Migrants targeted for fiery deaths in South Africa
At least 22 people have been killed in 10 days as anger and resentment against foreigners explode in crowded shantytowns. Hundreds have been injured and thousands have fled.
DIEPSLOOT, SOUTH AFRICA — The brutal apartheid-era practice of setting opponents on fire has been revived in this country's crowded, litter-strewn shantytowns. But now the victims are foreign migrants.
Anger over unemployment and rising prices and simmering resentment against illegal foreign migrants have exploded into xenophobic violence in South Africa, with at least 22 people slain in the last 10 days. Hundreds more have been injured and as many as 10,000 have fled their homes, as analysts struggle for explanations as to what triggered the violence.
South Africans woke Monday to shocking front-page images of a man in flames, one of several victims to be burned alive. Several newspapers reported that onlookers in the township of Reiger Park, east of Johannesburg, laughed as the man rocked in agony.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu summed up the mood of despair with a plea to "please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop."
South African President Thabo Mbeki also called for an end to the "shameful and criminal acts."
During apartheid, political violence sometimes involved setting victims on fire, on occasion after "necklacing" them with spare tires that pinned their arms to their sides.
The victims of the latest violence are mainly southern African migrants, in particular Zimbabweans, drawn to South Africa in hopes of finding jobs. South Africans also have been attacked.
Violence in several neighborhoods continued Monday, with attackers burning dozens of foreigners' shacks and families fleeing their homes. The body of a man who had been chopped and burned was recovered by police in Ramaphosa township east of Johannesburg. Newspaper reports suggested he was Malawian.
Victims and witnesses describe chilling attacks: hundreds of people armed with axes, clubs and metal bars going from shack to shack, purging districts of foreigners; victims being clubbed insensible with concrete slabs and then burned, or being locked into their shacks, which were then set alight.
In Diepsloot, northwest of Johannesburg, one of the townships hit by violence, locals described heavily armed attackers singing "Umshini Wami," or "Bring Me My Machine Gun," a song that has its origins in the ruling African National Congress' armed struggle against apartheid. The song was linked to ANC President Jacob Zuma's campaign to become party leader.
