd9fZWmcf_NuMuONUstIMptmTYaLxR63LdJgiFaNN4LWn0MQ__AgODmgsrOSpjVC26AuoUrSAX/s320/police_state.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>As usual drivers and their vehicles are liable to be checked, but this time passengers are to be checked as well. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">The roadblocks will be manned by the SAP and by other State Agencies looking for amongst other things tax evaders, illegal immigrants and dangerous goods. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Is this a good thing in that a much broader spectrum of criminals will be arrested, or is it a flagrant abuse of State Power?</span></strong><br /><br />General Bheki “Rambo” Cele told parliament last Friday that roadblocks are to be manned by combined teams from up to ten Government Agencies including the SAP, SARS, Home Affairs and Nature Conservation. The programme is unofficially set to start in Gauteng early next month and nationwide from December 4th.<br /><br />He has warned that tax dodgers, illegal immigrants and carriers of dangerous and illegal goods should brace themselves for a hard time. Another new concept he has introduced is that travellers without an acceptable ID will be fingerprinted, and the fingerprints used to check for any outstanding issues. I thought he might mellow after his honeymoon. No such luck.<br /><br />We normally expect an increase in roadblocks at holiday times, but this announcement takes the concept a whole yard further – longer traffic queues, lots more vehicles, lots more flashing lights, uniformed SAP officers strutting their stuff, pulling you over and interrogating you and your passengers, perhaps demanding fingerprints, certainly demanding ID books or proof of ID. Several groups of people dressed in civilian clothes in the background tapping your ID number into laptops. People searching your vehicle and rummaging around in your possessions. Scary. Especially at night. In the rain. If you are a woman alone.<br /><br />Road blocks are pretty inefficient in catching criminals. They are highly efficient at catching drivers with outstanding fines. That however, is not law enforcement or crime prevention, that’s revenue generation. Roadblocks on steroids will be no different, just longer queues and more aggravation.<br /><br />So why the upgrade of SAP vehicle focussed roadblocks to fully-fledged <strong>State fishing expeditions</strong> ?<br /><br />To be kind, it smacks of the usual government kneejerk reaction that something must be done, someone having what they think is a brilliant idea to do it, and some suit behind a desk not thinking through all the implications of implementing the brilliant idea.<br /><br />Not to be kind, it is a PR exercise, pure and simple. We will see Rambo grand-standing sometime in January or February showing what a fine fellow he is by catching so many criminals in December.<br /><br />To the cynical mind, it has the unholy stench of an impending <strong>totalitarian police state</strong>. Part of the insidious progression this Government is making towards <strong>total dictatorship and removal of basic human rights</strong>. Look at the Media Tribunal Bill and the Protection of Information Act as part of the same package.<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for genuine criminals being caught. But I don’t think this is the way to do it.<br /><br />There are a few practical problems. Several of the activities are probably unconstitutional and will be challenged in court.<br /><br />Dennis Jackson of the Justice Project of South Africa says that there must be “reasonable suspicion” before any action can be taken against motorists or passengers at the roadside. Durban attorney Saber Jazbhay said the roadblocks would not be “constitutionally sound”.<br /><br />First, there is no easy definition of what constitutes reasonable suspicion. For example, are Home Affairs officials allowed to assess whether someone is potentially an illegal immigrant by the colour of their skin. There will be many claims against the State for unlawful arrest and detention if that is the level of criteria used as a definition of “reasonable suspicion”.<br /><br />Assuming that reasonable suspicion exists, what are the lawful grounds for arrest at a roadblock by the various Agencies. Are they in fact allowed to arrest you, or do they have to ask the SAP to do so ? Recently the Government inserted Sections 4A and 4B into the Customs and Excise Act conferring the power of arrest on Customs Officials and authorising the carrying of firearms for the purposes of enforcing the Customs Act. In other words, a Customs Officer can be deemed to be a Peace Officer as defined in the Criminal Procedures Act. Customs are part of SARS, so take that sports lovers. You can be arrested at gunpoint at a road block for not submitting a tax return.<br /><br />It will be a brave one who insists that only the original copy of a court issued arrest warrant is sufficient.<br /><br />Western Cape Transport MEC Robin Carlisle attempted to justify the involvement of highly specialised groups like SARS by stating that they had emergency vehicles and officials with powers of arrest. They therefore would help in targeting people who caused road fatalities.<br /><br />It’s the first time I hear that a major cause of our road carnage is not having a tax clearance form. Smooth tyres perhaps, drunk certainly, but irregularities in your tax affairs. Give me a break.<br /><br />I suspect the biggest problem, and there this is where M’Learned friends will make hay while the sun shines is that most Government databases are not accurate and not up to date, and probably not set up with the immediate updates necessary for use in this environment. As a result incorrect information will make the innocent look guilty and the guilty look innocent. Court cases will follow as surely as lawyers will hang around roadblocks.<br /><br />The second big problem is that with a few notable exceptions, the people involved do not have the qualifications or intention to act in a professional and impartial manner. It’ll be holiday bonus time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess the option a father will take when presented with the two options of seeing his family spend Christmas in jail or coughing up some folding money. He may even suggest the spot fine option. Other officials, flushed with their temporary power will go on a cosmic ego trip and really make some people’s holiday.<br /><br />In summary, this looks once again like applying First World principles and policies with African precision.<br /><br />Whatever the real answer is, applying State Resources in this ham-fisted and heavy-handed way tramples on all the rights that those dear folk fought so long and so hard for.</span> </p>

Super Roadblocks a flagrant abuse of State Power

By Iain Robertson Super Roadblocks are our gift from Government over the Holiday Season. As usual drivers and their vehicles are liable to ...

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SA Govt arming dictators

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:180%;"><a class="l" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090802152836937C522032" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','2','&sig2=-LVQ-IeaVZu2hCo4SzDjRw')">News - South Africa: SA selling arms to rogue states - DA</a></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A crisis in South Africa's arms control body has resulted in weapon deals being authorised to repressive regimes such as <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Iran, Libya, Zimbabwe and North Korea</span></strong>, the main opposition party said on Sunday.<br /><br />Democratic Alliance shadow minister of defence David Maynier said "several dodgy deals appear to have slipped through the cracks" as the arms control body failed to meet regularly and produce regular reports as required by law.<br /><br />Maynier said his investigation into the activities of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee showed deals had been authorised to sell weapons to some of the most repressive societies in the world.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365409429704201346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOsPr4QXbEdf_l6F8Z2Ll31Y2bPgx4hxpjdyZM12PY-PUw-h_zjfYfFBufVwq5yBu-bCYbGQW56CdkS3ogwiUP_EXn9wSDX5wgfZ2W70VZb2-02Mb25LFkmpX4MZnxrfsWfVPvlrBlh0/s400/north_korea_iran.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 217px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Many of these countries are under partial or full arms embargoes by the United Nations and European Union.</span></strong><br /><br />Government spokesperson Harold Maloka said they had not received the report and could not yet comment on it.<br /><br />According to Maynier, in the past 13 months deals have been given the green light to send multiple grenade launchers and glide bombs - long-range precision guided weapons - to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Libya.</span></strong><br /><br />The delivery of multiple grenade launchers to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Syria</span></strong> had also been approved, with a sale of sniper rifles pending.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365415797640598818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKHCxm_BHhH_CUBkQBfPzzwgl02MJCEZW2YrT3twVA5urxnBX0d83F_2OdSH_cz5eUhF1Zm3FXI9a2VymWpGstKGb7AcnA8l1NKl22FEQdlaVugvzi8mc8a_DG-Dk3RMDTwY0S_-jBUU/s400/Chavez_comu_nazi_red.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 260px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />The NCACC has also authorised the export of thousands of upgraded assault rifles to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Venezuela</span></strong>, and there are fears these arms could find their way to Farc guerillas in Colombia.<br /><br />Ammunition for assault rifles and hand guns had been approved for neighbouring <strong><span style="color:#990000;">Zimbabwe</span></strong>.<br /><br />South Africa has come under fire for exporting arms on the continent, and was the subject of widespread condemnation last year for allowing Chinese arms and ammunition to be transported through South Africa to Zimbabwe in the midst of that country's political crisis.<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365413653794528834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t5aLRasmdtTCo6cq6yP_YYbnXTm_LE-BtF5mcSQ5AbbAY9HCd0-hMSICbgIhyUFhGt7GHXJpmTIpd1FfNss5zKz7pyGAOVCQfg3ERdrBHD90ZwL1SD5ED7hmYNHN0cBfWAhW9KJIwkM/s400/Castro_MugabeR1902_468x269.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />A researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Guy Lamb, said the NCACC act stated arms should not be sold to countries where they could contribute to internal repression or violate human rights.<br /><br />"None of those (countries) violate UN arms embargoes which South Africa has to adhere to, but there are certain problems with exporting to Zimbabwe for example and Venezuela, who are not the most reliable end users of that equipment".</span> <p><a class="headlines" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=138308&sn=Detail"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">SA's dodgy arms sales to dictatorships - David Maynier</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">02 August 2009<br />The crisis in South Africa's arms control regime, and the implications... </span><a class="read_more" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=138308&sn=Detail"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Read more</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> </span><p><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090803030403506C321878"><span style="font-family:arial;">DA slams 'dodgy' arms deals</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090802152836937C522032"><span style="font-family:arial;">SA selling arms to rogue states - DA</span></a><a href="http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=77439"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">DA claims watchdog approved ‘suspect’ arms deals</span></a> </p><p><br /></p>

SA Govt arming dictators

News - South Africa: SA selling arms to rogue states - DA A crisis in South Africa's arms control body has resulted in weapon deals bein...

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Human trafficking in SA - US Gov Report (2009)

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG27XaxzDFSEgHTGdPd7S-SW2fVW8MHV8VHgwKIW3y41Qtu7E8f-9jI9u1UOK43jKHWg_2s-stlsMIrVR9SXdFn9rtVKmtwqnFdTsXptVS5PGTKQrJZdIfgS0eat3S6eXnP8jhsptKpA/s1600-h/SexSlavery1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361645989756015106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG27XaxzDFSEgHTGdPd7S-SW2fVW8MHV8VHgwKIW3y41Qtu7E8f-9jI9u1UOK43jKHWg_2s-stlsMIrVR9SXdFn9rtVKmtwqnFdTsXptVS5PGTKQrJZdIfgS0eat3S6eXnP8jhsptKpA/s400/SexSlavery1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 293px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In 1837 slavery was abolished across the British Empire. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And on 10 December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<br /><br />"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."<br /><br />If only this were true.<br /><br />According to the US government's <a href="http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/files/2009-trafficking-in-persons-report.pdf">2009 Trafficking In Persons Report</a>, at least 800 000 people are trafficked annually across international borders. This figure does not even begin to touch on the number of people who are trafficked within countries.<br /><br />The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that global human trafficking is worth between $7-billion and $12-billion annually, making it the third most profitable criminal activity after trade in narcotics and arms.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#999999;">Proudly South African?</span></strong><br /><br />And South Africa is by no means exempt. South Africa is commonly regarded as the primary destination for persons trafficked in the Southern African region. It is also used as a transit point for persons being trafficked from one destination to another. Over and above this, internal trafficking — of South Africans within South Africa's borders — is rife.<br /><br />According to the US's most recent Trafficking in Persons Report (2009):<br /><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Women and girls from Thailand, Congo, India, China, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are trafficked into South Africa for commercial sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Organised traffickers from China bring victims from Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland into Johannesburg.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Men from China and Taiwan are trafficked to mobile sweatshop factories in Chinese enclaves in South Africa.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Organised criminal groups, including Nigerian, Chinese, Eastern European syndicates and local gangs, facilitate trafficking into and within South Africa.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">South African children are largely trafficked within the country from poor rural areas to urban centres such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. Girls are used for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, while boys are used for forced street vending, begging, crime and agriculture.<br /></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Based on the cases with which it has dealt (25 000 victims globally), the IOM estimates that of all persons trafficked, approximately one third are children. Although commercial sexual exploitation is the form of human trafficking most commonly talked about, domestic servitude and forced labour are also major forms of exploitation.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#999999;">Life is cheap</span></strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH31ceybF0Z1QlqtpanK_b1igSB8wLblv7Oy9f_hIqhIG9QKHNRvG1XgfcBcJuaEws9RQvPAqpJFrWlWzgyGUJRwScgNFQJxdh_TnKfJmXi6dqYTccEd4DOhlOBZ7ltoDu75rv2i5-Fa4/s1600-h/ChildTrafficking-Wallpaper-Poster.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361648309807626818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH31ceybF0Z1QlqtpanK_b1igSB8wLblv7Oy9f_hIqhIG9QKHNRvG1XgfcBcJuaEws9RQvPAqpJFrWlWzgyGUJRwScgNFQJxdh_TnKfJmXi6dqYTccEd4DOhlOBZ7ltoDu75rv2i5-Fa4/s400/ChildTrafficking-Wallpaper-Poster.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 312px" /></a><br />According to Mariam Khokhar, programme manager for irregular migration and counter-trafficking at the IOM, South Africa's informal settlements and rural areas are the main recruitment areas. The reason for this is obvious — poor and desperate people are automatically more vulnerable to trafficking.<br /><br />"There are different means of recruiting victims, all of which are founded on deception or coercion," says Khokhar. "Our research, as well as interaction with victims we have assisted in this region, indicates that victims are recruited with job offers from an acquaintance, known individual in the community, or even a printed advertisement. Victims have also been abducted from their communities by traffickers."<br /><br />Based on anecdotal evidence, a 2008 IOM study into internal trafficking in South Africa estimates that individuals, who are often sold repeatedly (particularly in the sexual exploitation trade), can be sold for anything between R250 and R3500.<br /><br />Having been recruited and sold, it becomes very difficult for the victims of trafficking to escape the cycle of trafficking.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#999999;">Drugs, debt-bondage and violence</span></strong><br /><br />"Traffickers use various control mechanisms to ensure that victims do not escape. One such means is debt-bondage where a victim is informed they owe a debt to the trafficker for services rendered. The victim is expected to pay off the debt and at the slightest opportunity the already-inflated debt increases. For example, if the victim falls ill and is unable to render services, they are fined and the debt increases," says Khokhar.<br /><br />"Traffickers also use physical violence as a means of subduing their victims. Threats of harm on the victim and their family and friends is another means of control, this is reinforced in instances where the trafficker is known to the victim and her family."<br /><br />On top of this, the victim is usually isolated from any sort of support network — their new environment is generally geographically and, at times, linguistically, foreign. Furthermore, victims who are forced into prostitution have, by the very nature of South African law, become criminals themselves.<br /><br />"Victims are often forced to take drugs as a means of making them compliant and dependent on the trafficker. Traffickers also confiscate the identity documents of the victim to ensure that victims do not run away... An illegal status in the country of destination, and threats of police deportation and arrest, are also used by the trafficker when the case involves cross-border trafficking." </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;">2009 Trafficking in Persons Report Department of State -</span> </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123357.pdf" s_oid="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123357.pdf" s_oidt="0" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>(Read the full report here.)</em></span></a><br /><br />The study, which has been published annually since 2000, doubles as a progress report on governments' efforts to enforce laws against trafficking and ranks countries based on their commitment to tackling the issue. The report divides participating countries into three tiers according to an assessment of the extent to which their governments prosecute, prevent and protect victims from trafficking. (Tier 1 countries show the most effort in combatting trafficking, while Tier 3 countries show the least.) Tier 3 countries that do not comply with the minimum standards face sanctions. Unsurprisingly, developed nations in the 2009 report dominated the top tier, while Iran and North Korea joined half a dozen sub-Saharan African countries in Tier 3. </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></p></span><p></p>

Human trafficking in SA - US Gov Report (2009)

In 1837 slavery was abolished across the British Empire. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And on 10 December 19...

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Zuma 'lying' about R650 000 Zim report

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUJ9NGVBMzq67Hh1t8mUg2K1uGDkbsQWdHvPYKZgMdG3MshvWTz8MtXBYf7hg2lw5Fq_ItZi1FmgeiZapEA1liCj1g_NpOmZe8GlgLULrkuaBUD831_Vp16C8Afikakx959zwS3ayM-I/s1600-h/zuma-lie.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349188385578242370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUJ9NGVBMzq67Hh1t8mUg2K1uGDkbsQWdHvPYKZgMdG3MshvWTz8MtXBYf7hg2lw5Fq_ItZi1FmgeiZapEA1liCj1g_NpOmZe8GlgLULrkuaBUD831_Vp16C8Afikakx959zwS3ayM-I/s400/zuma-lie.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 326px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">NGOs have taken further steps to force the Presidency to publish a report by retired army generals into state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe, the South African History Archive (Saha) said on Friday.</span></strong><br /><br />They had submitted an internal appeal to President Jacob Zuma's office in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, disputing his claim that the document does not exist.<br /><br />The Saha, the South African Litigation Centre and the Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture last month invoked the Act to get the report -- which was commissioned by former president Thabo Mbeki -- into the public domain a year after the generals conducted two fact-finding missions in Zimbabwe.<br /><br />Mbeki asked the team to assess the extent of the army's involvement in the political crisis in Zimbabwe.<br /><br />The NGOs said they were convinced that the six generals produced a hard-hitting report that influenced the power-sharing deal Mbeki brokered between Zimbabwe's political rivals last September.<br /><br />But Zuma's office had insisted the generals never reported back to Mbeki in writing.<br /><br />Frank Chikane, the director general in the presidency under Mbeki, and Trevor Fowler, who currently holds the post, produced affidavits in which they said there was not only no report, but no supporting documentation on the generals' mission.<br /><br />The Saha said it was hard to believe that they were not asked to document their findings, as the mission cost the South African taxpayer nearly R650 000, according to the Foreign Ministry.<br /><br />"To suggest that this amount of money could be spent and the admitted investigation conducted merely for a once-off oral briefing to be made to the president ... beggars belief."<br /><br />"Consequently, the NGOs involved submit that the president 'must be mistaken' and that 'the overwhelming probability is that the documents must exist'."<br /><br />Saha spokesperson Fritz Schoon said the appeal was handed to Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane last week. Zuma's office had 30 days to respond to it.<br /><br />If he were to reject the request, Schoon said, going to court would be the NGOs last resort to obtain the report.<br /><br />Human rights groups accused President Robert Mugabe of unleashing a systematic campaign of violence on opposition supporters after his Zanu-PF lost control of Parliament to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in elections in March 2008.<br /><br />MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed at least 100 of his supporters were killed.-- Sapa</span><p>

Zuma 'lying' about R650 000 Zim report

NGOs have taken further steps to force the Presidency to publish a report by retired army generals into state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabw...

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SA less peaceful

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6EX2aDolTououkByM957K-vgOOjynGDVl-arsWgsutnizRpjjbjJWjSTwg1-L0TIgZHreXmhwMFw_P-gL0z2lkyMfjEFuUcsQ4eg0n9wiwnEjh_Vj5OXoh7ammWuk5Tc7r4dG2AFZQs/s1600-h/FLAG-upside-down.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342841151342323074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6EX2aDolTououkByM957K-vgOOjynGDVl-arsWgsutnizRpjjbjJWjSTwg1-L0TIgZHreXmhwMFw_P-gL0z2lkyMfjEFuUcsQ4eg0n9wiwnEjh_Vj5OXoh7ammWuk5Tc7r4dG2AFZQs/s400/FLAG-upside-down.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">South Africa is ranked 123 out of 144 countries on the Global Peace Index 2009, it was announced on Tuesday.<br /><br />"South Africa has fallen fifteen places compared with GPI 2008," the Institute for Economics and Peace said in a statement.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">It obtained unfavourable scores for, in order of most impact: the level of violent crime, number of homicides, ease of access to weapons, level of organised internal conflict, perceptions of criminality, respect for human rights and likelihood of violent demonstrations.<br /><br />Favourable indicators were: the number of heavy weapons, volume of major conventional weapons exported and imported, number of displaced people, estimated number of deaths from organised external conflict, potential for terrorist acts, military expenditure, number of armed services personnel and United Nations funding.<br /><br />In the African region, South Africa is ranked 21 out of 31 countries, behind Botswana, Malawi and Gabon, ranked top three, and ahead of countries including Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.<br /><br />New Zealand tops the overall rankings as the world's most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Norway.<br /><br />Western or Central European democracies account for 14 of the top 20 rankings. All five Scandinavian countries are in the top 10.<br /><br />The United States is ranked 83, registering a "significant negative" for jailing a higher proportion of its population than any other country in the index.<br /><br />The country ranked least at peace is Iraq — for the third year running.<br /><br />Also at the bottom end of the rankings are Afghanistan and Somalia.<br /><br />Madagascar has fallen the most — 30 rankings — amid political instability and violent demonstrations. Bosnia Herzegovina has risen the most — up 23 rankings from 73rd position last year.<br /><br />The Global Peace Index was started three years ago by Australian technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea.<br /><br />It forms part of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think-tank on the relationship between economics, business and peace, and is calculated on the institute's behalf by the Economist Intelligence Unit and its network of country analysts.<br /><br />"The world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year after the intensification of violent conflict in some countries and as the dramatic global economic downturn took its toll," the index found.<br /><br />A separate study, released with the index, on the economic impact of violence found that lost peace costs US4.8 trillion (about R55 trillion) a year, and that peace is a significant factor in the creation of wealth.<br /><br />"... The causes of peace are becoming apparent and the net economic benefit to humanity is substantial," said Killelea.<br /><br />"Peace does have an economic value apart from the very real humanitarian values associated with it," he said.<br /><br />Anglo American chairman Mark Moody-Stuart, who also chairs the Global United Nations Compact said: "The business community can and does benefit significantly from non violent environments, but perhaps business must now consider how sound, transparent and ethical business practices can play a larger role in bringing out about stability and peace."<br /><br />The index's supporters include Nobel Laureates Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Professor Joseph Stiglitz and former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, and businessman Richard Branson.<br /><br />"People need to understand the structure and attitudes that create peace and start to build them into their societies," said Killelea.<br /><br />"Peace lies at the centre of being able to manage the many and varied challenges facing humanity, simply because peace creates the optimum environment in which the other activities that contribute to human growth can take place," he said. </span></p><p><a class="l" href="http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','3','&sig2=jEhS8vxbuRI99Qmi_RmyjQ')"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Vision of Humanity</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> - Global Peace Index Rankings 2009</span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The table provides the GPI rankings for the 144 countries analysed in 2009. Countries most at peace are ranked first. A lower score indicates a more peaceful country. You can click on a country to see the detail of its peace indicators and drivers.</span></p><p><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">Click on link to see the rankings -</span></em> <a href="http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php</em></span></a></p><p></p>

SA less peaceful

South Africa is ranked 123 out of 144 countries on the Global Peace Index 2009, it was announced on Tuesday. "South Africa has fallen f...

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'Go Home Mugabe'

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zSFvJpRNT_0dD4zMAxIhosrDs66AXEs7BqqoS0d_6dTEDZ2qroDM0Zrr9knvij-HimfG4ZSzl8GFef6QSS3vaGva7SPJO4fz6AT4_2qbzB29V0fG9XeYyp5rLRomxv7i6RX-BsfkC02x/s1600-h/mugabe-gohome.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333532698870386978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zSFvJpRNT_0dD4zMAxIhosrDs66AXEs7BqqoS0d_6dTEDZ2qroDM0Zrr9knvij-HimfG4ZSzl8GFef6QSS3vaGva7SPJO4fz6AT4_2qbzB29V0fG9XeYyp5rLRomxv7i6RX-BsfkC02x/s400/mugabe-gohome.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 243px" /></a><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Mugabe, Mswati oppressors!</span></span></strong></p><p><span style="color:#990000;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#990000;">Mugabe, like Swaziland's King Mswati, has crushed all ideals of democracy and freedom, is starving his own people and is married to this doctrine of violations with impunity. Both are just as despotic and corrupt.</span></strong> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333333;">If Mswati is not welcome at Zuma inauguration, Mugabe, who has committed similar crimes against humanity, must 'GO HOME' he is not welcome here. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333333;">Mugabe's and Mswati's authoritarian actions bear striking similarities, both:-<br /><br />1. Imprisoned the opposition leader under inhumane conditions including the<br />denial of adequate medical care.<br />2. Ordered violent crackdowns on pro-democracy and trade union activists.<br />The outcome of these violent crackdowns is often terrifying as people are<br />murdered and scores of others are severely injured - some have sustained<br />permanent disabilities as a result.<br />3. Ordered mass eviction of rural residents from their homes<br />4. Introduced draconian laws banning and restricting the press<br />5. Interfered with the judiciary in an attempt to use it as a<br />repressive political instrument<br />6. Maintained the ban on political parties and participation in<br />national politics<br />7. Failed to adhere to international principles of human rights and<br />democracy<br />8. Maintained his stranglehold on political power by continuing to<br />rule by decree<br />9. Militate against free and fair elections, with political parties officially banned in Swaziland, and the Zimbabwean people forced to make choices within ZANUPF-set frameworks.</span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><br /><br />Despite this frightening record of human rights abuse, Mugabe continues to enjoy diplomatic relationships with South Africa. The Zuma Government must severe all political, economic, political and cultural ties with Mugabe.<br /><br />Critics say SA has damaged its image by taking a soft line on Mugabe and countries such as Sudan and Myanmar. Critics also accused the government of caving into pressure from China by refusing the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference in March which was widely condemned...<em> </em></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="color:#333333;">see here</span> </span></strong>- </em></span><a href="http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2513228,00.html" onclick="_IG_FRUC_setFeedAsRead(26,2)" target="_blank" title="A leading rights watchdog has urged South Africa's new government to restore the country's image by putting human rights at the centre of its foreign policy."><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>'Put human rights first'</em></span></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Zuma inauguration: 'King Mswati not welcome' </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaryOuu2pOrYVE4l4m9WXOkqUqAsuLho2YNAYslm_f2gYtpQVgfh1aespeU86Zzaej1rAlkmXoTxFwdHTdYuGi7aVM_LZSNamz4winIKTyuZojJLLrO43aRCMWLvRvtJq2U_frHHPLzyG/s1600-h/pot-kettle.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333533081952206034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaryOuu2pOrYVE4l4m9WXOkqUqAsuLho2YNAYslm_f2gYtpQVgfh1aespeU86Zzaej1rAlkmXoTxFwdHTdYuGi7aVM_LZSNamz4winIKTyuZojJLLrO43aRCMWLvRvtJq2U_frHHPLzyG/s320/pot-kettle.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px" /></a></span></strong>Swaziland's King Mswati III is not welcome at Jacob Zuma's inauguration because he "knows no democracy", the SACP said on Thursday.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"The SACP wishes to express its strong displeasure at the presence of King Mswati at a ceremony that in many ways is also a celebration of democracy that he has denied his people," said SA Communist Party spokesperson Malesela Maleka in a statement.<br /><br />It called on the Southern African Development Community and the government to put "serious pressure" on Mswati to introduce democracy in Swaziland.<br /><br />While Mswati enjoyed the festivities associated with SA's democratic advances, his nation suffered hunger and poverty.<br /><br />"Mswati's dynasty" wasted millions of rands on lavish birthday parties, luxury vehicles and personal shopping sprees, while the majority of his people had no access to basic services and were being ravaged by HIV and Aids. <em><span style="font-size:100%;color:#990000;">(sounds like Mad Bob's government)</span></em><br /><br />The SACP charged that Mswati was responsible for detention of Peoples' United Democratic Movement president Mario Masuku and had refused him visits by human rights groups.<br /><br />"The regime has stepped up its undemocratic practices when they also detained the president and the secretary general of Swayoco [Swaziland Youth Congress].<br /><br />"The man who is at the helm of these human rights abuses deserves no seat at our most revered celebration this Saturday."<br /><br />The SACP said it supported the Swaziland Solidarity Network's call for workers to refuse to help Mswati "should he defy logic" and attend the inauguration on Saturday.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em><span style="color:#000099;"></span></em></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em><span style="color:#000099;">Source Url:</span> </em></span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20090507165456323C619692"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20090507165456323C619692</em></span></a></p><p><br /></p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></span>

'Go Home Mugabe'

Mugabe, Mswati oppressors! Mugabe, like Swaziland's King Mswati, has crushed all ideals of democracy and freedom, is starving his own pe...

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Why, the Beloved Country?

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmX6VTNTKQUbLcq-1ZyDiSXvhAEEGVdQb0KwUOI6_db98c6Wi34wJZlOjX-qPZTOMhVq7rYHo5KCux1HRqxylForMkLJVdbYIltT-fP8AqVhE4eRAczVVp5ZaXG8wzF_jl13NZxkCOg70V/s1600-h/mandela-violence.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328361654798612402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmX6VTNTKQUbLcq-1ZyDiSXvhAEEGVdQb0KwUOI6_db98c6Wi34wJZlOjX-qPZTOMhVq7rYHo5KCux1HRqxylForMkLJVdbYIltT-fP8AqVhE4eRAczVVp5ZaXG8wzF_jl13NZxkCOg70V/s400/mandela-violence.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 306px" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;">By James Kirchick<br />July 29, 2007<br /></span></em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">In early may, just a month before the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, South African Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils paid a visit to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader and erstwhile Palestinian Authority prime minister. Kasrils praised Hamas, which has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, and invited Haniyeh to visit South Africa. Several months earlier, Kasrils did similar PR work on behalf of Hezbollah, another U.S.-designated terrorist group.</span></strong><br /><br />South Africa's chumminess with these two well-known terror organizations may come as a shock to Americans, for whom South Africa probably conjures up fuzzy images of Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey opening up a luxurious school for disadvantaged girls and the heroic triumph of democracy and justice over racism. But it shouldn't. It is part and parcel of a broader and troubling trend in South African foreign policy, one that cozies up to tyrants and is increasingly hostile to the West -- even at the cost of its self-proclaimed principles of human rights and political freedom.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5NqwoeJypk8obhyCbcPbe1CBIUBfIMiiCYv69rJKTUmsMVEoNWxOwyGJC15UDhlzLYYpHG82L4OkQgbg5R9tJAV6Iox7AktJyTvNPu5fBvwOT9kFoC4xniXBbWrLrMxniT5B81VT43N9n/s1600-h/mandela-castro.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMgjhfMe_cyvLyaCShCk5AXJEku_3cRXD915dOvoXZwYQNUA5ZiQI0UT5wkEDEMJjHa7E4bhqG72npzL-ROyt3N5dHLimO5C-C8iRXnWE10glzrTJAU1Z7fY81gmisxvcY-SjUVL3PAB9/s1600-h/mandela-castro.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328363072610936850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMgjhfMe_cyvLyaCShCk5AXJEku_3cRXD915dOvoXZwYQNUA5ZiQI0UT5wkEDEMJjHa7E4bhqG72npzL-ROyt3N5dHLimO5C-C8iRXnWE10glzrTJAU1Z7fY81gmisxvcY-SjUVL3PAB9/s320/mandela-castro.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 267px" /></a>So why haven't you heard more about it? Why has post-apartheid South Africa's easy relationship with dictatorships been downplayed by the media for years? That oversight seems to reflect a disinclination to report bad news about the African National Congress -- Mandela's party, which led the fight against apartheid -- and especially any news that might be perceived as tarnishing the popular and comforting narrative surrounding the country's triumphant emergence from apartheid.<br /><br />Even as South Africa moves slowly into the anti-Western camp, few outsiders are willing to criticize the ANC, partly out of a misguided sense of solidarity and partly because the party cloaks itself in a shroud of moral absolutism that not so subtly implicates its critics as racists, Western stooges or apologists for apartheid. (To cite only one of many examples, in February, the ANC government attacked the British Broadcasting Corp. for supposedly alleging that "Africans are less than human, or, at least, genetically inferior" in a documentary about out-of-control crime in Johannesburg.)<br /><br />But scurrilous accusations shouldn't be allowed to deter reasonable criticism. And just because the ANC's current leaders were once imprisoned by white racists does not render them immune from censure today.<br /><br />The reality is that, among democratic countries, none has been more supportive of Iran's nuclear ambitions than South Africa. While the United States and its European allies fret over what to do about the nuclear program of this rogue, theocratic state, South Africa's ambassador to the United Nations, displaying remarkable credulity, declared last year: "We will defend the right of countries to have nuclear technology for peaceful uses. For instance, Iran." In March, after assuming a temporary two-year seat on the Security Council, South Africa attempted to gut a resolution sanctioning Iran for defying demands that it freeze uranium enrichment. (Although after the attempt failed, South Africa joined the rest of the council in passing a unanimous resolution.)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3bfAe24YfmcQDX87JaxkEfksCDMXQCSP-E4nEmaDzwmgBxiXJltJcCNqvwpd2IVGU-NNrnBS8fnZt9ICBCPX33VCdGKnqI_ikR_LRriFAhQpedxi64JLQcJLlhNLfbYD0D_tkWhFBg_N/s1600-h/MandelaGaddafi.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328361663372410674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3bfAe24YfmcQDX87JaxkEfksCDMXQCSP-E4nEmaDzwmgBxiXJltJcCNqvwpd2IVGU-NNrnBS8fnZt9ICBCPX33VCdGKnqI_ikR_LRriFAhQpedxi64JLQcJLlhNLfbYD0D_tkWhFBg_N/s400/MandelaGaddafi.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 180px" /></a>South Africa has also wasted its opportunity to stand as a clarion voice for human rights at the U.N. On the Security Council, it has regularly sided with Russia and China -- the two powerful, veto-wielding nations that are consistent obstacles to the defense of liberty. In its first substantive vote on the council, South Africa sided with those two states against a nonbinding resolution condemning the human rights abuses of the Myanmar military junta. Archbishop Desmond Tutu admitted that the vote was "a betrayal of our own noble past."<br /><br />Last week, the South African ambassador to the U.N. warned that any talk of sanctions against Sudan for its actions in Darfur would be "totally unacceptable." How can the ANC, with a straight face, call sanctions against a genocidal regime totally unacceptable when it demanded complete and utter isolation of the white apartheid government in Pretoria?<br /><br />Rounding out South Africa's disgraceful foreign policy is its stance toward Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe is inflicting what some have referred to as a "silent genocide" against his own people through starvation and the manipulation of food aid. Instead of threatening sanctions or even lightly criticizing his regime, South Africa has kept Mugabe afloat through vast economic aid and, in 2005, strengthened an already dubious military alliance between the two governments. To the ANC, Mugabe is a hero who defeated white colonialism, and even though his reign is worse than the white government he overthrew, the ANC puts its stubborn principle of liberation camaraderie ahead of common humanity.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2kwaIL_GEZp0vfKwOMdPy9xXC1FU3_tDIMPP3LHIR3HylwBpZiz-mhYPApCL9g05gkNXcFTK9KV1XQLywgSiguHOf2InT1cHnnCfSCVscrp5qtnGwmq0Qt7PTbhPgL5CNGpInClV6a2ay/s1600-h/mandela-Arafat.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6XLBzBAXZ4Ka_kRezkPBnMnPbGgVmqexorvzvpo5WFg9mrwp5h4iktiazae5_w9RfvavhP5JYS3m1feYhoHkmnK3JTb6eAY7VXpIxpWUWDd3u0OnZcAYOVgL7aynO2IXhZUBE565dzZW/s1600-h/mandela-Arafat.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328363068495367794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6XLBzBAXZ4Ka_kRezkPBnMnPbGgVmqexorvzvpo5WFg9mrwp5h4iktiazae5_w9RfvavhP5JYS3m1feYhoHkmnK3JTb6eAY7VXpIxpWUWDd3u0OnZcAYOVgL7aynO2IXhZUBE565dzZW/s320/mandela-Arafat.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 246px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>Why would the ANC, which came to power with such worldwide respect and goodwill, be willing to squander its moral authority so easily? A large part of the explanation rests with Mandela himself. Although he is regarded as perhaps the most inspirational figure in the world, the fact is that throughout his life, Mandela has praised an unseemly crew of dictators -- including Fidel Castro ("Long live Comrade Fidel Castro!" he said in 1991), Moammar Kadafi (whom he visited in 1997 in defiance of American objections) and Yasser Arafat ("a comrade in arms") -- for their support of the ANC while it was in exile. And he has remained quiet about Mugabe even though a strong rebuke might influence current African leaders to do the same, and Mandela's reticence is a stain on his otherwise illustrious legacy.<br /><br />The roots of the ANC's willingness to overlook totalitarianism go back to its historic hostility toward the West, which solidified during the apartheid years, when it was the Soviet Union that supplied the ANC and the United States, Britain and Israel were unwilling to cut ties to the white government in Pretoria. Regardless of what happened many years ago, previous policies by the U.S. and other Western countries toward South Africa cannot possibly justify the ANC's current friendliness toward Hamas, Hezbollah, Mugabe, Khartoum and Tehran.<br /><br />Yet the ANC refuses to change. Today, it still governs not by itself but as part of a "tripartite alliance" with the country's trade union coalition and the South African Communist Party. It's no surprise, then, that in a recent weekly letter from South African President Thabo Mbeki recounting an ANC delegation trip to Vietnam, he spoke, even all these years later, of "the U.S. war of aggression against the Vietnamese people" and lauded the communist dictatorship's "struggle for freedom and national independence." Mbeki and his ANC colleagues see South Africa as having inherited an "anti-imperialist" intellectual tradition heroically opposed to the Western democracies.<br /><br />With the fall of apartheid, a window of opportunity emerged in which South Africa could have come to the fore as an unrivaled advocate for human rights around the world. Given its own struggle against injustice, the ANC is right to regard itself as having a special duty to stand with the innocent against authoritarianism, terrorism and privation. Regretfully, it appears that South Africa -- at least under the rule of the massively popular ANC -- has decided to cast its lot with the likes of Robert Mugabe, the mullahs in Iran and the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah.<br /></span></span><p><br /></p>

Why, the Beloved Country?

By James Kirchick July 29, 2007 In early may, just a month before the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, South African Minister of Intelligen...

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Where are human rights in Zuma's plan?

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjPA7djZTIUCissM4D3BhqjY_izkTtHsdueSZoHhVlnG3ZuVUVLyE-pwmhSpXqEl-tHMRdrIx42ADaP-4Hu9pf2Ji8LKvECerJ34gslZN47UwFLcKnsez27YOKzX4NJXiT8g-ob-Dszg8/s1600-h/zuma-hr.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328332729122463954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjPA7djZTIUCissM4D3BhqjY_izkTtHsdueSZoHhVlnG3ZuVUVLyE-pwmhSpXqEl-tHMRdrIx42ADaP-4Hu9pf2Ji8LKvECerJ34gslZN47UwFLcKnsez27YOKzX4NJXiT8g-ob-Dszg8/s400/zuma-hr.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 391px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Nelson Mandela's clear vision for South Africa has grown cloudy, as Jacob Zuma shifts the focus away from human rights<br /></span></strong><br />Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president-in-waiting, faces plenty of tough domestic challenges without worrying over-much about international relations.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;">South African ruling party leader </span></em><a href="http://www.daylife.com/topic/Jacob_Zuma"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Jacob Zuma</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;"> poses at his residence during an interview with Reuters in Johannesburg March 27 2009. Zuma criticised Western powers for holding back aid to Zimbabwe while President </span></em><a href="http://www.daylife.com/topic/Robert_Mugabe"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Robert Mugabe</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;"> was still in power.<br /></span></em><br />But how he handles the ongoing crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe will show how much importance he attaches to key issues of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law that resonate at home and abroad. South Africa's recent performance could certainly be improved.<br /><br />Addressing foreign diplomats in Pretoria last month, Zuma said the African National Congress's main foreign policy aim was to strengthen South Africa's role in peacemaking, reconstruction, development and integration, especially in Southern Africa and the African continent. "We must emphasise what our icon, Nelson Mandela, said in 1992: that the primary task of ANC international policy was to be a friend to every nation in the world," he said. The party had a "clear plan" to fight poverty and other global ills.<br /><br />But Zuma's lack of emphasis on human rights and good governance contrasted sharply with something else his more famous predecessor said. Writing in 1993, Mandela acknowledged the importance of human rights ideals in the international anti-apartheid movement and pledged "human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs". A free South Africa, he said, would be "at the forefront of global efforts to promote and foster democratic systems of government".<br /><br />In a recent article Terence Corrigan of the South African Institute of International Affairs, said a central question for Zuma as he prepares to assume power is whether the ANC "has squandered [South Africa's] enormous moral capital and its commitment to human rights to side with some very questionable regimes?" The phrases human rights and democratisation no longer even appeared in the foreign affairs ministry's mission statement, he noted.<br /><br />Mandela's clear vision for his country has grown especially cloudy of late, following South Africa's two-year stint on the UN Security Council. During that time it sided with Burma and Sudan against Western countries enraged at egregious human rights abuses. A similarly blind eye was turned to China's treatment of Tibetans; South Africa recently withheld a visa from the Dalai Lama for fear of upsetting Beijing. Dismay also greeted its refusal to support a UN declaration decriminalising homosexuality and its reluctance to back moves to classify rape as a war crime.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEGsY913GhhW-TeXcFnPGzphgw2dXjnC07bLRr9vLNibjR7hCMZTCvVQNNqeCbrwN0x7y_jj2jZ6Otd5dN8uf2THjtBXpvxITZg-0OUBGFv463dx7X1KHJgjlPTfiXzRQFJ5hksbZv9BK/s1600-h/zuma+mug.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328332092380562050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEGsY913GhhW-TeXcFnPGzphgw2dXjnC07bLRr9vLNibjR7hCMZTCvVQNNqeCbrwN0x7y_jj2jZ6Otd5dN8uf2THjtBXpvxITZg-0OUBGFv463dx7X1KHJgjlPTfiXzRQFJ5hksbZv9BK/s400/zuma+mug.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px" /></a>The most notorious case of backsliding concerns South Africa's continuing support for Robert Mugabe's illegitimate, bloodstained presidency in Zimbabwe. Only Pretoria has the power -- economic, financial, physical -- to force genuine change in Harare. But despite a destabilising influx of three-million Zimbabwean refugees, it consistently refused to apply its leverage during the reign of Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's predecessor.<br /><br />When Mugabe stole last year's presidential election, Zuma was critical at first. "We cannot agree with Zanu-PF, we cannot agree with them on values," Zuma said. "We fought for the right of people to vote. We fought for democracy." But the hope that Zuma was breaking with Mbeki's quietly-do-nothing diplomacy has since faded. He now firmly backs Zimbabwe's new power-sharing accord despite strong suspicions that the opposition has been suckered into perpetuating Mugabe's hold on power. Last month he attacked Western countries such as Britain for withholding development aid.<br /><br />Persistent allegations that Zuma has corruptly enriched himself, and has subverted the legal system to avoid just retribution, also raise a symbolic question mark over the next government's commitment to the rule of law, at home and abroad. ANC plans to "speed up" the country's land reform programme, for example, have raised fears of forcible, illegal farm seizures as in Zimbabwe. The party vows this will never happen.<br /><br />South Africa's apparent post-apartheid drift away from what are loosely called "Western values" can be explained in several ways. For James Kirchick, an American writer, Zuma and the ANC's erstwhile freedom fighters are willing heirs to an "anti-imperialist intellectual tradition heroically opposed to the western democracies". This may help explain unconfirmed press reports that the ANC has received electoral funding from China, India and elsewhere -- and its political dallying with the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah.<br /><br />Then there's the "realist" view. Given that the country's short-term imperatives are rapid economic growth, social development, and the alleviation of poverty, given its acute need of global partners, and given its aspirations as a continental power, South Africa simply cannot afford an unworkable, West European-style liberal democratic agenda.<br /><br />According to Terence Corrigan, "an emergent multipolarity of power in the world will spawn a multipolarity of values". In other words, universal rights remain an aspiration, not a fact. One day South Africa may have to meet a more exacting standard. But that is unlikely to happen while Jacob Zuma is in charge.<br /></span><br /><em><span style="color:#000099;">- guardian.co.uk</span></em> </span></p>

Where are human rights in Zuma's plan?

Nelson Mandela's clear vision for South Africa has grown cloudy, as Jacob Zuma shifts the focus away from human rights Jacob Zuma, South...

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South Africa a "rogue democracy"

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQyQe93s9NyGLfaaXtwGmpVbqluWaqXlohuVJ2GTWmXj9Kd5P-AJJy3UCKPp4s_miCvX4QP390ruOhDYu_ICtFvp9kN-5NNGW5aQoZ-90d7HUKBqExXmPEFCH0XqhsQdCjag569rMj1pf/s1600-h/apartheid.jpg"><strong><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5205851046828650466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQyQe93s9NyGLfaaXtwGmpVbqluWaqXlohuVJ2GTWmXj9Kd5P-AJJy3UCKPp4s_miCvX4QP390ruOhDYu_ICtFvp9kN-5NNGW5aQoZ-90d7HUKBqExXmPEFCH0XqhsQdCjag569rMj1pf/s400/apartheid.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></strong></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">South Africa is becoming an example of freedom that undermines the freedom of others, such as urging the United States to stay out of Zimbabwe's affairs.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">By Michael Gerson<br />Washington Post Writers Group<br />WASHINGTON --<br /></span><br />"Things on the ground," e-mailed a friend from a groaning Zimbabwe, "are absolutely shocking -- systematic violence, abductions, brutal murders. Hundreds of activists hospitalized, indeed starting to go possibly into the thousands." The military, he says, is "going village by village with lists of MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) activists, identifying them and then either abducting them or beating them to a pulp, leaving them for dead."<br /><br />In late April, about the same time as this e-mail, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa -- Zimbabwe's influential neighbor -- addressed a four-page letter to President Bush. Rather than coordinating strategy to end Zimbabwe's nightmare, Mbeki criticized the United States, in a text packed with exclamation points, for taking sides against President Robert Mugabe's government and disrespecting the views of the Zimbabwean people.<br /><br />"He said it was not our business," recalls one American official, and "to butt out, that Africa belongs to him." Adds another official: "Mbeki lost it; it was outrageous."<br /><br />It is also not an aberration. South Africa has actively blocked United Nations discussions about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe -- and in Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Uzbekistan. South Africa was the only real democracy to vote against a resolution demanding that the Burmese junta stop ethnic cleansing and free jailed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. When Iranian nuclear proliferation was debated in the Security Council, South Africa dragged out discussions and demanded watered-down language in the resolution. South Africa opposed a resolution condemning rape and attacks on civilians in Darfur -- and rolled out the red carpet for a visit from Sudan's genocidal leader. In the General Assembly, South Africa fought against a resolution condemning the use of rape as a weapon of war, because it was not sufficiently anti-American.<br /><br />When confronted by international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch about their apparent indifference to all rights but their own, South African officials have responded by attacking the groups themselves -- which, they conspiratorially (and falsely) claim, are funded by "major Western powers."<br /><br />There are a variety of possible explanations for this irresponsibility. Stylistically, Mbeki seems to prefer quiet diplomacy with dictators instead of confrontation. Some of his colleagues in the African National Congress (ANC) -- South Africa's ruling party -- argue that because Mbeki was an exile during apartheid instead of a prisoner or freedom fighter, he has less intuitive sympathy for prisoners and freedom fighters in other countries. South Africa clearly is trying to league itself with China and Brazil in a new nonaligned movement -- to redress what one official calls an "imbalance of global power," meaning an excess of American power.<br /><br />Longtime observers of Mbeki also believe that racial issues -- including Mbeki's experience of raw discrimination during the London part of his exile -- may also play a role. He lashes out whenever he believes that Westerners are telling Africans how to conduct their lives, or who their leaders should be. So for years he viewed AIDS treatment as a plot of Western pharmaceutical companies -- and now he helps shield Mugabe from global outrage.<br /><br />Whatever the reasons, South Africa increasingly requires a new foreign policy category: the rogue democracy. Along with China and Russia, South Africa makes the United Nations impotent. Along with Saudi Arabia and Sudan, it undermines the global human rights movement. South Africa remains an example of freedom -- while devaluing and undermining the freedom of others.<br /><br />Zimbabwe is the most pressing case in point -- reflecting a political argument within South Africa and a broader philosophical debate.<br /><br />The labor movement within the ANC, led by Jacob Zuma, is close to the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe (which also has labor roots) and is highly critical of Mbeki's deference to Mugabe. Zuma's faction has provided planes to transport MDC leaders. The labor faction of the ANC is using the Zimbabwe crisis to argue that Mbeki is "yesterday's man" -- indifferent to the cause that gave rise to the ANC itself.<br /><br />This debate is clarifying a question across southern Africa: Did revolutionary parties in the region fight for liberation or for liberty? If merely for liberation from Western imperialism, then aging despots and oppressive ruling parties have a claim to power. But if for liberty, those who work for freedom in Zimbabwe must also have their day.<br /><br />So far, South Africa -- of all places -- sides with the despots.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></span>

South Africa a "rogue democracy"

South Africa is becoming an example of freedom that undermines the freedom of others, such as urging the United States to stay out of Zimbab...

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