- UN Statement on Zimbabwe: Too Little, Too Late, Too Hypocritical

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UN Statement on Zimbabwe: Too Little, Too Late, Too Hypocritical

Written by Warren Mass

Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:39

For those who have paid little attention to what’s been going on lately in Zimbabwe, here’s a brief recap: Back on March 29, Zimbabwe’s president (which is Zimbabwean for “dictator for life”) Robert Mugabe unexpectedly came in second in the first round of reelection voting. A runoff election is scheduled for June 27, because according to the government’s count, Mugabe‘s opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, received less than the majority of the votes. However, running against strongman Mugabe is an activity that tends to be hazardous to one’s health. Zimbabwean police detained Tsvangirai on two separate occasions during the first week of June and also directed his party to cancel political rallies. The opposition leader complained that he was being treated like a "common criminal," as his campaign tours were held up by police at roadblocks.

Tsvangirai had hoped to address his main campaign rally on Sunday afternoon, June 22, But, as the Australian Associated Press reported in a June 23 report carried by AdelaideNow: “Thousands of ruling party militants blockaded the show ground site and set up road blocs at the main approach streets, ripped branches from trees and hurled stones at cars…. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed that the militants were beating opposition supporters who were trying to reach the venue and said at least two were seriously injured. It said the militants attacked journalists and forced African election monitors, who had been driving around the rally site, to flee.”

The incident, among others, convinced Tsvangirai that continuing the campaign would be dangerous both for him and his supporters and he withdrew from the race the same day. Soon afterwards, according to a statement issued by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, Tsvangirai took refuge at the Dutch Embassy, after being tipped off that soldiers were on the way to his house. "He is only safe because, alerted by friends, he left in a hurry a few minutes earlier," Wade said.

Tsvangirai’s chief spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, fled to South Africa on June 23 as the police raided the MDC party headquarters, rounding up dozens of people, including women and children. After arriving in Johannesburg, Sibotshiwe said in an interview that he had four men armed with pistols approaching the door of his safe house on the morning of June 22 and only narrowly escaped capture.

Mugabe, however, denied that Tsvangirai was in any danger. "Tsvangirai is frightened. He has run to seek refuge at the Dutch embassy. What for? These are voters, they will do you no harm. Political harm, yes, because they will vote against you. No one wants to kill Tsvangirai."

Tsvangirai — who has survived three assassination attempts — may not have been assured by Mugabe’s words.

On June 23, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged authorities in Zimbabwe to postpone the election, considering the ongoing violence and the “understandable decision” by the opposition candidate to withdraw from the polls. “Conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe,” Mr. Ban told reporters in New York. “There has been too much violence, too much intimidation. A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy.”

Despite Mugabe, however, has insisted that the election be held as scheduled on June 27.

In response to these events, the U.N. Security Council issued a non-binding statement on the 23rd that condemned "the campaign of violence against the political opposition ... which has resulted in the killing of scores of opposition activists and other Zimbabweans and the beating and displacement of thousands of people, including many women and children."

In a radio interview with Dutch public broadcaster Radio 1 conducted on June 24 from the Dutch Embassay in Harare, Zinwabwe’s capital, Tsvangirai said: “I think it’s a very important resolution. It recognizes the people who are accountable for the violence, and it squarely placed that responsibility at Mugabe’s leadership. I am sure that he can no longer remain defiant to that international position.”

The bystander who has followed neither the history of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) nor the history of the UN, is apt to conclude from these events that Mugabe is just another a tin-pot dictator in another small African nation with a funny name, but what else is new? And, since it is obvious that tin-pot dictators are more likely than not to laugh at non-binding resolutions issued by the UN, the solution to keeping such tyrants in line is to give them some of the treatment that removed Saddam Hussein from power: issue binding resolutions against them, and if they fail to comply, send in the troops.

The track record of the UN over the course of its history indicates, however, that the organization is more “effective” at destabilizing peaceful governments and installing tyrants than it is in performing its alleged mission of maintaining “peace.” Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is a prime example.

• One November 11, 1965. Rhodesia declared its independence from Great Britain, and the UN General Assembly immediately branded the land-locked country of just nine million people "a threat to international peace and security."

• On December 16, 1966, the Security Council (for the first time in UN history) voted to impose mandatory sanctions on Rhodesia, sanctions which destabilized the peaceful nation and helped the communist-backed insurgencies (including those led by the communist guerrilla Robert Mugabe) which eventually gained control of the nation.

• In 1979, British and American “negotiators” forced Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to call an election. The winner was native African Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who proved to be merely a pawn used to remove Smith and install the leader really favored by the U.S. and British governments. The election was quickly declared invalid and in a second “managed” election, Robert Mugabe, identified as a “teacher” in AP reports, was installed.

• On April 18, 1980, Rhodesia officially became the Marxist-ruled nation of Zimbabwe. Afterwards, UN sanctions were lifted and the U.S. and other Western countries pledged more than $300 million in aid to the new communist regime led by the terrorist Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe ever since.

So now the UN Security Council has decided to slap Mugabe on the wrist. And U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) must declare both the election and Mugabe's government illegitimate.

In view of the treacherous history of how outside forces manipulated events in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, often at the brutal expense of all Zimbabweans — but especially black Zimbabweans, who have suffered disproportionately — the recent protestations emanating from the UN somehow ring hollow.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful land, inhabited by beautiful people who deserve far better than the suffering brought to them by the Western-installed tyrant Robert Mugabe.