Posted on 12/05/2003 3:02:53 AM PST by Clive
Marxist dictator Robert Mugabe's "threat" to pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth if he isn't accepted at the summit in Nigeria underlines the problem with both the Commonwealth and Africa.
First, Zimbabwe should have been kicked out of the Commonwealth - okay, suspended - long ago, and would have been had not Jean Chretien insisted Mugabe get another chance to prove he was a misunderstood democrat at heart. (Though to his credit, Chretien argued at yesterday's Commonwealth summit in Nigeria that the suspension must continue.)
Mugabe was re-elected in as fraudulent an election as has been seen in Africa - a continent with virtually zero reputation for honest elections or democratic governments.
Second, the fact so many African countries tolerate or condone Mugabe's continued oppression and ravaging of what was once a self-sufficient country, contributes to the feeling that Africa is, indeed, a basket case.
Why would any right-minded developed country contribute to African governments that refuse to condemn or help cure what's going on in Zimbabwe?
Canada has forgiven debts incurred by Mugabe that run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, all in a misguided desire to show our goodwill.
Forgive debts or give aid to a tyrant, and all you do is encourage tyranny - especially cruel in the case of Zimbabwe, where the majority favour change, but can't get it.
The opposition party - the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - is a government-in-waiting and has virtually incomprehensible courage.
Mugabe has charged Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, with trying to assassinate him, thanks in part to Tsvangirai being set up by Canadian conspirators. (A controversial Canadian lobbying firm has denied setting up Tsvangirai).
Roy Bennett, a white Zimbabwean farmer elected to Parliament in a huge black area, refuses to either quit or flee the country. His workers rallied to prevent Mugabe's hoodlums from seizing his farm.
Bennett has documented on video polling stations where voters who choose Mugabe are given sacks of grain and food, while those who vote against the regime get nothing.
Still, the MDC won in the area in question. In Zimbabwe, courage is personified by those who risk beatings and threats for voting against Mugabe.
South African President Thabo Mbeke resolutely supports Mugabe, even telling Prime Minister Chretien and Canada that Mugabe and the MDC have a dialogue going. Absurd.
As an aside, South Africa today is one of the world's most dangerous countries - not from political unrest, but from crime. It has the world's highest murder rate. White South African farmers are periodically killed - not for their land, as in Zimbabwe, but because they are presumed to be wealthy.
Brutal beating
Ontario Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman recalls in his excellent book, Out of Muskoka, how as Canada's High Commissioner to South Africa in 1999 he was mugged, zapped with an electric stun gun and brutally beaten in his Cape Town hotel room for his watch and 1,200 rand - about $300.
It was a harrowing "adventure" in a country that has 60-plus murders a day and which shows little interest in curbing crime.
Until the Commonwealth summit of 54 countries was to meet in Abuja, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had also refused to criticize Mugabe.
Now he wants Mugabe excluded. Better late than never, perhaps. The success of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development), inspired by African leaders whereby the world invests in countries that pledge to adhere to democratic values, is threatened.
By not condemning Mugabe, or reacting against his tyranny, African countries violate terms of NEPAD and indicate that Africa is not a continent in which sensible businessmen or governments should invest.
I was in Zimbabwe at the time of independence when Mugabe was expressing gratitude to the white regime of the former Rhodesia for creating self-sufficiency.
Optimism was high, race relations positive.
Five years later, I returned to growing chaos. The courts were being corrupted and stores depleted (no toothpaste because there were no tubes), foreign currency was drying up and inflation was rising.
Debts forgiven
Cabinet ministers rode in limousines and travelled the world. Prestigious government buildings were being erected on credit. Countries like Canada were forgiving debts while animals in game parks were being killed for food and tourists kidnapped and robbed. Mugabe imported North Korean troops to crush dissent.
AIDS was rampant, but any who wrote about it or doctors who admitted it, were punished. Political leader Joshua Nkomo sent his family to Canada for safety. Even then, Canada's myopic foreign affairs specialists couldn't, wouldn't or didn't dare see the truth unfolding.
Today, Mugabe focuses his wrath on Australian PM John Howard, who is outraged at Mugabe and has the guts to say so - guts Canadian leaders lack.
Mugabe says Howard is "genetically modified because of the criminal ancestry he derives from," whatever that means.
It underscores that Mugabe is hurting - which is a reason to tighten the screws. It could be argued that no investments or aid should go to any African country that doesn't condemn and break relations with Mugabe - the Stalin of Africa who is doing to Zimbabwe what Stalin once did to Ukraine.
Too many other countries look away, while he turns Zimbabwe into a basket case
Last year the US was shipping maize to Southern Africa to meet a major famine and southern African countries, principally Zimbabwe with half its population dependent on foreign food aid, were rejecting the maize because it was genetically modified.
He should be on a wanted poster.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.