![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
You are in: World: Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]()
|
![]() |
Wednesday, 8 December, 1999, 17:16 GMT
Mengistu skips South Africa
Ethiopia's former leader Mengistu Haile Mariam has returned to his exiled home in Zimbabwe - only days after the South African Government said it would consider extraditing him. Mr Mengistu left South Africa after receiving medical treatment. He faces charges of crimes against humanity in Ethiopia, where the government has been pursuing his formal extradition.
"This thing has been exaggerated a lot," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "In the first place, the present government of South Africa are my comrades in arms, my friends, my colleagues." The government has been criticised for failing to extradite him, even though the two countries have no extradition treaty. One of South Africa's opposition parties, the United Democratic Movement, said the government had lost an excellent opportunity to prove its commitment to human rights. Papers late South Africa's presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana told The Star newspaper that Mr Mengistu had already left the country when the government received the extradition request. "The request came on Friday evening but Mengistu had left that afternoon," said Mr Mankahlana. "Mengistu came to South Africa as a private citizen. He came and he left." Mr Mengistu travelled to South Africa three weeks ago on a Zimbabwean diplomatic passport with a special visa. He has lived in exile since fleeing Ethiopia in 1991 as rebel forces closed in on the capital Addis Ababa.
Zimbabwe has also had extradition requests from the Ethiopian Government but has refused to act because of the absence of a treaty. Ethiopia has argued that Mr Mengistu's crimes are such that the absence of a treaty is not a good enough reason to refuse extradition. Ethiopian courts are already trying Mr Mengistu in his absense along with hundreds of other government officials accused of directing the killings. He faces the death penalty if found guilty.
|
![]() |
![]() ![]()
![]() Links to other Africa stories are at the foot of the page.
![]() |
![]() |
Links to more Africa stories
|
![]() |
![]() |
^^ Back to top News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |