Zimbabwe refugees in SA, camp at police stations to avoid mobs

Washington Post:

Gangs of men armed with guns, clubs and threats have chased thousands of Zimbabweans and other foreigners from their homes in this nation's poor townships over the past week, leaving at least 12 people dead and scores injured, according to news reports.

The nighttime rampages have turned police stations in several townships in the Johannesburg area into virtual refugee camps, with makeshift tents, portable toilets and clusters of terrified people, many displaying wounds from the attacks.

Many have vowed never to return to their looted houses but have few options when their own nations are experiencing a dearth of economic opportunities, or, in the case of Zimbabwe, a devastating political crisis and inflation that has topped 165,000 percent.

"I'm not going back to Zimbabwe," said Patricia Sibanda, 38, a widow who, along with her 15-year-old daughter, was among more than 1,000 victims camped out in the police station in the township of Alexandra, where the attacks began May 11. "There's no food in Zimbabwe. There's no everything."

The attacks have embarrassed many South Africans, including prominent members of the ruling African National Congress, whose own leadership depended on the hospitality of its neighbors during decades in exile before the fall of apartheid in 1994. An estimated 3 million people, most from Zimbabwe, have come to South Africa since then.

Zimbabwean Tom Matayo, 34, who was chased from his home in Alexandra, said he had heard of South Africans living in his native region, Matabeleland, while fighting apartheid. He fled his home Monday night as the attacks spread, leaving behind his South African wife, their three children and his tuberculosis medicine.

"Now we are here, they chase us away. It's unfair," said Matayo, a security guard who has lived in Alexandra for 10 years. "They don't remember because they are living all right."

...

The search for sanctuary from violence and destitution continues for the people of Zimbabwe, who now face not only abuse at home but in the place they ran to. They have a brutal ruler at home who never gets tired of hurting them and now they are in a land where they have become the "other." Tutu's land has become only "so so" when it comes to compassion for their plight.

Reuters is reporting that the wave of violence has spread across South Africa. That country is now paying a high price for its complicity in the terror spread by Mugabe. Unfortunately it is the people of Zimbabwe who are the victims again.

BTW, are any left wing blogs showing any concern for the fate of these wretched people? If they are let me know and I will link them.

Meanwhile back in Zimbabwe, Mugabe's military is believed to be plotting an assassination of the opposition leader who is in a runoff with the despot. They seem to be good at killing hope too.

CNN reports the death toll is now 22.