Opposition parties on Tuesday castigated the government for not doing more to uphold human rights around the world, particularly in Burma (Myanmar) and Zimbabwe.
Speaking in the National Assembly debate on the foreign affairs budget vote, Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said South Africa has lost its image as the champion of human rights in the world.
Burma opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention for more than 11 of the past 17 years, and there is a worldwide campaign against the military junta and its human rights violations.
”[But] when, as part of this campaign, the United Nations Security Council was asked to condemn the human rights violations in Myanmar, including the detention of the opposition leader, South Africa was one of the few countries that voted against it. Speaker, it was a big mistake,” he said.
Among the reasons given by South Africa were that the detention of an opposition leader was not a threat to world peace and that Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the special UN envoy for Burma, reported progress in that country.
”What progress? Last week Myanmar’s military junta extended the house arrest of the opposition leader for yet another year, ignoring international pleas for her release. The message they got from South Africa’s vote in the Security Council is that the world is divided on this issue and that they may continue with their human rights violations.
”Because the minister [of foreign affairs] and the department have not yet reacted to this new detention in Myanmar, must I conclude that they approve of it?” Mulder asked.
In the 1960s, very few people in the world knew who Nelson Mandela was. His detention was not a threat to world peace. Why, then, did the African National Congress (ANC) use every possible strategy, including the Security Council, to make the world aware of his plight?
”When there is a similar campaign to do exactly the same for Aung San Suu Kyi, it is South Africa and the ANC that votes against it.”
Last Friday, Zimbabwe extended a ban on political protests in Harare and on Saturday police raided the Movement for Democratic Change’s head office and detained more than 200 people.
”Why? Is the country at war? No. A very simple reason. The president of that country feels threatened that he might lose his position in the next election. Because the minister and the department have not yet reacted to the Zimbabwe ban and raid, must I conclude that they approve of it?
”How sad that within 13 years South Africa has lost its image as the champion of human rights in the world,” Mulder said.
‘Negative’
The Democratic Alliance’s Douglas Gibson said it is a great pity South Africa’s recent chairmanship of the UN Security Council has turned into ”such a negative”, damaging the country’s relations and reputation.
”I regret that the attitude on Myanmar, or Burma, was so dismally legalistic and bureaucratic. It put us on the wrong side of history.
”One can only urge the government to take steps to put it right by raising it in the Human Rights Council and wherever else appropriate so that South Africa is seen to be doing the right thing in support of the legitimate aspirations of democrats in Burma and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” Gibson said.
His colleague, Joe Seremane, said the lack of any condemnation of the situation in Zimbabwe is regretful. Daily, thousands of Zimbabweans illegally enter South Africa in search of food and money to keep their families alive.
The Department of Foreign Affairs should make it clear it would not support a government that did this to its citizens, Seremane said.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said South Africa’s tenure as president of the Security Council is characterised by a lack of policy direction and clarity.
”For instance, we were misconstrued in our opposition to the motion against Myanmar, and we received criticism even back here in South Africa,” he said. — Sapa