S. Africa, Bush Facilitate Terror in Zimbabwe By Robert Kirby Robert Kirby is a columnist for the Mail & Guardian of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sheryl McCarthy is off. October 9, 2003 South African newspapers have been almost vituperative in criticizing President Thabo Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" concerning the crisis in next-door Zimbabwe. One paper observed that it's been active advancement by Mbeki of tyrant Robert Mugabe's government. What the press seems to have overlooked is a parallel culpability by those world leaders - most notably George W. Bush - who could bring pressure to bear, not only on Mbeki but on other southern Africa leaders who have not only allowed but, in some instances, openly encouraged Mugabe in his outrageous dictatorship. When it comes to making fine-sounding promises about arresting Zimbabwe's human tragedy, Bush has been just as good as Mbeki. If quiet diplomacy has been a fiasco, what of Bush's African speciality, fly-by diplomacy - his version of doing absolutely nothing? It is not hard to understand why fresh press condemnation has erupted: the summary closure by Mugabe of the courageous opposition Daily News and its Sunday sister publication, followed by violent police harassment of their staff and the snubbing of a supreme court order restoring the papers' right to publish. Previously, Mugabe took action against the Daily News in the form of a bomb in its presses. Last year, 22 of its journalists were arrested and tortured. This time it's been vandalism or seizure by Mugabe's police of the papers' equipment and computers and, again, detention of its journalists. In response to this and the many other brutal excesses of the Zimbabwean regime, the silence of Mbeki's government has been thunderous. From Washington there hasn't been the whisper. But then, dead promises don't talk. While he was hurtling around Africa at Mach-point-8 a few months ago, Bush raised a lot of hopes, speaking baronially about American hands-on involvement in helping Africa heal its festering political wounds; of how deeply his administration was committed to the relief of Africa's suffering masses; how the U.S. military could be deployed in helping maintain peace. Perhaps Bush's advisers have not told him about how effective a literally tiny British military force - fewer than 200 troops - in Sierra Leone has been in helping contain wholesale anarchy; how the French, with another small detachment, are holding the peace in the Cote d'Ivoire. Only last week new massacres were reported from Liberia. Yet a couple of U.S. Navy ships quietly upped anchors off Liberia's coast and slipped away in the night with a contingent of Marines. While attending the United Nations' fall picnic last month, Mbeki loftily dismissed the Zimbabwean crisis as being "something they will get over." If Mbeki does not consider the shocking human calamity on his own doorstep as requiring meaningful intervention, then surely Zimbabweans should expect, at the least, some signs of direct action from those who could make a difference. Bush had both purpose and means when it came to ridding the Middle East of a tyrant. In the case of Zimbabwe, he would be helping to rid the African continent of one of its most grotesque despots. And Bush would have no need of guns; he has both the economic and political power to pressure the South African government and its neighbors into taking positive steps toward ridding Zimbabwe of its lunatic helmsman. If the current Zimbabwean dictatorship is allowed to run its ruinous course, the consequence could be a return to the civil war that preceded the 1980 democratic elections, which brought Mugabe to power. As in Liberia, all the warning signs are there, unheard or ignored: the intensifying human tragedy in Zimbabwe, its economic collapse, and its starving rural millions, which each month cause thousands of desperate Zimbabweans to cross the porous border and seek relief in South Africa. Mugabe's political derangement now seems not only unstoppable, but carrying mute approval of those who could bring him to heel. Mbeki's foreign minister continues to state that South African government will never "abandon" Mugabe. And, all the while, George W. Bush stares fixedly in the opposite direction. Bro. Germaine G. Verdier Chairman http://www.vhi-sweden.org _________________________________________________________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~