South Africa

13,000 foreigners flee violence

Article published on the 2008-05-20 Latest update 2008-05-20 15:13 TU

Anti-immigrant protesters outside Johannesburg
(Photo : Reuters)

Mobs of youths roaming townships, beating up foreigners and setting their homes on fire have forced some 13,000 people to flee their homes and seek shelter in churches and community centres, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday. The violence has killed 23 people since it started in the Alexandra Township last week.

South African President Thabo Mbeki made a plea to respect the dignity of foreigners as calls grew on Tuesday for troops to be sent in.

"The provisional government took the view that what is required is deployments of police. They, after all, have the training to deal with the kind of situations that we've seen," Firoz Kashalia, head of security for Johannesburg and Pretoria, told RFI.

Kashalia said, however, that the National Ministry has to make that choice.

"We don't think that the situation has arisen yet. And we don't think we should be panicked into deploying soldiers to deal with civilian conflict," he added.

Paul Verryn, a Methodist bishop who lives in Soweto, told RFI that an anonymous phone-caller told him that "Zimbabweans would be killed".

"That's the way these things have happened. there is a warning, usually a night or two before and then the attacks take place," he said.