Mbeki ‘missed chance’ to condemn Darfur atrocities – opposition

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 11, 2005 (PANA) — South African president Thabo Mbeki,
who attended the inauguration Saturday of ex-rebel leader John Garang as
first vice president of Sudan’s national unity government, should have
used the opportunity to speak out against atrocities in Darfur, an
opposition party said Sunday.

President Thabo Mbeki.

“Sadly he was quiet about the atrocities which are condoned if not
encouraged by the Sudanese government in Darfur when he attended the
inauguration,” Democratic Alliance (DA) acting leader Douglas Gibson
said.

He also charged that on his previous visits, Mbeki had failed to condemn
or “even mention the human rights abuses carried out by the Sudanese
government and its Janjaweed allies.”

“Instead, he used platforms in Sudan to attack political opposition in
South Africa,” Gibson said, adding that President Mbeki was yet to make
it clear to the Sudanese government that “its systematic abuses of human
rights are unacceptable”.

“Merely referring to the atrocities in Darfur as a ‘conflict’ creates a
false moral equivalence between the perpetrators and their victims.
President Mbeki should have used this opportunity to stand up for human
rights and speak the truth to the Sudanese government,” Gibson charged.

The United Nations estimates that 180,000 people have died and 2 million
made homeless since the start of the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur
region some two years ago.