Durban: Calling last month's violence against foreign nationals in the country as "shameful", South African president Thabo Mbeki today apologised to foreigners who were killed and forced to flee their homes during the large-scale violence.

The President said his government will ensure that the responsible are brought before the law. Mbeki made the apology at a special function in Pretoria in honour of the immigrant and South African victims of the violence. Addressing diplomats and government officials, Mbeki said the South African government would do everything necessary to ensure that Africans, regardless of their origin, would once more live together in peace.

"We are meeting here today to pledge that we will do everything necessary to assist the victims of this criminal onslaught, both the South Africans and our foreign guests, to resume their normal lives," said Mbeki. Sixty two people were killed, more than 47 000 others were displaced and thousands of others returned to their home lands after the attacks began in Johannesburg on May 11.

President Mbeki said South Africa would act without any unnecessary delay to address all concerns which had given birth to the tensions between the local and immigrant Africans. "For the suffering and the shame that was caused, the government will ensure that those responsible will face the full might of the law. We will take all the necessary and possible measures to sustain respect for the law and our Constitutional order by all who live in our country and safe ty and security of all these, whether native-born or immigrant."

Source : PTI