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Shops, cars torched in Johannesburg as anti-immigrant violence surges

JOHANNESBURG -- Several shops and cars owned by foreigners were torched in downtown Johannesburg overnight in continued anti-immigrant attacks but another city that had seen the worst violence was calm, authorities said Friday.

Police spokesman Col. Jay Naicker said no violence was reported in the coastal city of Durban, where the violence began.

In Johannesburg, about 100 foreigners took refuge in a police station overnight, fearing for their safety, said police spokesman Col. Lungelo Dlamini. Some also stayed in a community center. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse looters and at least 18 people were arrested, Dlamini said.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, police were involved in minor clashes with dozens of protesters demonstrating at the South African Embassy against the anti-immigrant attacks. Protesters handed over a petition to embassy officials demanding an end to the violence in South Africa.

On Thursday, President Jacob Zuma urged South Africans to stop attacking immigrants from Africa and South Asia, but hundreds threatened peace marchers in a city where days of violence have killed at least five people.

In the days before the peace march in Durban, more than 2,000 foreigners fled to camps erected on sports fields around the city, afraid to return home, according to Gift of the Givers, an aid organization.

Zuma, in a speech to parliament that was broadcast live on TV, called the attacks "shocking and unacceptable," adding that "no amount of frustration and anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals."

With unemployment and poverty levels high in South Africa, the immigrants are accused of taking jobs that should go to South Africans.

"This frustration after 21 years of a democracy is resulting in anger, envy and in some cases rageful violence," writes CBS News' Debra Patta. "Add to that a shrinking economy and you create a lethal cocktail."

In the city of Durban along the Indian Ocean, one of Zuma's wives, Thobeka Madiba-Zuma encouraged thousands who had participated in a peace march. A short distance away, hundreds of locals gathered, jeering and insulting the participants, local broadcasters reported.

The U.S. ambassador to South Africa, who was born in the then Zaire to Haitian parents, spoke in defense of the immigrants.

"As an immigrant to my own country, my heart goes out to those who have been attacked for being different," said Patrick H. Gaspard in a statement emailed by the U.S. Embassy.

The fear felt by many was palpable as dozens of foreigners sought refuge at a police station outside of Johannesburg and stayed there overnight, according to a police spokesman, Col. Lungelo Dlamini.

Some foreigners from other African nations have armed themselves with machetes and knives.

The second spate of attacks this year in South Africa began after the Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini, said that immigrants should "take their bags and go." Zulus comprise one of South Africa's largest ethnic groups.

"We must deal with our own lice," he said in a speech that was recorded and sent to local broadcaster eNCA. He also complained about foreign-owned shops.

South Africa's Human Rights Commission said it has received two complaints of hate speech levelled against the king. Commission spokesman Isaac Mangena said it has received several other complaints of xenophobia not directly related to the king's comments.

South Africa is a major destination for asylum seekers and refugees, and the country currently houses more than 300,000 asylum seekers, according to projections by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said UNHCR spokeswoman Tina Ghelli.

Minister of International Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will on Friday meet with diplomats from several African countries to discuss the government's efforts to protect immigrants, her office said in a statement.

The governments of Malawi and Zimbabwe have begun efforts to repatriate citizens affected by the attacks. Zimbabwean musicians have also called for a boycott of South African artists.

"Xenophobia today can easily mutate into genocide tomorrow. Stop It," tweeted Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, adding that the Zulu king should "extinguish what he ignited."

In Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, some locals believed that Somalis would have been safer in their troubled native country, rather than South Africa.

"This must become a lesson for them to return home," said Khadra Hussein, a Mogadishu resident. "Otherwise, they will be eliminated one by one."

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