SA+is+no+US+proxy,+Aziz+Pahad,+letter,Business+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 02 February 2007
=SA is no US proxy=


 * Letter**

Karima Brown distorts the facts in, Government too willing to be US proxy on “terror” (January 30).

For example, in her column she writes of the Dockrats: “Following the listing, their business assets will be frozen as banks in SA await further instruction from our foreign affairs department. Clearly what the US government wants, it gets.”

I am not aware of any instruction that foreign affairs “as a US proxy” has to give to the banks, so any suggestion that the department is a partner in the persecution of our citizens is erroneous, to say the least.

It is also surprising that Brown had to wait for the recent social forum to wake up to the reality that “security legislation and law enforcement measures led to appalling infringement of human rights”. How is it that a political editor is ignorant of the fact that this danger has consistently been raised by the South African government, by the United Nations (UN), by many other governments, nongovernmental organisations and individuals? There have been several international conferences on this issue in which our government has actively participated.

Brown adds that “granted the South African government did at least attempt to engage the US on the Dockrats” but exposes her subjectivity and hostility by wondering “what kind of effort went into making the case?”

She does not even seem to know or understand the listing process under UN resolution 1267 of 1999, and she seems ignorant of the fact that SA, as a member of the UN Security Council, put a hold on the matter, which means the council will not act on it until we have completed all our consultations. We will make “our case” during the consultations.

Any professional journalist not bent on some crusade would have contacted the foreign affairs department to get our perspectives or have made an effort to understand the listing process.

The African National Congress and government have a principled policy, which is totally committed to fighting terrorism in SA and the world. This demands we co-operate with the UN, other institutions and governments. Co-operation is not co-option that turns us into a “proxy”, playing the “US dirty game on the continent”.

Deputy Foreign Minister
 * Aziz Pahad**


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A374191**

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