Posted on 09/10/2001 7:15:00 PM PDT by Clive
ZIMBABWE'S neighbours delivered a sharp rebuke to President Robert Mugabe yesterday, saying they feared that political turmoil could overwhelm southern Africa.
"We were very concerned about the worsening economy, the decline in the rule of law, and the spread of violence and political instability in this country," said President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, heading a group of six leaders who arrived in Harare yesterday for talks on resolving the land crisis.
"Of great concern to all of us is that, if the land issue is not urgently resolved amicably and peacefully, the economic and political problems Zimbabwe is facing now could easily snowball across the entire southern African region."
It was the harshest criticism of Mr Mugabe from his neighbours, who only last year closed ranks around Zimbabwe and blamed the land crisis on Britain's refusal to pay for land reform.
That the leaders of South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique should be so blunt only underlines the alarm that has swept through southern Africa.
A day earlier Mr Mugabe gave his backing to a Commonwealth compromise calling for the restoration of the rule of law and respect for democratic principles. But this did not do much to soften Dr Muluzi's attitude. He expressed sympathy for the plight of the landless, but told Mr Mugabe that his actions were "creating a negative image for critical direct foreign investment in the region".
The southern African leaders - including ministers from Angola, Nigeria and Tanzania - will give Mr Mugabe's opponents an unprecedented platform to tell the region about his political repression.
The conference will hear submissions from the mainly white Commercial Farmers' Union, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, whose members have borne the brunt of political violence since the invasion of white-owned farms began last year.
Tony Blair will hold an informal meeting of African leaders at Chequers next week to discuss ways of alleviating the continent's poverty.
The invitations to about half a dozen leaders from both French and English-speaking countries were sent out soon after the G8 summit in June gave priority to encouraging economic development in Africa.
The Prime Minister has said that "Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world" and signalled before the last election that relieving the continent's plight would be a priority in his second term.
It slowly dawns on the rival cannibal-kings that if the jig is up for Mugabe, the natives of their own lands will soon notice these potentates' non-invincibility.
"snowball". Odd sort of metaphor for a southern African, isn't it? ;^)
Zimbabwe was Southern Africa's pantry.
It once sulpplied food to the rest of the SADC, now it will be competing with them for the purchase of maize.
Food relief to other countries will be further stressed by Zimbabwe having become an additional welfare recipient.
And that was Mugabe's biggest mistake.
Had Mugabe confined himself to the conventional, traditional political thuggery, - beating up opponents, kidnapping opposition cadre, trumping up charges against opposition leaders and incomvenient journalists, - you know, the usual - his behaviour would have been, and was, tolerable and treatable as an internal matter.
But once he attacked crops and livestock, then everybody sat up and took notice.
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Yes, the destruction of food is a bad sign.
It's funny how famine always turns out to be a big part of the strategy of folks like Lenin, Pol Pot, Mao,...and their imitators.
I suppose they like to be beseeched by lessers for a small kindness for their families and so on.
The human degradation under these criminal regimes is appalling; one scarce dare imagine the conditions of life for those who have not the means to escape, if necessary.
The fun part is watching to see how they try, how they will fail, and what the continent turns into as a result.
Mugabe's "war veterans" have the taste of blood in their mouth and are too stupid to realize that they are cutting their own throats with their destructive actions.
Mugabe won't be able to call them back. The PF-Zanu leadership might obey orders, but the thugs at the bottom level will continue to loot, murder and rape until Zimbabwe is destroyed.
In addition, their leadership has been making them promises which cannot be kept unless the plan goes forth.
The thing about a mob is that it is unable to postpone promised rewards.
"What do we want? - [fill in this space]"
"When do we want it? - NOW!"
It will get worse and worse until the devastation of the Congo in the 1960's looks like a cake walk.
Stay well - Yorktown
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