SA religious groups condemn Sri Lanka attacks
Mauritanian authorities tolerate the practice, and repress those who speak out against it
SOUTH African faith-based organisations have roundly condemned the Easter Sunday bomb blasts in which 290 people were killed and 500 were injured across Sri Lanka, targeting churches and international hotels.
The South Africa Synod of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa said it condemned the “heinous and violent crimes” that targeted Christians.
“We pray for peace in Sri Lanka and many other places around the world where Christians and other people of various faiths, such as people of Palestine and Myanmar, are subjected to suffering,” said Synod secretary Thulani Ndlazi.
The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa also expressed its shock and condemnation of the attacks, saying the violence showed “a total disregard for the sanctity of human life” and the sacredness of places of worship.
“In this time of great need, we appeal to the communities of Colombo to reach out for each other, in a spirit of goodwill and solidarity, against the agents of such terror,” it said.
In a joint statement, officials from the Claremont Main Road Mosque also condemned the attack, saying it was “emblematic of the heartbreaking hatred and cruelty that has beset our current world”.
“We call on all peace- and justice-loving people to redouble our efforts to spread love and compassion to heal our troubled world.
“We appeal especially to our Muslim brothers and sisters to reciprocate the solidarity and compassion that poured out in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque attacks in March this year,” read the statement.
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa sent condolences to the government and the people of Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has blamed a little-known jihadist group National Thowheed Jamath for the bombings, with 24 people having been arrested in successive raids across the island.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s indicated he would seek foreign help in tracking down international links with Sunday’s attackers.
According to a statement from his office, intelligence reports indicated foreign terrorists organisations were backing the terrorists. |
SLAVERY, ethnic discrimination and the suppression of basic freedoms persists in Mauritania. According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, more than two out of every 100 people still live as slaves.
Slavery was formally abolished in 1981. It was criminalised in 2007.
However, in reality it remains firmly in place. Discrimination, repression and the poor treatment of communities who were slaves continues. Hundreds of thousands of others endure forced labour.
The minority Beydane or Arab Berbers, who are descendants of Berbers and Arabs, have all the power in society, the government and the economy.
The two main ethnic groups – the Haratines and Afro-Mauritanians – make up two-thirds of the population, are African, and are excluded from the government, politics and the economy. The rest of the population is a mix of all ethnic groups. The official languages are French and Arabic.
Government officials routinely make it difficult for members of the Haratine and Afro-Mauritanian communities to get registration documents. Once unregistered they cannot access essential services, and can be conscripted into forced labour.
Almost all the Beydane elite, the dominant group in power, have either owned slaves or their family or close relations were slave-owners. According to a report by Amnesty International, opponents of slavery face arbitrary arrest, torture and detention.
The government has banned meetings of civil society organisations opposing slavery. Mauritania’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, grabbed power in 2008 in a coup.
Freedom of expression, of association and the right to protest are brutally suppressed in this mostly desert country, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the western Sahara to the north. It straddles North and West Africa.
In 2017, Aziz changed the constitution, abolished the senate and replaced it with regional councils. He changed the flag and the national anthem.
The initial proposals were rejected by majorities of both the upper and lower houses. Even the government’s own senators voted against the outrageously unilateral changes. Both upper and lower houses must support bills before they become law. The government has a majority in both houses.
Aziz called MPs who voted against his motions a “dysfunction in our democracy”. He took the rejected changes to a vote in a referendum, which approved the changes. The new national flag was hoisted for the first time on the country’s Independence Day in November 2017. Last year, the government released two leading Mauritanian anti-slavery activists, Moussa Biram and Abdallahi Matallah, who had been in jail for more than two years for their opposition to slavery, following international civil society pressure. They were incarcerated in a remote desert prison, where they suffered unspeakable abuse.
Both Biram and Matallah have vowed to continue the fight for social justice. The government has refused to register their civil society organisation, which means it can arrest its members for being part of an “illegal” organisation.
Repressive laws are used to restrict basic freedoms. The government has used the version of a 1964 law that requires civil society organisations to seek authorisation from the ministry of interior to operate.
The ministry can refuse organisations that exercise “an unwelcome influence on the minds of the people”. Unregistered organisations cannot use public venues to hold meetings, cannot get foreign funding and the government can arbitrarily close them down.
A 2017 law, euphemistically called an “anti-discrimination law”, punishes whoever “encourages an incendiary discourse” against the “official rite” (law) of the country with one to five years in prison.
Alioune Tine, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa director, said: “It is a disgraceful disregard for human rights that despite abolishing slavery in law nearly 40 years ago, the Mauritanian authorities continue not only to tolerate this practice, but to repress those who speak out against it.”
The next presidential election is set for June22. Aziz, already on two terms, is barred from standing again, according to the country’s two-term presidential limits. Former defence minister Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mohamed Ahmed, a close ally of Aziz, is favoured by the president to replace him.
In spite of its dictatorial governments, modern-day apartheid and slavery, the country has been supported by the West because it seen as a strategically important bulwark in the fight against al-Qaeda-linked groups across the Sahel region.
African continental and regional organisations, as well as governments, must pressure Mauritania to end discrimination, release anti-slavery civil society activists and introduce basic freedoms. And the government must pay reparations to former slaves and their descendants.
It is supported by the West because it is seen as a bulwark against al-Qaeda-linked groups Gumede is executive chairman, Democracy Works Foundation (www. democracyworksfoundation.org) and author of South Africa in BRICS (Tafelberg)