T-Bone's letter to Dubya

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StrongTurd

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In late April, about the time this e-mail was written, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa - Zimbabwe's influential neighbor - addressed a four-page letter to President Bush. Rather than coordinating strategy to end Zimbabwe's nightmare, Mbeki criticized the United States, in a text packed with exclamation points, for taking sides against President Robert Mugabe's government and disrespecting the views of the Zimbabwean people. "He said it was not our business," recalls one American official, and "to butt out, that Africa belongs to him." Adds another official, "Mbeki lost it; it was outrageous."
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Is this letter in the public domain? Could anybody point me to a link if so?

Another quote from the same source in the Washington Post:

South Africa has actively blocked United Nations discussions about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe - and in Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Uzbekistan. South Africa was the only real democracy to vote against a resolution demanding that the Burmese junta stop ethnic cleansing and free jailed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. When Iranian nuclear proliferation was debated in the Security Council, South Africa dragged out discussions and demanded watered-down language in the resolution. South Africa opposed a resolution condemning rape and attacks on civilians in Darfur - and rolled out the red carpet for a visit from Sudan's genocidal leader. In the General Assembly, South Africa fought against a resolution condemning the use of rape as a weapon of war because the resolution was not sufficiently anti-American.

When confronted by international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch about their apparent indifference to all rights but their own, South African officials have responded by attacking the groups themselves - which, they conspiratorially (and falsely) claim, are funded by "major Western powers."

Whatever the reasons, South Africa increasingly requires a new foreign policy category: the rogue democracy. Along with China and Russia, South Africa makes the United Nations impotent. Along with Saudi Arabia and Sudan, it undermines the global human rights movement. South Africa remains an example of freedom - while devaluing and undermining the freedom of others. It is the product of a conscience it does not display.
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All par for the course with our current leaders and their mindset really.
 
Would not surprise me.
702 had the very well spoken American Ambassador to South Africa on the air today.
He has in the past offered help with AIDS, and no one from the Health Department even returned his calls.
He has offered our police "training" and "experience" in dealing with crime - and Charles N basically told him to "piss off".

It seems African Leaders just cannot stand to learn, or even interact in a mutual way, with a white person.
 
Moederloos said:
Would not surprise me.
702 had the very well spoken American Ambassador to South Africa on the air today.
He has in the past offered help with AIDS, and no one from the Health Department even returned his calls.
He has offered our police "training" and "experience" in dealing with crime - and Charles N basically told him to "piss off".

It seems African Leaders just cannot stand to learn, or even interact in a mutual way, with a white person.
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I thought resisting imperialist meddling of the the evil empire was to be encourage :confused:
 
The Washington Post should look inwards first before pointing out human rights issues elsewhere.


http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/27/human.rights.report/index.html

China, Russia, U.S. focus of human rights report

As it has in previous annual reports, Amnesty criticized the detention of hundreds of foreign nationals at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The USA must close Guantanamo detention camp and secret detention centers, prosecute the detainees under fair trial standards or release them, and unequivocally reject the use of torture and ill-treatment," Amnesty said.

The group noted that Guantanamo detainees are held indefinitely, most of them without charge and without recourse to U.S. courts. Most detainees there are held in isolation in maximum-security facilities, heightening concerns for their physical and mental health, Amnesty said.

In fact, more is written on the United States than any other country listed in the report. Asked about that at a press conference Tuesday, Khan said, "We certainly devote a lot of time to Sudan, to China, to Zimbabwe and other countries. But we look to the U.S. to provide leadership around the world. Governments around the world look to the United States as a role model for their own behavior."
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