US wants "Comrade Bob" out, transitional government in Zimbabwe: senior official

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is urging Zimbabwe's neighbors to step up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to hand power to a transitional government to pave the way for new elections, a senior State Department official said.

"What we're telling them is there has to be a transitional government in Zimbabwe that leads to a free and fair, internationally supervised election," the official said.

"That is the goal, he stole the last one, we can't let that happen again," the official said, referring to a widely condemned election last March in which Mugabe won re-election.

"It has to be internationally supervised, open, transparent with an electoral commission that works," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official would not say whether Washington had gotten positive reactions to its call from any specific country in the region, but said generally the "neighborhood" was increasingly aware of the problems posed by Mugabe's rule.

"The neighborhood -- meaning southern Africa -- is realizing that this is not going well, this is breaking bad," the official said. "The food situation is going to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is disastrous."

The official noted that Zimbabwe's economy was now crippled by hyperinflation and an unemployment rate of 80 percent and that Zimbabweans were fleeing their country in droves to become refugees in Botswana, Mozambique, and South Africa.

In addition, the situation in Zimbabwe is hurting the economies of other countries in the region as potential investors steer clear due to fears about the spread of the crisis.

"The neighborhood is starting to realize that there is a downside to giving aid and protection to Comrade Bob," the official said, using a derogatory nickname for Mugabe.

"There is stuff happening, there is stuff happening behind the scenes," the official added, declining to elaborate.

However, the official said Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner would be heading to two of Zimbabwe's neighbors -- Botswana and South Africa -- later this month in part to discuss the situation.

The United States has been a vociferous critic of Mugabe in recent months and led a charge at the UN Human Rights Commission to condemn the Harare government.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose country is seen as wielding the most influence with Mugabe, has been reluctant to enter the fray and restated his support over the weekend for so-called "quiet diplomacy" in encouraging reforms in Zimbabwe.

Although he broke his silence in late March after hundreds of people, most of them opposition supporters, were arrested, detained and assaulted after a national anti-government work stoppage, Mbeki said Sunday that he would not use his position as chairman of the African Union (AU) to condemn human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Mbeki said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was dealing with the situation, including the issue of press freedom and various pieces of legislation related to press, general and political freedoms.

Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe say they are planning another nationwide "mass action" against Mugabe's government but have not said when it will take

... anyone who is doubtful about the situation there, or perhaps curious about how much goes unmentioned & unreported by the laughingly-misnamed "watchdog press" need only click the "keyword: Africa Watch" or go here:

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Daily Reports Rhodesia

Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

The Coming Anarchy
February 1994. The Coming Anarchy. by Robert D. Kaplan. ... All rights reserved.

-South Africa - The sellout of a nation--

FYI, I wrote this a while back:

I don't know what will happen in southern Africa beyond a general breakdown into chaos & anarchy... the old bugbear was the Soviets gaining control of the tip & choking our fleet's movements, coupled with control of the mineral wealth. Now it look like Quaddaffi is angling to take over Rhodesia and perhaps spread to South Africa.

At this point, we are 20 years too late, but we can at least bear witness to the debacle.

Bear in mind I am a partisan- I supported ( with reluctance ) the old white-minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, because I knew the Communists and their puppets- including proxies like Cuba- were angling for control of southern Africa.

One big problem we have is our media. They have tried to portray the situation in southern Africa as a clone of our own civil-rights struggles when in fact just the opposite was true. Africa is degenerating into chaos and anarchy under the guise of "liberation" and "one man, one vote."
( One time- then forevermore a dictatorship... )
All while the media here turns a blind eye to what is really happening.

What I used to tell people was that while Apartheid was an onerous, offensive system, I would prefer being a black South African under Apartheid to being a person of any color under the old Soviet system- and I still believe those words to be true and correct. Given time, the old South African government would have worked out its problems- but it was not allowed to do so.

Today, we are seeing the results of this folly in Zimbabwe- or rather, we see what tiny bits the web and small elements of talk radio cover.

The whole story of contemporary Africa is a sad tale of tribalism, class warfare, kleptocracy, and massive corruption- and one the media here "won't even talk about" because it does not fit within their template of acceptable ideas.

I would also add, that both the press and entertainment arms of the media encouraged and supported the toppling of the old governments, i. e., they were in collusion, and complicit in the fall. Now that things have worked out at variance with their idealistic fantasies, they simply "don't talk about it..."

"Why do you keep posting this stuff? Nobody cares about Africa, anyway..."

Clive, Cincinatus's Wife, blam, myself, and a few others get asked that occasionally- we are among the keepers of the "AfricaWatch" columns, and we continue to post articles about what I believe will prove to be one of the great, tragic stories of the new century.

The mainstream press never publishes more than one Africa story a day, and it's usually some fluff or dodge around how grim the situation is over there.

But the truth is archived here on Free Republic, and I maintain that one day, when things over there are too awful to be ignored any longer, those who have eyes to see will read the stories here, and be appalled at the silence.

That is all...

-30-

backhoe

"There is stuff happening, there is stuff happening behind the scenes," the official added, declining to elaborate.

This, at last, is very encouraging to me. I recall President Bush indicating something to the effect that we would not tolerate the Mugabe regime's behavior; at the time, many in Zimbabwe thought that action from the US was imminent. Iraq was on the fire, however, and we could not tend to the crisis in Zimbabwe at the time. I do remember President Bush's scathing comments about Kim Il Jing of North Korea, that he loathed a leader who would starve his own people. I can't help but believe it was this same behavior from Mugabe that got our President's attention.

Something is imminent. The entire world sat up and took notice of the recent "events" in Iraq and the dictators of the world are not anxious to attract our attention.

They have become keenly aware of the effects of just one Predator.

If President Bush has indicated that the situation is not acceptable, I believe the "you know what" is about to hit the fan in Zimbabwe.

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