Plight of Afrikaners in South Africa needs world attention and end toviolence

Carol Forsloff - The
violence against the Afrikaners continues to mount, as a minority group
in South Africa pleads for relief from violence and retribution and
seeks self determination for itself.  The Afrikaners want the world to know and worry the international groups do not respond.

So why should the rest of the world worry?  Because, as America's own precepts declares, "All men are created equal."

Under
the leadership of Nelson Mandela, following his release from prison after a
total of 28 years, there was a wave of euphoria that came with the
concept of forgiveness and change and the concept of human rights and
civil rights for which Mandela was given the Nobel Prize in 1993.
But that change did not bring forgiveness.  Instead it has been
retribution of blacks on whites for perceived historical injustices
perpetrated in the years before Mandela became President of the country.

Apartheid,
a system which prohibited blacks from movement economically, socially
and geographically, created hardships and poverty for thousands of black
Africans in South Africa.  The retribution brought by gangs of blacks,
now in response to white Afrikaners, whom some blame for apartheid's
entrenchment for generations, is the antithesis of what Mandela
preached.  It is also something that is not profiled, as many Americans
continue to believe that what Mandela wanted has been realized.

One
of these acts of violence has been chronicled with the following
description from the news and captured by a former South African
journalist Adriana Stuijt:  September 23 2010 - Swazina Park, Uitzicht smallholdings – Pretoria
. Afrikaner smallholder Christa Du Toit had just opened the electronic
gates to her gardener when she was attacked, throttled and then shot
dead with one shot to the head.

For
many Americans South Africa is the country of magnificent landscapes,
burgeoning industry and athletic events that claim world attention.  But
it has a bitter history that continues to bring pain and suffering to a
minority of white Afrikaners, many who live in rural areas or in
poverty themselves.

Human
rights organizations have yet to denounce the treatment of the
Afrikaners in any significant way.  Minorities are seen ordinarily as
the people of color when there is conflict.  In this situation, the
problem is different, becoming the mistreatment, cruelty and violence
against a group of people who are a minority at the hands of people who
seek vengeance, retribution and power.  They do this to the helpless and
hapless folk who cannot defend themselves against growing hordes of
marauders who invade their homes and land, according to those who have
long documented, and continue to document the
tragedy.

It is a tragedy the
Afrikaners declare needs acknowledgment as should be done with any
oppressed group.  The group seeks recognition and support for its
integrity in order to move forward in a more equal stance in

relationship with others.