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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 03, 2003

S. African Party Leader Refuses to Meet Bush

One of South African political party leaders on Wednesday expressed his refusal to attend an official luncheon on July 9 in honor of visiting US President George Bush.


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One of South African political party leaders on Wednesday expressed his refusal to attend an official luncheon on July 9 in honor of visiting US President George Bush.

Motsoko Pheko, leader of Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), wrote aletter to South African President Thabo Mbeki, in which he said after broad consultations "in our movement", he regretted he could not accept this particular invitation for a number of reasons.

These included that Bush had undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council and waged an illegal war in Iraq, threatening other countries of the South.

Bush had "falsified information about weapons of mass destruction" and displaced thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children in his unjustified war on that country, Pheko said.

Bush was "meddling" in the internal affairs of other nations, violating their sovereignty and territorial integrity, the party leader was quoted by the South African Press Association as sayingon Wednesday.

"President Bush is seeking legitimacy for his illegal activities, and one of his agenda is to push the genetically modified food on the African continent. Africa is not for sale," he said.

"What President Bush ought to be doing is to be joining forces which are demanding the cancellation of the 'foreign' debt, which is a big hindrance to the development of Africa.

Pheko said he was appealing, through Mbeki, to Bush, to agree to a general disarmament in which all countries, including the United States, with weapons of mass destruction would destroy these weapons.

"It is not right and just for President Bush to demand other countries to dispose of these weapons while his own country has piles of them," he said.

However, the PAC leader said his party had "great respect for the people of America."

Bush is due to arrive in South Africa on July 8 for a two-day official visit among his five-country African tour.

Pan Africanist Congress is a political party in South Africa, promoting a black-only policy for Africa. It was formed as a military black nationalist group in 1959, when it broke away from the African National Congress (ANC). It was outlawed in 1960s.

The party suspended its armed struggle in 1994, and transformeditself into a political party to contest the first multiracial elections. It is more radical than the ANC, advocating a radical redistribution of land and a state-run economy.


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