AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - The violence in South Africa as seen by other African nations

Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - While the violence against immigrants in South African towns seems to have died down, the international community continues to express their reactions to the grave events of recent days. Cardinal Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, has sent a message to Archbishop Buti Joseph Tlhagale, O.M.I. of Johannesburg, President of the South African/Swaziland Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), in which he expresses his “deep distress” for “the tragic violence that has occurred in some South African cities, causing death, suffering, destruction for so many migrants and refugees. On behalf of the entire Dicastery, I offer my condolences to the families of the deceased and solidarity with all those who have been affected by such deplorable events.”
The government of Mozambique and in other countries bordering South Africa have expressed their “concern” in a letter sent to the government in Pretoria, inviting them to be “more active in finding a solution,” according to declarations from Mozambique’s Foreign Affairs Minister to a local press agency. South Africa’s Defense Minister has met with ambassadors of countries belonging to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in order to inform them of the measures being taken to ensure the safety of their citizens who have immigrated to South Africa. The meeting was described as “very productive and positive” by the head of Mozambique diplomacy. Mozambique will have to face the re-entry of their own citizens who had immigrated but are now returning to their homeland. According to official Mozambican sources, 20,000 Mozambicans have returned to their country with only the clothes on their back. The local authorities have established three camps to accommodate these people. The government of Nigeria has also expressed its concern and has begun a procedure of restoration for the damages Nigerians have suffered in being deprived of their own property.
The press in various African countries has published reports of immigrants from their own nations. “The Standard” of Nairobi reported several testimonies of Kenyan citizens that had been attacked by gangs in Johannesburg. The majority of the Kenyan immigrants, as well as the Ugandans, are professionals (doctors, nurses, engineers), students and entrepreneurs, and they do not live in the slums. Although a good deal of Kenyans have not experienced the violence first-hand and none have been killed, the events of recent days have cast a shadow on spirits. “The brutality is appalling. South Africans need to understand that they should live as a larger part of Africa,” one Kenyan student told “The Nation.”
The “Observateur” of Burkina Faso is questioning the intervention of the South African army alongside the police in order to maintain order. A measure that the periodical claims brings back memories of Apartheid times. The “Observateur” notes that the immigration problem not only concerns the west, but also several African nations: “What can we say to those who proclaim reform quotas and chosen immigration? Nothing more than that it is not only a privilege of the west.”
The “Cameroon Tribune” also affirms that the deployment of the army recalls the Apartheid and mentions their “unease” at the fact that while black South Africans received aid benefits from neighboring countries against the racist regime (bought at a high price), they have been repaid in this manner - “unease” because the xenophobia and racism is not coming from the west, but from other African peoples. “The image of the ‘rainbow’ nation is suffering a low blow, as is the reputation of the stability of the number 1 economic power in Africa, the first African nation to host a World Cup Soccer Tournament, in 2010,” the Cameroon paper concluded. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 27/05/2008; righe 49, parole 610)