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SA in 'cold war' - Mbeki (South Africa's President ruffles some feathers with statement)
News 24 (South Africa) ^ | January 4, 2005

Posted on 01/04/2005 11:28:25 AM PST by Stoat

SA in 'cold war' - Mbeki


04/01/2005 19:53  - (SA)  

 

 

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Pretoria - Neither South Africa, nor Sudan have yet been able to establish societies acceptable to all their people, President Thabo Mbeki told that country's national assembly.

He noted that while the two countries achieved their respective democracy and independence nearly 40 years apart, both had to work out what of societies they wanted to build, amid dynamics of diversity and filled with tensions and antagonisms.

Mbeki was in Sudan after attending last week's signing of a peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement in neighbouring Kenya.

He also visited the troubled Darfur region and received an honorary doctorate from the Africa International University in Khartoum.

Mbeki said that while South Africa had not experienced violent social conflict since 1994, there was "perhaps what we might describe as a cold rather than a hot war, conducted by those who are unwilling to accept the end of white minority rule".

"Nevertheless, even these, who might be ready to engage in a cold war, have been unwilling to support those who decided that they should take up arms against the democratic order. We can safely say that no social base exists in South Africa to support anybody who might think it necessary to resort to force to solve any of the problems we face."

Back home, the Democratic Alliance criticised Mbeki's New Year's Day address to the House in Omdurman saying it had been a missed opportunity "to spell out the African Union's position on Darfur and what is required to settle the ghastly situation there".

"President Mbeki's address was, in our view, far too gently reminiscent of his 'quiet diplomacy' toward Zimbabwe.

"Mollycoddling the Sudanese government is hardly appropriate in the face of its failure to put a stop to the Janjaweed terrorism where Arab Muslims kill and rape African Muslims, a situation which has been described by the United Nations as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises."

On his reference to a "cold war" in South Africa, DA foreign affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson said: "President Mbeki should not talk down his own country when he is abroad, nor should he use a foreign platform to play one section of the community off against another."

 


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; coldwar; mbeki; southafrica; sudan

The Mbeki Page

Thabo Mbeki

President of the African National Congress
and President of South Africa
Thabo Mbeki

These pages contain a selection of resources available from the ANC web site and other places.

Speeches, Statements and Writings

1964-1994 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005

The Mbeki Page

1 posted on 01/04/2005 11:28:26 AM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat

Ah..the ANC. Proof that only time and international sentiment are needed to legitimize terrorists.


2 posted on 01/04/2005 12:13:19 PM PST by Lekker 1
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To: Lekker 1
Ah..the ANC. Proof that only time and international sentiment are needed to legitimize terrorists.

Oh, but don't all of the lovely pictures of him and the Marxist jargon that peppers his speeches make you feel all warm and fuzzy, and project his image as a towering international statesman?

"snicker"

3 posted on 01/04/2005 3:54:49 PM PST by Stoat
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