S. Africa Deploys Troops To Stem Violence

Wave Of Gruesome Attacks On Foreigners Has Killed More Than 40 People

(AP)  The army sent soldiers into the streets Thursday for the first time since a wave of attacks on foreigners began in South Africa nearly two weeks ago, leaving 42 people dead and tarnishing the country's reputation as a bastion of economic and political stability in Africa.

Even as the violence subsided, terrified immigrants crammed onto buses bound for Mozambique and elsewhere to flee. Hundreds squeezed onto buses, hurriedly passing bags - and sometimes even babies - through the windows of departing buses.

More than 25,000 foreigners have fled their homes since the attacks began earlier in the month. At least 42 people have been killed - burned alive, stabbed, shot or beaten to death - by South Africans who blame them for crime and unemployment.

Two burned bodies were found Thursday in the Ramaphosa slum outside Johannesburg where mobs set shacks on fire. Incidents of anti-foreigner violence also were reported elsewhere.

Many Zimbabweans said they had nowhere to run.

Dzidzah Masiiwa, a Zimbabwean painter, said he spent three nights in the relative sanctuary of the police station in the township of Alexandra, where the violence first kicked off. He reluctantly returned to his shack Wednesday but said he didn't feel safe.

"It's scary. I think maybe they will come back to attack me," he said after a brief visit to the police station to see visiting Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The images of naked hatred and black-on-black violence - splashed on front pages worldwide - have deeply embarrassed the government, whose own leaders sought refuge in neighboring countries during the white racist rule of the past.

And it has had a profound effect on an economy reliant on foreign workers.

Gold company DRD Gold said production in one of its big mines just outside Johannesburg has suffered since the attacks began.

Spokesman James Duncan said foreigners comprise 33 percent of the semiskilled work force at the ERPM operation in Primrose in the East Rand, where some of the worst violence occurred at the weekend. He said 14 percent of workers failed to show up Monday - and the absentee rate was up to 60 percent by Wednesday. On Thursday, 58 percent of the day shift did not turn up.

Two of the mine's employees died in the violence, the company said, appealing to employees who had sought refuge at police stations and elsewhere to come forward for assistance. Company officials said they were speaking with union officials, workers and the Mozambique consulate to try to resolve the crisis.

"The longer the violence continues, the more profound (the) impact on production will be," Duncan said.

Security Minister Charles Nqakula also held a meeting with his crisis task team in the face of mounting accusations that the government did too little, too late.

President Thabo Mbeki gave the order late Wednesday to call in the South African National Defense Force - for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The troops' role has been limited. Before dawn Thursday, infantry battalion soldiers set up a cordon as police made early morning swoops on three worker hostels in downtown Johannesburg, where residents allegedly were involved in inciting violence.

The police made 28 arrests and seized drugs, firearms and stolen property, police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, toured some of the worst-affected areas to offer solace to his compatriots, who have borne the brunt of the violence. More than 3 million Zimbabweans are believed to be in South Africa, fleeing the economic and political meltdown in their own country.

They greeted Tsvangirai with cheers as he said he would return home Saturday, despite fears of a possible assassination attempt. He faces a runoff election against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on June 27.

The International Organization for Migration said it was working with the South African government to try to repatriate those who wanted to return home. Spokesman Nde Ndifonka said the group was seeking to ensure that those who return home receive some form of assistance when they got home.

Home Affairs spokeswoman Siobhan McCarthy said the department was scrambling to help foreigners who lost their documents in the turmoil, reassuring illegal immigrants they will not be deported against their will.

[keithle1]

If it wasn''t for black unity, Africa would be in terrible shape.

Tee hee.

[milesbrown49]

Every time there is a big war in Africa, people rarely know what the root of the problem is. Do people know that Morgan Tsvangirai tried to cause problems in Zimbabwe. Him and his followers were chased out of Zimbabwe, not by the government, but by the people who were disgusted by what he was doing. People are tried of being oppressed and watching their own people assist the colonist and committing treason to there own DNA!!!!! When the civil war was going on in Rwanda in 1994 people were never given the insight of what the Tutsis did during the Dutch rule to the Hutu''s. Facts are not clear as I am told from inside that the Tutsis initiated the genocide and wound up on the loosing end!! The fact is that people are tired of those who continue to allow those who want to control the resources of Africa manipulate them. Africans want to move on and be prosperous and are hindered by a few members of their own and they are reacting to them. Yes, that''s what really is happening in South Africa. Morgan Tsvangirai and his followers will find no home, until they speak about the wrongs they did and were trying to do!!

[milesbrown49]

Wake up!!! The monster here is Morgan Tsvangirai who alowed the devil to munipulate him into causing trouble amoungst his people. He will pay in this day!!!

[ozonmojo]

Where is Nelson Mandela,the Apostle of Peace ?Does he come out only to attack George W.Bush for something or other?The guy is a regular politician.