VZCZCXRO1885
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #2174/01 2761453
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021453Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5891
INFO RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 5357
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3723
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 5948
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6080
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 0222
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 8432

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 002174 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE/PRM FOR LANGE, DENTZEL 
 
C O R R E C T E D  COPY (ADDED PARA MARKINGS) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PREF PHUM SF
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA: XENOPHOBIA VICTIMS FACE EVICTION 
FROM CAMPS 
 
REF: A. PRETORIA 1563 
     ¶B. PRETORIA 2014 
 
PRETORIA 00002174  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (U)  At Camp Akasia sheltering foreigners displaced by 
xenophobic attacks in May, the Gauteng Provincial Government 
(GPG) dispatched a private security crew to confiscate army 
tents from residents, leaving hundreds of men, women, and 
children without shelter.  The action was deplored by UNHCR 
and Lawyers for Human Rights, who stressed GPG's duty to 
formulate an actionable plan to reintegrate foreigners into 
local communities.  A week later GPG demolished three more 
camps, leaving hundreds more migrants stranded, in defiance 
of NGO appeals and a previous High Court order barring such 
evictions.  While GPG's statements of its intent were 
conflicting, it appeared to have deliberately pressured 
migrants to vacate the camps and fend for themselves.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
Reported "Red Ants" Raid 
------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) On September 23 an estimated 800 foreign migrants were 
left without formal shelter at Camp Akasia northwest of 
Pretoria (ref A), when security forces contracted by the city 
council dismantled and hauled away the army tents that had 
housed them since the outbreak of xenophobic violence last 
May.  The tents were taken down by Red Ants Security 
Services, a security firm named for its workers' red uniforms 
and known for its tough tactics.  Red Ants are typically 
brought in by the government during tense standoffs, such as 
razing of squatter dwellings or strike actions by labor 
unions.  Newspapers described the camp residents as 
scrambling to collect their belongings into makeshift 
shelters of wood frames covered with blankets and black 
garbage bags.  Reportedly the GPG's rationale was that the 
army needed its tents back.  Migrants' representatives were 
quoted as saying they had received no advance warning of the 
action. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
UNHCR Deplores GPG Action; LHR Appeals for Plan 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶3. (U) UNHCR Spokesman Yusuf Hassan decried the GPG's 
confiscation of tents as "unacceptable" and "inexcusable," 
adding that UNHCR would seek to meet as soon as possible with 
provincial authorities to remind them of their 
responsibilities to the internally displaced persons (IDPs). 
"There is an urgent need for these people to be housed," he 
was quoted as saying.  "There should have been discussions 
about alternative accommodation, but there was none.... 
Closures need to be carefully planned and are definitely not 
done like this." 
 
¶4. (U) In a September 23 communiqu refugee advocacy group 
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) assailed the "intimidation 
tactics" at Camp Akasia, urging the GPG to formulate a cogent 
plan for resolution of the IDP camp situation.  Acknowledging 
that the camps were not a long-term answer and should be 
closed eventually, LHR highlighted the lack of any clear plan 
to achieve that.  GPG efforts to pave the way for 
reconciliation and reintegration in townships were scant: 
"While we note that government agents have been working on 
the ground to investigate conditions in the communities, this 
appears to have been on an ad hoc basis with no formal plan 
in place."  As a result, "there are still large numbers who 
fear returning to communities."  LHR called on the GPG to 
Qfear returning to communities."  LHR called on the GPG to 
cease all threats and reminded it of a Constitutional Court 
order barring eviction of IDP camp residents. 
 
------------------------------ 
Residents Traumatized, Anxious 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (U) On a September 26 visit by Emboffs to Camp Akasia, the 
mood was anxious.  Poloffs met with camp managers, the UNHCR 
site representative, and many of the migrants.  Red Ants had 
 
PRETORIA 00002174  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
seized 47 tents, which were then replaced with tents from 
UNHCR.  Residents were traumatized and deeply fearful.  Some 
lacked access to necessary medication.  No one was prepared 
for a closure of the camp, which they had been told would 
occur on September 30. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
More Evictions Denied -- Then Conducted 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Gauteng gave verbal assurances there would be no camp 
closures, which it then contradicted with the demolitions. 
Akasia residents said a parliamentary task team had visited 
their camp and promised to help the IDPs decide their own 
courses of action -- without any warning of camp demolition. 
On September 29 GPG spokesperson Thabo Masebe assured us 
unequivocally that no camps would be forcibly closed the next 
day.  That evening Masebe left the country, so he was 
unavailable for comment the next day when GPG's Red Ants 
proceeded to dismantle remaining camps at Glenanda, Boksburg, 
and Rand Airport, leaving residents stranded in the same 
manner as at Akasia.  After witnessing the confiscation of 
tents, NGOs were appalled by GSG's transparent excuses that 
residents were leaving of their own volition. 
 
7.(U) On October 1 Emboffs visited the remains of Boksburg and 
Rand Airport camps.  At Boksburg, which housed migrants 
mainly from neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique, GPG official 
William Mtsanwisi said the majority of camp residents had 
opted for repatriation, some groups hiring trucks for 
transport using the small stipends of R 500 - 1,200 ($60 - 
$150, depending on the size of the family) handed out by the 
U.N. and GPG.  The Department of Home Affairs was also on 
site offering assistance to any migrant wishing to 
repatriate.  The Red Cross donated food parcels of canned and 
dry goods.  At Rand Airport, which had housed largely 
Zimbabweans, large numbers of former camp residents milled 
about the area  while officials from the Zimbabwean Embassy 
were assisting with repatriation. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
No Way Out: Onward Options Problematic 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U)  All options for these IDPs -- reintegration to townships, 
voluntary repatriation to countries of origin, involuntary 
deportation, or resettlement in third countries -- involve 
risks and difficulties.  While some areas of the Cape have 
successfully returned foreigners to their township homes 
after securing community buy-in, Gauteng province has made 
little attempt to sensitize or secure host communities, and 
returnees have been attacked and even murdered.  A Somali man 
told us that four of his extended family members had been 
killed in their community the night before our visit. 
Repatriation was also considered too dangerous for most, who 
had come to South Africa to escape the ravages of war or 
famine at home.  UNHCR was accepting applications in Pretoria 
for asylum resettlement, but without any special measures to 
assist these victims of xenophobia. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
COMMENT: Forcing A Solution, Come What May 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The Gauteng government, reluctant to establish the 
IDP camps in the first place, has consistently been keen to 
be rid of them in whatever way possible.  Earlier efforts to 
Qbe rid of them in whatever way possible.  Earlier efforts to 
close them were blocked by the Constitutional Court in 
response to appeals by a consortium of refugee and rights 
NGOs (ref B).  In August, Lawyers for Human Rights advocate 
Jacob van Garderen privately shared his opinion with us that 
the provincial strategy was one of attrition, i.e. to wait 
for migrants gradually to disperse and the issue to fade 
away.  Recent camp demolitions suggest a stepped-up, more 
aggressive version of that attrition approach: Medicins Sans 
Frontieres (MSF) program coordinator Alexis Moens suggested 
to the press that Gauteng deliberately made camp conditions 
unlivable so as to precipitate departures.  Through this 
action the GPG has acted in defiance of the High Court order, 
of UN and NGO appeals, of its humanitarian duties, and of the 
risk of renewed violence as foreigners filter back to 
townships.  End Comment. 
LA LIME