SOUTH AFRICA FIRM WANTS BARACK OBAMA ARRESTED THE MOMENT HE LANDS IN JOHANNESBURG THIS WEEK AND PROSECUTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. South African groups critical of US President Barrack Obama’s global leadership will this weekend begin week-long protests against the US leader, whose visit to their country is scheduled to start on June 29.The groups, who plan to start the protests on Saturday, say they are unhappy with US foreign policy under the stewardship of MrObama.During Mr Obama’s three-day visit,the US leader is scheduled to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Johannesburg at its Soweto campus .However, criticism and oppositionto the decision to honour Mr Obama has grown in the run-up tohis visit to South Africa, with several organisations forming a protest coalition named, ‘UJ, no,you can’t honour him’. Local reports say the protests, led by the Student (SRC) of the University of Johannesburg, will start on June 21and go on throughout the week.They are expected to end only after Mr Obama, who will be accompanied by his wife Michelle,has left South Africa.The SRC president at the University of Johannesburg, Levy Masete, told The New Age newspaper that the students’ council had unanimously voted against the institution’s decision to award Mr Obama a doctorate.“Obama is guilty of human rights violations and he does not strike us as the black president African-Americans have been waiting for,” said Mr Masete.Innocent civilians More influential organisations likethe Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Young Communist League have thrown their weight behind the protests.Cosatu’s International Relations secretary Bongani Masuku said in a statement on Thursday that it was joining “the millions of people and workers the world over, particularly on the African continent and in South Africa, whoare outraged at the horrifying record of US foreign policy in the world.”Mr Masuku said Cosatu was particularly disappointed by the Obama administration record incontinuing “the appalling US foreign policy performance”. Cosatu names four of what it describes as “indicators” of poor USforeign policy performance.They include the militarisation of international relations for the multinational companies and their profit-seeking classes in the US, the involvement of US military operations in scores of countries across the five continents, presence of Special Forces in different countries, as well the direct and indirect military-to-military relationships with 54 African countries. “We call on all workers, communities and activists, particularly working with our alliance partners, the SACP and the ANC, as well as the various progressive civil society formations, to join the announced activities throughout the country, to demandan end to US warmongering and for a new foreign policy based on respect for human dignity and justice for the people of the world,including the people of the US itself,” said Mr Masuku. Since the US announced that MrObama would visit South Africa aspart of his three-country tour ofAfrica, the US leader has generated controversy around the country. Early this month, the Muslim Lawyers’ Association in Johannesburg called for the arrest and prosecution of President Obama for war crimes when he arrives in the country.The group submitted a 600-page document to the Office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions on June 7, saying the ywanted an investigation into the use of drone strikes in the MiddleEast that killed innocent civilians.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 17:51:08 +0000
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