Africa's convulsions reverberate, on aged Somali skiffs, and in deadly Gripens.
SA must not block security council discussion on Zim - Leon
SA must restore international credibility by placing Zimbabwe on UN Security Council agenda
Reports from New York suggest that South Africa has posted strong opposition to requests from the United States and Britain to place the crisis in Zimbabwe on the Security Council's agenda when it meets tomorrow. As the current rotational Chair of the United Nations Security Council, South Africa has a major role to play in determining the agenda of the Council. However, inexplicably, it appears that South Africa is opting once again to hide behind the well-worn, and in this case ludicrous, excuse that this issue has no bearing on international peace and security.
This is exactly the same pretext upon which the South African government has blocked UN action on human rights abuses in Belarus, Burma, Sudan and a number of other countries around the world since it assumed a non-permanent seat on the Security Council early last year.
There can be no question that the Zimbabwe crisis is matter of international peace and security; if is left unresolved there is every chance that a violent conflict of the type recently seen in Kenya following the general elections there will erupt. This will have very real security and other consequences for all of Zimbabwe's neighbours, including South Africa.
It would seem that the government is no longer content with pretending that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe - a view which has now even been contradicted by the ANC - it is now trying to protect Robert Mugabe from any form of international sanction or rebuke.
South Africa's credibility on the Zimbabwe issue is already in tatters as a result of President Mbeki's continued denialism and his apparent intervention in this weekend's SADC emergency summit on Zimbabwe, which saw regional leaders dramatically dilute their criticism of Muagbe's denial of the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people.
By actively ensuring that Zimbabwe is not on the agenda of the UNSC, the government has served only to cement the view held by UN Watch and number of other international organisations that we continuously pursue a rights-delinquent course on the Security Council.
The only way for South Africa to regain any form of credibility is for the government to ensure that Zimbabwe is placed on the UNSC agenda. A failure to do so will in all likelihood be the final nail in the coffin of any remaining aspirations we cherish for a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Statement issued by Tony Leon, MP, DA spokesperson for foreign affairs, April 15 2008
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