The war for control of Congo appeared to edge a step closer to an end today, with the signing of an accord between two rivals, Presidents Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of the Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Meeting here in the South African capital, where the pact was drafted last week, the leaders shook hands, exchanged a few words and smiled almost shyly as a standing-room-only audience of diplomats, journalists and cabinet ministers looked on.
The war, which began almost four years ago, has ravaged Congo, killing more than 2.5 million people, many of them combatants but many more civilians who died of starvation or disease, cut off from food and medicine. The conflict has roiled much of Africa, sowing instability in already unstable places like Burundi and Angola. ''Without peace in this region, we couldn't talk about peace on continent generally,'' Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, said at the signing ceremony today. ''This matter is very crucial.''
The agreement signed today calls for Rwanda to withdraw its soldiers, who number in the tens of thousands, from a large part of eastern Congo controlled by Rwanda and its Congolese rebel allies since the war broke out in 1998. The Congolese government, which sits in Kinshasa in the west, agreed to disarm thousands of Hutu militiamen from Rwanda who fled across the border into Congo after perpetrating mass killings in 1994 that killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsi and moderate Hutu. ''No more blood must run,'' President Kabila said in his remarks before signing the agreement. Keeping that pledge will require swift, decisive steps, said François Grignon, the Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group, a research organization. It will also require trust and candor, Dr. Grignon said in a telephone interview from Nairobi. ''We need to see good will, and we have not seen good will yet.'' Even then, success is uncertain.
Disarming Rwandan militias and repatriating them to a country where they fear reprisals is bound to be difficult. Easing Zimbabwe out of Congo is another challenge. Zimbabwe has thousands of soldiers involved, some of them in lucrative business deals that they may be reluctant to abandon. Asked about the assorted obstacles, a senior South African official at the ceremony said, ''We have to start somewhere.'' South Africa knows that its fellow African nations to the north -- many now pocked by war and famine -- are ground for its economic might and political influence to grow. With the newly established African Union, President Mbeki has taken a leading role in the effort to create political stability, and the last few months have given him a great deal more hope than he might have had even a year ago.
Sudan, locked in civil war for nearly 20 years, is in the early stages of talks, although sporadic fighting persists. Angola, at war for most of the last three decades, is even farther along, after the death of the rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in February left his weary forces little choice but surrender. The war in Congo, the vast country known for decades as Zaire, has its origins in the toppling of the long-ruling dictator Mobuto Sese Seko in 1997. The coup's leader, Laurent Kabila, was initially backed by Rwanda and Uganda, but they soon fell out with him over his harboring of Hutu militiamen complicit in the Rwanda genocide.
In 1998, Rwanda and Uganda invaded eastern Congo and began backing rebels operating in the region, hoping to oust the man they had helped install barely a year before. Congo's army was outmatched by Rwanda's, but Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe came to Mr. Kabila's rescue, deploying thousands of soldiers. A peace agreement made in 1999 never took hold and fighting persisted, killing combatants by the thousands and civilians by the tens of thousands, mostly from disease and starvation. After Laurent Kabila was killed in January 2001, his son Joseph was installed as president. Although early signs were encouraging, the war persisted, defying one peace effort after another.
A turning point came earlier this year in Sun City, South Africa, during weeks of talks among hundreds of Congolese political and civic leaders delegated to lay the groundwork for the country's postwar future. After months of futility, negotiations seemed at the precipice of failure, but a last-minute initiative spearheaded by President Mbeki renewed hope of an agreement. One of the two principal rebel groups, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, backed by Uganda and based in the country's north, ultimately reached a power-sharing agreement with the Kabila government. Not so the other leading rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma, based in the east and backed by Rwanda. It held out, and the talks ended without a comprehensive agreement. Pressure on Rwanda from crucial allies like South Africa and the United States began to build.
Rwanda knew its options were up, and Congo, whose official name is the Democratic Republic of Congo, knew its chance was at hand, Dr. Grignon said. ''I think the pressure on Rwanda and the D.R.C. was so strong that they had to act,'' he said.
Source: New York Times
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
'Kill the boer' comes back to haunt ANC
The Freedom Front (FF) on Sunday vowed to a lay a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission against the African National Congress after incidents of alleged hate speech at the funeral of ANC MP Peter Mokaba on Saturday.
FF leader Pieter Mulder said in a statement if his party received no joy from the commission, then it would consider other legal options. Mulder accused the ANC's leadership of double standards when it came to condemning racism. He said while the crowd attending Mokaba's funeral on Saturday in Pietersburg chanted the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the boer", a KwaZulu-Natal farmer and his wife were murdered.
Mulder said it was the responsibility of political leaders to educate their followers and to discipline them if their conduct promoted hate speech and racism. He said no funeral of a farmer had even been politicised. "What will be the reaction of ANC leaders if farmers start chanting 'Kill the Xhosas, Kill the black man' during the funerals of the Dent couple?" he asked.
If the SAHRC failed to condemn the slogan as hate speech, the Freedom Front would follow a legal path to get clarity on the issue. Mulder said the constitution was clear on its definition of hate speech. Clarity on what constituted hate speech was needed in view of the song by Mbongeni Ngema urging "valiant, strong, black men" to stand up to Indians, as well as Saturday's repetition of the "Kill the farmer, kill the boer" slogan. "It does not help that leaders talk about reconciliation, but do the opposite," said Mulder.
Source: IoL
FF leader Pieter Mulder said in a statement if his party received no joy from the commission, then it would consider other legal options. Mulder accused the ANC's leadership of double standards when it came to condemning racism. He said while the crowd attending Mokaba's funeral on Saturday in Pietersburg chanted the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the boer", a KwaZulu-Natal farmer and his wife were murdered.
Mulder said it was the responsibility of political leaders to educate their followers and to discipline them if their conduct promoted hate speech and racism. He said no funeral of a farmer had even been politicised. "What will be the reaction of ANC leaders if farmers start chanting 'Kill the Xhosas, Kill the black man' during the funerals of the Dent couple?" he asked.
If the SAHRC failed to condemn the slogan as hate speech, the Freedom Front would follow a legal path to get clarity on the issue. Mulder said the constitution was clear on its definition of hate speech. Clarity on what constituted hate speech was needed in view of the song by Mbongeni Ngema urging "valiant, strong, black men" to stand up to Indians, as well as Saturday's repetition of the "Kill the farmer, kill the boer" slogan. "It does not help that leaders talk about reconciliation, but do the opposite," said Mulder.
Source: IoL
Saturday, July 13, 2002
Percy Yutar, 90, Prosecutor Of Mandela in South Africa
Percy Yutar, the South African prosecutor who in 1964 won convictions and lifetime prison terms for Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders for crimes against the white minority-ruled state, died July 13. He was 90.
In 1995, Mr. Mandela, released from prison and elected president of South Africa's new democratic government, invited Mr. Yutar for lunch at the presidential mansion. Mr. Mandela, also a lawyer, said that he was trying to demonstrate the full reconciliation that his country so badly needed. The pair chatted for an hour, ''like old lawyers tend to do,'' as Mr. Mandela later put it. After the lunch, Mr. Yutar, who once accused Mr. Mandela of being a Communist stooge plotting a bloody revolution, pronounced the president ''a saintly man.''
According to many South African historians and writers, Mr. Yutar's vigorous persecution of blacks in the 1960's was linked to his Jewish background. Glenn Frankel, the author of ''Rivonia's Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa,'' said that Mr. Yutar saw the trial as a patriotic opportunity, especially because some of Mr. Mandela's co-defendants were Jews. ''Who better to prosecute Jewish traitors than a loyal Jew?'' Mr. Frankel wrote, describing Mr. Yutar's thinking. ''Who better than he to put things right and prove that not all Jews were radicals hell-bent upon overthrowing the government?''
Mr. Yutar, one of eight children in a family of Lithuanian immigrants, was born in Cape Town on July 29, 1911. As a young man, his left hand was caught in an electric mincing machine when he was working in his father's butcher shop, leaving his hand badly mangled. He attended the University of Cape Town on a scholarship and was awarded a doctorate in law. Jews, however, were not welcome in the higher echelons of South Africa's civil service, and Mr. Yutar settled for a job tracing defaulting telephone subscribers for the postal service. Still he persisted in his legal career and slowly moved up the ladder to junior law clerk and junior prosecutor. Eventually, he became deputy attorney general for the Transvaal Province and gained a reputation as an especially ambitious and energetic prosecutor.
The trial of Mr. Mandela came after a 1963 government raid on the secret headquarters of the A.N.C. in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. The trial became known as the Rivonia trial, and Mr. Yutar was the appointed prosecutor. Early in the case, Mr. Yutar had to decide whether to charge the defendants with treason or sabotage. He opted for sabotage, a charge widely believed to be easier to prove, but the trial nonetheless centered on seditious crimes against the state.
Mr. Yutar portrayed the defendants as Communist-inspired terrorists who were planning to overthrow the government with the help of foreign countries. He also argued that they did not represent the overwhelming majority of South Africa's blacks. ''Although they represented scarcely 1 percent of the Bantu population, they took it upon themselves to tell the world that the Africans in South Africa are suppressed, oppressed and depressed,'' Mr. Yutar said at the trial.
In Mr. Mandela's autobiography, ''Long Walk to Freedom'' (1995, Little, Brown & Co.), he described Mr. Yutar as a ''small, bald, dapper fellow whose voice squeaked when he became angry or emotional. ''He had a flair for the dramatic and for high-flown if imprecise language.'' After the conviction on the sabotage charge, the judge in the case, Quartus de Wet, said the crime was ''in essence high treason,'' but decided against imposing the death penalty. The defendants were sentenced to life in prison and sent to the notorious Robben Island.
With the successful prosecution, Mr. Yutar's career soared. He was named attorney general, first of the Orange Free State and later of the Transvaal. He was the first Jew to serve as attorney general in South Africa. He retired from government service in 1976. As white minority rule crumbled and Mr. Mandela was released from prison, Mr. Yutar tried to rehabilitate his image. He even argued that he had actually been Mr. Mandela's savior by pursuing the sabotage charge rather than the charge of high treason, which certainly would have led to the death penalty.
After the lunch in 1995 with Mr. Mandela, Mr. Yutar told the press: ''When I was assigned this prosecution, I was urged to charge the accused with treason. I exercised my discretion and charged them only with sabotage because, at the back of my mind I felt, they do not deserve the death penalty.'' Asked about his vigorous prosecution of the case, he said, ''I just did my duty.''
Mr. Yutar remained active in Jewish groups all his life. For more than a decade, he was the president of Johannesburg's largest Orthodox synagogue. He is survived by his wife, Cecilia, and a son, David.
Source: New York Times
In 1995, Mr. Mandela, released from prison and elected president of South Africa's new democratic government, invited Mr. Yutar for lunch at the presidential mansion. Mr. Mandela, also a lawyer, said that he was trying to demonstrate the full reconciliation that his country so badly needed. The pair chatted for an hour, ''like old lawyers tend to do,'' as Mr. Mandela later put it. After the lunch, Mr. Yutar, who once accused Mr. Mandela of being a Communist stooge plotting a bloody revolution, pronounced the president ''a saintly man.''
According to many South African historians and writers, Mr. Yutar's vigorous persecution of blacks in the 1960's was linked to his Jewish background. Glenn Frankel, the author of ''Rivonia's Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa,'' said that Mr. Yutar saw the trial as a patriotic opportunity, especially because some of Mr. Mandela's co-defendants were Jews. ''Who better to prosecute Jewish traitors than a loyal Jew?'' Mr. Frankel wrote, describing Mr. Yutar's thinking. ''Who better than he to put things right and prove that not all Jews were radicals hell-bent upon overthrowing the government?''
Mr. Yutar, one of eight children in a family of Lithuanian immigrants, was born in Cape Town on July 29, 1911. As a young man, his left hand was caught in an electric mincing machine when he was working in his father's butcher shop, leaving his hand badly mangled. He attended the University of Cape Town on a scholarship and was awarded a doctorate in law. Jews, however, were not welcome in the higher echelons of South Africa's civil service, and Mr. Yutar settled for a job tracing defaulting telephone subscribers for the postal service. Still he persisted in his legal career and slowly moved up the ladder to junior law clerk and junior prosecutor. Eventually, he became deputy attorney general for the Transvaal Province and gained a reputation as an especially ambitious and energetic prosecutor.
The trial of Mr. Mandela came after a 1963 government raid on the secret headquarters of the A.N.C. in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. The trial became known as the Rivonia trial, and Mr. Yutar was the appointed prosecutor. Early in the case, Mr. Yutar had to decide whether to charge the defendants with treason or sabotage. He opted for sabotage, a charge widely believed to be easier to prove, but the trial nonetheless centered on seditious crimes against the state.
Mr. Yutar portrayed the defendants as Communist-inspired terrorists who were planning to overthrow the government with the help of foreign countries. He also argued that they did not represent the overwhelming majority of South Africa's blacks. ''Although they represented scarcely 1 percent of the Bantu population, they took it upon themselves to tell the world that the Africans in South Africa are suppressed, oppressed and depressed,'' Mr. Yutar said at the trial.
In Mr. Mandela's autobiography, ''Long Walk to Freedom'' (1995, Little, Brown & Co.), he described Mr. Yutar as a ''small, bald, dapper fellow whose voice squeaked when he became angry or emotional. ''He had a flair for the dramatic and for high-flown if imprecise language.'' After the conviction on the sabotage charge, the judge in the case, Quartus de Wet, said the crime was ''in essence high treason,'' but decided against imposing the death penalty. The defendants were sentenced to life in prison and sent to the notorious Robben Island.
With the successful prosecution, Mr. Yutar's career soared. He was named attorney general, first of the Orange Free State and later of the Transvaal. He was the first Jew to serve as attorney general in South Africa. He retired from government service in 1976. As white minority rule crumbled and Mr. Mandela was released from prison, Mr. Yutar tried to rehabilitate his image. He even argued that he had actually been Mr. Mandela's savior by pursuing the sabotage charge rather than the charge of high treason, which certainly would have led to the death penalty.
After the lunch in 1995 with Mr. Mandela, Mr. Yutar told the press: ''When I was assigned this prosecution, I was urged to charge the accused with treason. I exercised my discretion and charged them only with sabotage because, at the back of my mind I felt, they do not deserve the death penalty.'' Asked about his vigorous prosecution of the case, he said, ''I just did my duty.''
Mr. Yutar remained active in Jewish groups all his life. For more than a decade, he was the president of Johannesburg's largest Orthodox synagogue. He is survived by his wife, Cecilia, and a son, David.
Source: New York Times
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