WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-01-05 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 1/5/2004 5:52:41 AM
S.Africa: Mbeki in "Mugabe of the Caribbean" uproar
[Note. I’m sure what Mbeki did was “the black thing” to show solidarity with those black brothers who have been independant for 200 years – since after all, this is the 10th Anniversary without Apartheid… and you will be hearing a heck of a lot about that in the next few months. His trip to Haiti, which involved sending a navy ship as well, caused a lot of irritation here in South Africa. Jan]
President Thabo Mbeki enters 2004 with his foreign policy and image as visionary leader of the African renaissance under considerable strain, following his failed mediation bid on the Caribbean island of Haiti.
Diplomatic sources were puzzled yesterday why Mbeki would expose himself to a potential foreign policy disaster in Haiti, particularly after his image was substantially harmed by his enthusiastic support for Zimbabean President Robert Mugabe during and since the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Nigeria in November.
Mbeki’s visit to Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was called “the Mugabe of the Caribbean” by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon, was cut short when a helicopter carrying members of his delegation came under fire at New Year as they scouted the site of the 200th independence anniversary celebrations in the city of Gonaives.
Mbeki could not attend what he felt were highly symbolic celebrations because of the danger. He was reportedly the only foreign head of state to respond to invitations to attend the celebrations, but was forced to leave after three days with his proclaimed mission of mediating between Aristide and the opposition in tatters.
SA and its large security contingent were roundly criticised by Haitian opposition, and in some quarters were seen to be in the region for the sole purpose of propping up the Aristide regime. One faction, Groupe 184, reportedly said it was neither “pleased, proud nor welcoming” of Mbeki’s intervention. Others promised they could not negotiate with Aristide.
Mbeki’s spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, said the president would continue to do whatever he could to assist mediation efforts, though he did not specify what that would be. And the SABC reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had stayed on in Haiti after Mbeki’s departure. Khumalo said Caribbean bloc Caricom would still play the lead role in mediation efforts.
“There is a process in Haiti which is led by the Caricom group They are holding discussions and trying to resolve the Haitian problems. But he (Mbeki) will give them any help that they actually require.”
Diplomatic sources said while they understood the symbolic importance of attending the independence celebrations of the first independent black republic, by being openly uncritical of Aristide, Mbeki had once again appeared to be backing a black leadership regardless of its human rights abuses a repeat of Zimbabwe, in fact. Mbeki also received a drubbing back home with Leon promising that he would probe the visit and its costs to SA during Mbeki’s state of the nation debate early next month.
“I am deeply concerned that President Mbeki is propping up yet another international outcast and in the process misusing millions of SA taxpayers rands by his visit to Haiti’s President JeanBertrand Aristide, who in nine years has become the Mugabe of the Caribbean.
“The new year has begun for President Mbeki as the old year ended for him: with a foreign policy fiasco all of his own making. Once again he has placed South Africa very firmly on the wrong side of the international street on the side of would-be dictators and human rights abusers.”
Leon said the facts about Aristide were freely available. “They must surely have been available to President Mbeki before he set off on his journey to infamy in the Caribbean.
“Reputable research and human rights activists of note record the country which Mr Mbeki has chosen to align us with and to celebrate with its regime as having one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere; a state that has come increasingly to resemble a narco state’, pushing drugs into the US, headed by an authoritarian president who presides over a ruling party, the Lavalas, which has been complicit in attacks on journalists and human rights workers; the corruption of the police and the judiciary; and the transformation of gangs of armed thugs into a semiofficial arm of the government.
“As a consequence of gross electoral fraud by Aristide’s party, his government and its increasingly authoritarian behaviour has been condemned by the international community, which has suspended crucial foreign aid to the point where today, apart from the injection of South African taxpayer rands, there is an almost total aid embargo. Haiti has been suspended from all International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other direct aid because, in the words of the European Union, Respect for democratic principles has not yet been re-established in Haiti’,” Leon said.
He said the US state department had said that Haiti had failed to implement international counter-narcotic actions.
Paris-based journalist advocacy group Reporters sans Frontiers had included Aristide on its list of “predators of press freedom” after the fire-bombing of opposition radio stations and the murders of two prominent journalists.
“It is disgraceful that President Mbeki has squandered SA’s foreign prestige, moral authority on making common cause with yet another morally dubious regime in order to thumb his nose at the west.
“I will use the state of the nation debate to demand to know the full costs of this exercise and the benefits, if any, which it has brought to SA.”
Source: Sunday Times, Johannesburg
URL: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytime…br>