bvanhout
Genocide Watch
Ms. Birgit Van Hout Anti-Discrimination Unit Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations 1211
Geneva 10 Switzerland
Tel: Fax: 41 22 917 90 50
28/8/03 

Dear Ms Van Hout,  

I am writing as a representative of www.censorbugbear.com (a family of 300+ members who are journalists and peace activists in South Africa and abroad) and www.crimebustersza.com.  I would like to present you with information on the racist attacks to a minority of people in South Africa, the Afrikaner Farming Community who are called the Boers. I would like to suggest that this information I have attached to this letter be added to your agenda for discussion. These racist attacks, since the inception of the new government against apartheid in 1994, has resulted in Boer Genocide and is even mentioned on the Genocide Watch Website. This genocide has now reached proportions that cannot be ignored any longer by the world. http://www.genocidewatch.org/BoersSlain01.htm

Genocide Watch warns that the Boer-farmers of South Africa now are being murdered at the rate of 313 per 100,000 population group. The international human rights organization Genocide Watch warns that the genocide threat against Boer-farmers of South Africa has now reached a very dangerous stage five (out of eight total stages):    If South Africa's vicious farm murders had occurred in Zimbabwe, these would have been world news by now. But these "only" occurred in SA -- and so the rest of the world remains oddly silent. Post-apartheid South Africa is apparently immune from the usual investigative journalism being conducted in the rest of the Western world..more)

SA Farmers tortured, maimed and murdered due to "racial hatred" - farm attack report Statistics:1991 to farm attacks, 1,254 deaths 2001 - 1,011 farm attacks, 147 deaths 2002 - 1,000 farm attacks, 112 deaths Totals: 9,154 farm attacks, 1,613 deaths

RACIAL HATRED is the main reason among interviewed farm attackers for the incredibly high level of violence- and cruelty which targets specifically the Afrikaner victims of farm attacks. This is one of the shock findings of the long-awaited farm attack report, being held back for publication by ANC-security ministers. According to the state advocates who were quoted in the report, racial hatred is an important factor in the high level of cruelty which marks the farm attacks. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_1405425,00.html

Gun laws:  The new laws in South Africa are making it ever-easier for these armed gangs, equipped with illegal machine guns and military carbines, to launch their attacks on unsuspecting farmers, black and white alike, Zulu-Dunn clan members and ethno-Asians; but especially cruel are the attacks on the Boers, who endure hours of torture, before they are finally killed: The new law says that citizens are only allowed registered handguns, which must be kept inside government-registered gun safes -- and if victims dare to shoot these murderers and rapists in self-defense, the victims always end up being arrested for murder. The new law helps the murderers rather than law abiding citizens and surely makes it impossible for any citizens to defend themselves against any onslaught.

Policy of public denial: Mbeki's cabinet members are all seen to maintain one universal policy which denies that the farm murder campaign even exists; claiming that these are just "ordinary robbery-murders"; Mbeki’s formal policy is thus becoming very clear: to deliberately hide the ethnic cleansing campaign targeting this tiny South African group of land-owning food-producers behind deliberate censorship by the state's official organs and news media. Farm attack report long overdue: For instance, a five-month-overdue report from the government's latest "independent" official commission probing the 'underlying causes of the farm attack epidemic' still remains unpublished -- left to languish on some official's desk over some trumped-up ’argument’ about what constitutes a "farm attack". Why is Mbeki hiding this report? Controversy clouds report on farm attacks August 22, 2003, 07:23 PM http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,64456,00.html

The controversy surrounding the credibility of the report on farm attacks deepened today with reports that racism is behind attacks and claims that the report may be altered. This after Charles Nqakula, the Safety and Security Minister, and Penuell Maduna, the Justice Minister, referred the report back to the committee that compiled it.

The report was meant to have been released on Wednesday but was held back because the ministers wanted clarification on certain issues in the report, which led to speculation. This morning an Afrikaans newspaper reported that racial hatred was behind the violent attacks on farmers. However, the authorities moved quickly to deny this. Sally de Beer, of the SAPS, said: "The claims in certain media were not correct so I have doubt whether they do have the actual report."

Farmers' organisation, Agri SA commissioned the report. It says there has been an increase in farm attacks between 1991 and 2001, and that from 1991 until now there have been 7 000 attacks. It says that more than 1 000 people have been killed. Agri SA says it is difficult to find the motive for the attacks. Hans van der Merwe, the executive director of Agri SA, said: "If you look at brutality of farm attacks - military precision, nothing stolen…then it raises concerns that there are perceptions around issues such as hatred and land questions. It is important that the report clarifies these issues."

Agri SA will meet both Nqakula and Maduna to discuss the matter next week.

Ending rural military commandos:   In March 2003, the president announced in parliament that he was 'phasing out' this rural community's last effective military protection -- the 56,000-member military commando system which specializes in farm protection. He used vile and wildly untrue racist accusations to do so, claiming the commandos were "criminal and racist". http://groups.msn.com/AdrianaStuijtsjournalismduringapartheidsite/forumtopostnewsflashes.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=1712&LastModified=

The Western democracies could not care less it would seem or perhaps it does not suit their agenda to intervene. Mbeki can see for himself that every African dictator is appeased by the world leaders. He even cynically coined a phrase recently, saying that this extraordinary Western-democratic mindset was "African democracy".

Is this African democracy? Mbeki: Africa to be the next Iraq

  [Mbeki says Africa will be punished if it gets out of line] South African President Thabo Mbeki has warned that Africa could face a similar fate to Iraq if it is seen to be acting against democratic principles. He said that the United States and Britain have maintained that they are waging war on Iraq because it is undemocratic and has not sufficiently accounted for weapons of mass destruction. But this stance should make Africa "uneasy", he told delegates at a conference on African democracy in Pretoria. If the UN does not matter why should we, the little countries of Africa that make up the African Union, think that we matter and will not be punished if we get out of line? South Africa President, Thabo Mbeki "The prospect facing the people of Iraq should serve as sufficient warning that in future we too might have others descend on us, guns in hand to force-feed us," with their democracy, he said. He however asked participants to take a look at how democracy worked and how it should be applied on the continent. But he insisted that democracy had to be home grown and practised within a country's social context and not imported from abroad. Jollof Rice democracy "Presumably the argument is that whether a person ingests jollof rice (a west African dish) voluntarily or does so because he or she is force-fed, the fact remains that they have eaten jollof rice." "I am not certain that the institution of a democratic system can be approached in the same way that we approach the consumption of jollof rice," the South African leader said. President Mbeki's supportive stance towards President Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe, has not gone down well with the West. He and his country have also been a prominent opponent of attacks on Iraq. He had expressed regrets at the start of hostilities on 20 March saying he would have preferred the matter to be dealt with by the United Nations. "If the UN does not matter why should we, the little countries of Africa that make up the African Union, think that we matter and will not be punished if we get out of line?", Mr Mbeki asked the conference on Monday. Ex-president Nelson Mandela, had also strongly and publicly attacked US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their stance towards Iraq. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2928829.stm

The South African president also put into place the following suppressive laws to stop the Afrikaners access to the basic Human Right of being able to earn a living: Excessive taxation and wage laws only for commercial farms:  http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2003/b19-03.pdf

Arrests of Boer wage-earners, jailed for months with unproven "treason" accusations: http://www.sabcnews.com/SimpleSearch/0,2163,,00.html?QUERY=treason+justice

"Anti-terror" police squad targets only Boer families - http://groups.msn.com/CRIMEBUSTERSofSouthAfrica/policebrutality.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=1508&all_topics=0

Blocking Afrikaans language- educational- and Christian religious rights, see: http://www.pacvho.org.za

Race laws limit/block ethno-Euro minority job market access: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vnC608869&set_id=1

And without access to a legal income-producing market, thousands of young Afrikaners, male and female, are being forced into prostitution: 80% of the male prostitutes are Afrikaners, according to a 36-month research project by Professor Michael Herbst of UNISA: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=13&click_id=13&art_id=ctM4162358&set_id=1

Government tenders barred to Afrikaner bidders: http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,,00.html

If Mbeki and Co. are pro-farmers why have the: Agrilink-II and Semed agricultural projects ended by US-Aid agency over fund mismanagement probe?
The journalists at our non-profit agricultural news agency http://www.censorbugbear.com are being very reliably informed that two US Aid projects in South Africa, AGRILINK II and SEMED (see: http://www.emi-holdings.com/projects.asp?c=agrilink2 ) are unexpectedly being terminated as of August 31, 2003 although no worker has received any written statement or report. With more than half of South Africa's commercial farmers now already having vacated the sector permanently since 1994 -- more than 1-million hectares less maize is also being harvested since the end of apartheid. http://www.interpol.int/Public/Statistics/ICS/2001/SouthAfrica2001.pdf

"Kill the Boer, kill the farmer" This slogan is hate speech – according to South African Human Rights commission, after previously insisting that it was not. http://www.sahrc.org.za/hate_speech.PDF

http://www.sabcnews.com/politics/the_parties/0,2172,62418,00.html

Warning! Warning! Website contains horrific photos of farm murders http://www.africancrisis.org/Photos.asp

Thank you for your time and compassion in this matter.
Debbie Wren