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Tension is growing in South Africa after the killing of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, with President Jacob Zuma calling for national unity. Mr Zuma called on political leaders to think before making public statements. The remnants of Mr Terreblanche’s AWB party said the killing was a “declaration of war” and vowed revenge. It blames Julius Malema, head of the ruling ANC’s Youth League, for inflammatory actions, including singing a song about killing white farmers. Mr Terreblanche, 69, was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. ‘Sad moments’ Mr Zuma knows that such a prominent killing could rapidly trigger racial violence, if not handled sensitively, says the BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg. He was quick to condemn the attack amid criticism that he had failed to rein in the ANC Youth League. The president went on television on Sunday to condemn what he said was a “cowardly” murder. He said he had spoken to Mr Terreblanche’s daughter and hoped to speak to the leader’s wife in order to convey his condolences. “This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered,” said Mr Zuma. He said South Africans must not let anyone take advantage of the “terrible deed” by inciting racial hatred. The AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) echoed Mr Zuma’s call for calm as relatives and friends of Mr Terreblanche gathered near his home to pay their respects on Sunday. But the far-right movement’s secretary general, Andre Visagie, said Mr Terreblanche’s killing had political overtones. “The next step for the AWB will be to bury their leader in peace, but thereafter we shall avenge the death of our leader,” he said. “Of course we do blame Julius Malema,” Mr Visagie told the BBC. “The death of Mr Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end.” He said there was “fierce anger” among AWB members. “They all call for revenge for Eugene Terreblanche’s death,” he said. He said some some members advocated violent retribution, but he encouraged them to wait until actions could be co-ordinated “right across the country”. More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994. A committee of inquiry found in 2003 only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low. Last week, South Africa’s High Court banned Mr Malema from singing the racially charged apartheid-era song with the words “kill the Boer”. It ruled the song was hate speech, although the ANC is appealing. Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white in South Africa. Mr Malema denied responsibility during his official visit to Zimbabwe. “The ANC will respond to that issue. On a personal capacity, I’m not going to respond to what people are saying. I’m in Zimbabwe now, I’m not linked to this.” South Africa is a nation still nursing racial wounds from the past, our correspondent says, and in some quarters there is nervousness about the future. Ventersdorp has already seen some heated racial exchanges since the killing. “A black guy killed a white guy. Obviously it’s going to stir a lot of trouble,” said Kgomotso Kgamanyane, a cashier at a local petrol station. “Just earlier a customer came in, a white guy, and he told us to go to hell,” he told AFP news agency. “It could get violent, because whites in their minds they think that we did it because of hate.” ‘Sad day’ Police have arrested and charged two male farm workers – aged 21 and 15 – who they say beat Mr Terreblanche to death in a dispute over wages. Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity. Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 5, 2010 | Posted in
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The murder of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has sent shock waves across South Africa and prompted nervous calls for calm. In the town of Ventersdorp many are angry at what they say is a climate in which violence against Afrikaners is encouraged, as the BBC’s Karen Allen reports. This murder has the power to unleash the demons of deep-seated racial hatred that have bedevilled this country for three centuries. There have been more than 3,000 murders of Afrikaner farmers in remote homesteads like this since the end of apartheid 16 years ago. But from the moment I arrived in Ventersdorp it was clear this was no ordinary farm murder. Police had suddenly been drafted in numbers to assist the investigation and a wave of journalists had descended on this small town this Easter Sunday. ‘Kill the Boer’ song The potentially explosive impact of this killing was also clear from the appearance of the police minister and his commissioner of police, who arrived early and took charge of the murder investigation. Both men took great pains to point out that this murder was a simple case involving two of Mr Terreblanche’s farm workers, who are accused of attacking him in a dispute over their wages and bludgeoning him to death. They will appear in court charged with the murder on Tuesday. But the very presence of South Africa’s two top law enforcwement officials and President Zuma’s early appeal for calm after the murder were further indications that everyone in South Africa knows that this is not an “open and shut case”. Eugene Terreblanche’s farm stands on rich agricultural land at the end of a long field. The farmhouse itself lies in a copse of trees deep in what South Africans call the Platteland, those flat fertile farming acres which stretch all the way north to the Botswanan border. There is now police tape at the entrance to the farm and a stream of police, journalists and mourners mill around seeking to know more about what happened inside on Saturday night, and fearful of what may follow in the wake of this murder. It comes at a time of tension when Afrikaner farmers have objected in the courts to ANC Youth League chief Julius Malema singing in public the old struggle song “Kill the Boer”. They say the constant refrain of this song which dates from apartheid times incites people to kill white farmers. For its part the ANC and Julius Malema have defended the song as part of the country’s historical legacy and therefore legitimate to be sung at public rallies. Now the debate has taken a more sinister turn. ‘Cowardly’ We had a plethora of news conferences in Ventersdorp – first Mr Terreblanche’s grief-stricken brother Andries made a statement. The family were gathered in front of a house with an ox wagon parked on the front lawn. The ox wagon is a symbol of South Africa’s white settlers and how they trekked inland from the Cape to found the old Boer republics which were swept away in the Boer War. Then Johan Potgieter of Mr Terreblanche’s Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) said that his leader’s murder was related to the “shoot the Boers dead” comments made by Mr Malema. He called on the government to take action to stop what he called cowardly murders of Afrikaner farmers. Meanwhile, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was keen to dismiss such linkage between the murder and the recent controversy surrounding Mr Malema’s insistance on singing “Kill the Boer” at every public opportunity. Mr Mthethwa told reporters here: “This is a sensitive matter – it is not a political case and we should allow the police time to do their job.” Another man keen to dismiss linkage between Mr Terreblanche’s murder and the “Kill the Boer” song is Julius Malema himself. He is currently in Zimbabwe where he denied responsibility and said: “I’m not going to respond to what people are saying. I’m in Zimbabwe. I’m not linked to this.” But on Saturday at a rally in Harare he defended the song: “We are not allowed to sing liberation songs in South Africa but we are not going to stop. We are prepared to go to jail.” In a reference to last week’s court order preventing him from singing the songs on the grounds that it was considered a race-hate crime he commented: “This is the court ruling of the white men in South Africa but we are not going to obey it.” Here in Ventersdorp everyone seems to be blaming him for creating the climate in which violence against Afrikaner farmers is instigated and they are angry – and that’s why President Zuma has felt the need to make his appeal for calm as a nervous nation tries to come to terms with the implications of Mr Terreblanche’s death. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 4, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13141&cache=true " alt="Calm urged after S Africa killing" class="alignleft" />
South African President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm after the killing of the white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche. Mr Zuma said South Africans must not allow anyone to take advantage of the “terrible deed” by inciting racial hatred. Police said Mr Terreblanche had been beaten to death in a dispute with two farm workers over unpaid wages. Mr Terreblanche’s far-right movement urged its members to be calm. The 69-year-old was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. Two males, aged 21 and 15, have been arrested and charged with his murder, said police. His body was found with facial and head injuries on a bed, after he was apparently attacked with a machete and a wooden club. Mr Terreblanche came to prominence in the early 1980s, campaigning for a separate white homeland and championing a tiny minority determined to preserve apartheid. Mr Zuma’s office said in a statement: “The president appeals for calm… and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred. “The murder of Terreblanche must be condemned, irrespective of how his killers think they may have been justified. They had no right to take his life.” The BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg says the murder comes amid growing anxiety about crime in South Africa. In less than 10 weeks, South Africa will host the first World Cup football tournament on African soil. Opposition politicians linked the death to racially inflammatory sentiments from a minority of the ruling ANC party. Relatives and friends of the white supremacist gathered near his home on Sunday morning to pay their respects. Mr Zuma’s call for calm was echoed by Mr Terreblanche’s Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB). AWB spokesman Andre Visagie said: “We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terreblanche’s death,” adding that next steps would await a party meeting in May. He earlier blamed the killing on the recent singing of an apartheid-era song by a firebrand ANC leader. ‘Explosive situation’ Last week, South Africa’s High Court banned ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema from singing “kill the Boer”. It ruled the song was hate speech, but the ANC is appealing. Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but also a derogatory term for any white in South Africa. Campaigners have blamed Mr Malema’s singing of the song for the recent murders of several white farmers in Gauteng province. A spokeswoman for the opposition Democratic Alliance party, Juanita Terblanche, no relation, said: “[Mr Terreblanche's killing] happened in a province where racial tension in the rural farming community is increasingly being fuelled by irresponsible racist utterances.” The minority party Freedom Front Plus called on people to refrain from reacting emotionally. “The murder creates an explosive situation and is condemned in the strongest possible terms,” party spokesman Pieter Groenewald said. More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994. A committee of inquiry found in 2003 only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low. Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity. Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 4, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13142&cache=true " alt="Calm urged after S Africa killing" class="alignleft" />
South African President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm after the killing of the white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche. Mr Zuma said South Africans must not allow anyone to take advantage of the “terrible deed” by inciting racial hatred. Police said Mr Terreblanche had been beaten to death in a dispute with two farm workers over unpaid wages. Mr Terreblanche’s far-right movement urged its members to be calm. The 69-year-old was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. Two males, aged 21 and 15, have been arrested and charged with his murder, said police. His body was found with facial and head injuries on a bed, after he was apparently attacked with a machete and a wooden club. Mr Terreblanche came to prominence in the early 1980s, campaigning for a separate white homeland and championing a tiny minority determined to preserve apartheid. Mr Zuma’s office said in a statement: “The president appeals for calm… and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred. “The murder of Terreblanche must be condemned, irrespective of how his killers think they may have been justified. They had no right to take his life.” The BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg says the murder comes amid growing anxiety about crime in South Africa. In less than 10 weeks, South Africa will host the first World Cup football tournament on African soil. Opposition politicians linked the death to racially inflammatory sentiments from a minority of the ruling ANC party. Relatives and friends of the white supremacist gathered near his home on Sunday morning to pay their respects. Mr Zuma’s call for calm was echoed by Mr Terreblanche’s Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB). AWB spokesman Andre Visagie said: “We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terreblanche’s death,” adding that next steps would await a party meeting in May. He earlier blamed the killing on the recent singing of an apartheid-era song by a firebrand ANC leader. ‘Explosive situation’ Last week, South Africa’s High Court banned ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema from singing “kill the Boer”. It ruled the song was hate speech, but the ANC is appealing. Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but also a derogatory term for any white in South Africa. Campaigners have blamed Mr Malema’s singing of the song for the recent murders of several white farmers in Gauteng province. A spokeswoman for the opposition Democratic Alliance party, Juanita Terblanche, no relation, said: “[Mr Terreblanche's killing] happened in a province where racial tension in the rural farming community is increasingly being fuelled by irresponsible racist utterances.” The minority party Freedom Front Plus called on people to refrain from reacting emotionally. “The murder creates an explosive situation and is condemned in the strongest possible terms,” party spokesman Pieter Groenewald said. More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994. A committee of inquiry found in 2003 only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low. Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government. His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity. Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 4, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13039&cache=true " alt="S African Terreblanche ‘killed’" class="alignleft" />
South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been murdered, local media reports say. Mr Terreblanche was beaten to death on his farm in the north-west of the country, the reports said. Mr Terreblanche and his Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB) came to prominence in the early 1980s. He became the champion of a tiny minority determined to stop the process that was bringing apartheid to an end. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 3, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13037&cache=true " alt="S African Terreblanche ‘killed’" class="alignleft" />
South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been murdered, local media reports say. Mr Terreblanche was beaten to death on his farm in the north-west of the country, the reports said. Mr Terreblanche and his Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB) came to prominence in the early 1980s. He became the champion of a tiny minority determined to stop the process that was bringing apartheid to an end. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 3, 2010 | Posted in
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US President Barack Obama discussed the Iranian nuclear issue in an hour-long telephone call with China’s President Hu Jintao, the White House says. He “underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations,” said a US statement. The need for a “positive bilateral relationship” was also stressed. The two leaders also discussed the importance of implementing G20 agreements to boost economic growth. The US and China have disagreed recently over Tibet, trade and Taiwan. China was upset when US President Barack Obama met Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. It was also angered by Taiwan securing a weapons deal from the US. The US has supported the internet search company Google in its concerns over censorship in China, and other trade rows persist. However, Beijing did allow the visit of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to Hong Kong in February. One issue where China and US are in agreement is the need to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table over plans to end its nuclear programmes. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 2, 2010 | Posted in
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US President Barack Obama discussed the Iranian nuclear issue in an hour-long telephone call with China’s President Hu Jintao, the White House says. He “underscored the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations,” said a US statement. The need for a “positive bilateral relationship” was also stressed. The two leaders also discussed the importance of implementing G20 agreements to boost economic growth. The US and China have disagreed recently over Tibet, trade and Taiwan. China was upset when US President Barack Obama met Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. It was also angered by Taiwan securing a weapons deal from the US. The US has supported the internet search company Google in its concerns over censorship in China, and other trade rows persist. However, Beijing did allow the visit of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to Hong Kong in February. One issue where China and US are in agreement is the need to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table over plans to end its nuclear programmes. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 2, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=12151&cache=true " alt="Confession over US mission attack" class="alignleft" />
A man held over a fatal attack on US consular staff in Mexico earlier this month has confessed to participating in the murders, Mexican officials say. They say Ricardo Valles, an alleged member of the notorious Los Aztecas gang, told them he was a lookout for the drug trafficking gang. He said the target of the attack in Ciudad Juarez was a US jail guard. The guard and his wife, an employee of the US consulate were gunned down. A Mexican national was also killed. Arthur Redelfs and his wife Lesley Enriquez, both US nationals, and Jorge Alberto Salcido, the Mexican husband of another consular employee, were shot dead in two separate incidents as they were leaving a birthday party in the border city on 13 March. Simultaneous attacks Mr Valles told investigators that a gang leader had ordered him to locate “the white sport utility vehicle” used by Mr Redelfs. He said that had followed the car carrying the couple until gang members told him back off, after which the Americans were gunned down. In a simultaneous killing, Mr Salcido, the Mexican husband of another US consular worker, was also shot. He was driving a similar white vehicle. The motive of the killings remain unclear. However, investigators believe that the shootings may be an act of revenge against Mr Redelfs, who worked in a prison across the border where many Log Aztecas gang members are held. More than 2,500 people died last year in Ciudad Juarez, one of the focal points of Mexico’s illegal drugs trade. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in Mexico as part of a high-level US delegation last week, pledged increased support for Mexico in the fight against drug gangs. She said more would be done to cut US demand for drugs and the flow of profits and guns into Mexico. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
March 31, 2010 | Posted in
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The pay bill of police officers and staff in England and Wales should be frozen to protect frontline services, business organisation the CBI has said. The recommendation – one of a series in a report on policing – would help maintain the fight on crime at a time of shrinking budgets, it says. The CBI also echoed suggestions in a government White Paper that savings could be made by pooling resources. The Police Federation questioned the group’s expertise on police finances. Performance-related pay The government White Paper published last year said police should save
March 31, 2010 | Posted in
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