SOUTH AFRICA: Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised South Africa's failure to speak out against human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
"The credibility of our democracy demands this," he said yesterday. "If we are seemingly indifferent to human rights violations happening in a neighbouring country, what is to stop us one day being indifferent to that in our own?"
His comments came after South African President Thabo Mbeki shrugged off human rights concerns in Zimbabwe in a blistering attack on the Commonwealth for extending the country's suspension from the bloc of Britain and its former colonies.
The former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town also criticised South Africa's acceptance as "legitimate" of disputed 2002 elections that returned Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to power for a fifth consecutive term. The polls were widely regarded to have been rigged.
Archbishop Tutu, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts against apartheid, said abuses in Zimbabwe were "totally unacceptable and reprehensible". He said he did not understand why the country's African neighbours had resisted the decision to continue Zimbabwe's 18-month suspension at a recent Commonwealth summit in Nigeria. Within hours of the decision, Zimbabwe announced it was quitting the body for good. President Mbeki's government advocates a policy of "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe, saying it has been working to bring the opposition and ruling party together for talks.