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Angry mobs seek out foreigners
Topic Started: Feb 15 2009, 12:40 PM (57 Views)
Warren
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Angry mobs seek out foreigners

From Fran Blandy in Johannesburg

May 22, 2008 12:21am
Article from: Herald Sun

* Wave of violence sweeps South Africa
* Foreigners targeted by angry mobs
* Up to 42 dead, 16,000 seek refuge

A WAVE of violence against foreigners in South Africa has forced 13,000 people to flee their homes, as President Thabo Mbeki pleaded for an end to a "shameful" show of xenophobia.

As calls grew for the army to be sent in to quell the worst unrest since the end of apartheid, the scale of the damage was becoming apparent, both to the victims and the so-called Rainbow Nation's new reputation for tolerance.

UN spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy said thousands had fled their homes to seek refuge in churches and parish centres.

"Most didn't take anything with them," he said.

As well as the numbers made homeless, police say 42 are now believed to have died since violence first flared in the central Johannesburg township of Alexandra last week and then spread to other impoverished areas of the country's economic hub.

African migrant workers, mostly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, are accused by many poor township dwellers of stealing jobs and fuelling violent crime.

Evening television pictures showed armed mobs conducting door-to-door searches for foreigners yesterday in one of the worst-affected slum areas to the east of the city, with shacks set alight and road blocks set up to prevent people fleeing.

Police in the inner city dispersed about 200 Nigerians, also carrying machetes and sticks, who were threatening to retaliate and attack South Africans.

A 24-year-old Mozambican man was assaulted and set on fire yesterday morning near Brakpan, east of Johannesburg.

Calling for a halt to "these shameful and criminal acts", Mr Mbeki said South Africa was bound together with other Africans and was not "an island separate from the rest of the continent".

"Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity," said Mr Mbeki, who spent much of the apartheid era in exile in neighbouring states.

"We have to look at whether we should at least be willing to talk about whether the army should be deployed," said Jody Kollapen, chairman of the Human Rights Commission.

"It sounds drastic but we are dealing with a situation that is volatile, that has proven to be highly unpredictable and quite devastating."

Jacob Zuma, leader of the ruling African National Congress party, said: "I would not rule out (bringing in the army) because we need to take the measures that are going to help us stop the violence."
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