Charge Mbeki and Manto with Genocide

Sent to "The Star, Johannesburg", Thu 09/04/2009 08:23, never published.

The leader of a country has great honour, and great responsibility.  He or she is tasked with making big decisions in the interests of the country.  To make war, to make peace.  To spend on this and neglect that. Their decisions can save or kill thousands of people.

It is time that leaders were held accountable for wilfully and deliberately making bad decisions.  South Africa can set an example.

The Star of 8 April 2009 mentions a book by Kerry Cullinan and Anso Thom detailing the course of AIDS denialism in South Africa.  Then-President Thabo Mbeki and then-Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had access to the best science available: It showed that anti-retroviarals would reduce deaths.  Mbeki and his Health Minister deliberately worked against anti-retroviarals.

According to research cited in he book, the cost has been some 330,000 lives.

Can we let this go unpunished?

Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang must be prosecuted for genocide.  If our authorities won't do it, the World Court should.