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EXCLUSIVE In Tacit Rebuke, U.S. Embassy in South Africa Rejects Trump Tweet
Internal cable cites report that farm murders in South Africa are at their lowest level in 19 years.
BY ROBBIE GRAMER, COLUM LYNCH | AUGUST 29, 2018, 2:35 PM
President Donald Trump incensed South Africa by wading into a politically fraught debate on land reform issues and violence against white farmers, a rallying cry for white nationalists in the United States and elsewhere.
Now, the U.S. Embassy in South Africa has tacitly rebuked the president in a cable sent clarifying the issue and correcting misperceptions put forward by the president on Twitter, following a misleading statement on Fox News.
The cable, sent Wednesday morning and obtained by Foreign Policy, does not mention the president or his tweet at all. Titled “Despite Crime Epidemic, Farm Murders Down,” the cable outlines statistics on murder rates on white-owned South African farms.
“Some journalists and lobby groups have simplified complex land disputes to serve their own ends,” the cable says.
Political officers from the U.S. Embassy reached out to a broad array of experts—including farmers, police, crime researchers, and academics—to gauge the extent of violence against white farmers. They found “no evidence that murders on farms specifically target white people or are politically motivated,” the cable states.
More
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/29/in-tacit-rebuke-u-s-embassy-in-south-africa-rejects-trump-tweet/