By Joe Lauria
The surprise Chinese and Russian vetoes provoked unusually sharp words at the staid UN security council as the tensions broke into the open.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States's ambassador to the UN, lambasted South Africa as the main culprit in the failed Anglo-American bid to punish President Robert Mugabe and his top cronies with sanctions on their travel, finances and arms supplies.
Unprompted, he told reporters: "I want to say a word or two about the performance of South Africa.
"It was particularly disturbing given the history of South Africa ... where international sanctions played an important role in encouraging transformation [from apartheid] for its representative to be protecting the horrible regime in Zimbabwe."
Continues Below ↓
Dismissing the South African argument that sanctions would derail talks in Pretoria between Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Khalilzad said: "There isn't anything serious going on in terms of the negotiations. The South African effort, President [Thabo] Mbeki's effort, so far, has been a failure."
Praising Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, and retired archbishop Desmond Tutu for their criticism of Mugabe, Khalilzad said Mbeki was "out of touch with the trends inside his own country".
He accused Mbeki of "protecting Mugabe and ... working hand-in-glove with him at times while he, Mugabe, uses violence to fragment and weaken the opposition".
Dumisani Kumalo, the South African ambassador to the UN, told the security council that African leaders at the African Union summit meeting two weeks ago had decided against "any action that might negatively impact on the climate for dialogue". Therefore, he said, South Africa joined Russia, China, Vietnam and Libya in voting down the resolution. Nine countries voted in favour; Indonesia abstained.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
