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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|