Posted on 11/24/2008 9:44:20 AM PST by Panzerlied
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Southern African nations must intervene more decisively to end Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other prominent world figures said on Monday.
Describing Zimbabwe as close to a humanitarian disaster, Annan urged the Southern African Development Community's leaders to pressure President Robert Mugabe and the opposition MDC to break a deadlock blocking the formation of a unity government.
"SADC must bring its full weight to bear," Annan, flanked by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and human rights campaigner Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, told a news conference.
"I think it is clear that SADC should have done more."
Annan, Carter and Machel, part of a group called the Elders, were barred from entering Zimbabwe last weekend on a humanitarian visit. Mugabe's government denied them visas, saying the visit was unnecessary.
A deepening economic crisis, marked by chronic food shortages and soaring hyperinflation, has prompted millions of Zimbabweans to flee the country. A cholera epidemic has killed around 300 people and sent hundreds more into South Africa.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
This socialist paradise IS ALREADY a humanitarian disaster. Just read Cathy Buckle's letters.
Annan and Carter.
A Dream Team of Idiots.
Nah, send in the one! He will give hope and change. That’s all they want, right?
Every time we try to help the rest of the world out of some problem, it comes back to bite us in the ass. How 'bout you and Jimmy get some other country to wade into that mess and fix it. We're tired of coughing up our money to fix the world's problems and then get bitched at because we tried.
All Zimbabwe needs to do is to abandon their marxist experiment.
The country has sufficient natural resources and farm land to be successful and cure their problems.
Someone like Carter really has nothing to offer to the suffering people of Zimbabwe, he should keep quiet about it.
Carter already fixed Zim when he certified Mugaba as Pres for life.
Graca Machel is married to Mandela? Who da’thunk the widow of Samora the communist stooge would be such a social climber?
Jimmah is a disgrace to Georgians and the laughing stock of everyone except the far-leftists.
“Annan and Carter call for intervention in Zimbabwe”
You lunkheads are free to hop the first plane and go fill sandbags.
Where is Winnie? She knows how to take care of opponents.
Zimbabwe heads up the UN Commission on Substainable Development. They are the model country for socialism. How could anything be wrong there?
Maybe Winnie will get a US Govt grant to advise Obummer’s people on how to form youth soccer teams.
Yes Jimmy,it is never too late to save a bunch of Communists from a fate of their own making. Where were you when these thugs took over and looted the country?
My memory is a little unclear on this, but before the country was named Zimbabwe, it was a very prosperous Rhodesia. Then the Government of Rhodesia turned evrything over to Mugabe’s thugs and it has gone down hill since. Didn’t Jimmy Carter have something to do with that? (Kinda like what he did with Iran).
Money is tight in the US, someone else is going to have to fix this Jimma.....
In April 1979, 64 percent of the black citizens of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) lined up at the polls to vote in the first democratic election in the history of that southern African nation. Two-thirds of them supported Abel Muzorewa, a bishop in the United Methodist Church. He was the first black prime minister of a country only 4 percent white. Muzorewa's victory put an end to the 14-year political odyssey of outgoing prime minister Ian Smith, the stubborn World War II veteran who had infamously announced in 1976, "I do not believe in black majority rule--not in a thousand years." Fortunately for the country's blacks, majority rule came sooner than Smith had in mind.Less than a year after Muzorewa's victory, however, in February 1980, another election was held in Zimbabwe. This time, Robert Mugabe, the Marxist who had fought a seven-year guerrilla war against Rhodesia's white-led government, won 64 percent of the vote, after a campaign marked by widespread intimidation, outright violence, and Mugabe's threat to continue the civil war if he lost. Mugabe became prime minister and was toasted by the international community and media as a new sort of African leader. "I find that I am fascinated by his intelligence, by his dedication. The only thing that frustrates me about Robert Mugabe is that he is so damned incorruptible," Andrew Young, Jimmy Carter's ambassador to the United Nations, had gushed to the Times of London in 1978. The rest, as they say, is history.
It's a long article, but worth reading.
I could see Obama sending our forces on a truly non-strategic and totally meaningless mission that would get thousands killed and the rest completely demoralised. Then, the longed for Democrat draft would be needed.
Mugabe stole the election fair and square, so it is up to the MDC to roll over and take it.
Then let the UN (without US troops) go in and take care of it. Send Jimmy and Kofi to lead them. Are there WMDs? Have they attacked us? These clowns are unbelieveable.
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