Posted on 08/22/2002 2:06:09 AM PDT by MadIvan
Washington has felt driven to deliver a judgment on President Robert Mugabe far stronger than anyone at Westminster has yet felt able to muster. "America," declares Walter Kansteiner, the US government's Africa policy chief, "does not see President Mugabe as the democratically legitimate leader of the country". It is a timely reminder.
Because Zimbabwe is constantly in crisis, we tend to forget the lawless tactics which Mugabe employed in the presidential election to come out on top. But America is right. Though many in Europe and Africa prefer to look the other way, Mugabe is not the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe. The election he fought was invalid. His return as president was a swindle which his own courts are powerless to redress.
His seizure of white-owned farms is condemned by America as "morally disgusting madness, set to trigger a wholly avoidable famine". It is not even if as the land held by Zimbabwe's 5,000 white farmers was going to ease Africans' land hunger. As the world can plainly see, much of it is being handed over to Mugabe's family and supporters. His wife has just chosen her own farm and told its occupants to get packing.
Talk of land reform turns out to be sheer hypocrisy. During yesterday's outburst, Mr Kansteiner was joined by Andrew Natsios, administrator of USAid, America's aid agency. Called on to deliver another dollop of relief to repair Mugabe's blunders, he too was outspoken. "It is a disgusting grab, where you're just basically stealing land from one group to another. The distinction here is, the group that's being stolen from are very good farmers, and the people they're giving the land to cannot farm anything."
Aware that Mugabe is striving to restrict the distribution of food to his own supporters, so that his political opponents starve, America will deliver relief through independent agencies and charities and keep it out of the hands of the Zimbabwean government. Such food, America insists, will not be used for political or economic purposes. Mugabe's decision to use food as an instrument for starving his political opponents seems to have been a turning point for America.
This outburst of anger from Washington is hardly surprising. President Bush has an agenda for Africa which Mugabe's conduct is making ever harder to implement. The only nations that can deal effectively with someone such as Mugabe are African nations. For deep-seated reasons they are reluctant to condemn him. South Africa's government, in particular, seems unwilling to lift a finger to check Mugabe's inhuman conduct against his own people. Observing this, much of the world is running out of sympathy for the continent. That great emotional stream that poured help into Africa at the time of the Ethiopian famine in 1984-85 has dried up. Some of the charities that serve Africa are finding it hard to attract public sympathy. In short, Mugabe is poisoning the wells of goodwill. He has not only ruined his own country but is on the way to turning much of the world against Africa. America shows us she has a firmer grasp of that sad truth than we do.
You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
While this is not the same as fighting Nazis (it's more akin to exterminating rats), we need to be just as determined in getting rid of the blighter.
Regards, Ivan
July 2001 - Gadaffi bids to be leader of Africa*** THE new African Union (AU), launched at a summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Lusaka last week, is to have its own parliament. Indeed, the parliament building has already been built - in Tripoli. For the idea of the AU is being driven by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan president. Now that his long-standing ambitions for an Arab Union have come to nothing, he is hoping to play a central role in a union of African states instead. The organisation promises to respect democracy and good governance more than the OAU ever did. The snag is that its new parliament will sit in a country that allows no opposition, no free elections, free speech or free press.
In March, Gadaffi announced plans for single a African identity and a union under which the boundaries between states would be scrapped, national armies merged and a single passport introduced. Amazingly, this vision seems to have been largely accepted by African leaders. It has also been decided that, besides the parliament, there will be a pan-African court of justice, a central bank and a common currency. Clearly with the aim of flattering Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, Gadaffi has proposed that the first AU summit should be held in Pretoria next year and should elect a president - presumably Mbeki. parliament, there will be a pan-African court of justice, a central bank and a common currency. Clearly with the aim of flattering Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, Gadaffi has proposed that the first AU summit should be held in Pretoria next year and should elect a president - presumably Mbeki. ***
Aligned with Castro and Gaddafi - Mugabe Vows to Defend Zimbabwe from Western 'Bullies' *** HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe vowed on Tuesday to defend his government against Western "bullies" and said Zimbabwe's economic recovery hinged on land redistribution. In a 40-minute speech to open the new parliamentary session, Mugabe made no direct mention of tighter EU sanctions, his media crackdown or any plans for his ZANU-PF party to resume talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Strongly defending his government's right to take possession of white farmers' land, he ignored a boycott of his speech by MDC legislators, who make up just over a third of the assembly.
Outside the southern African state's parliament, there was no sign of a planned protest march by pro-democracy activists after police warnings that the demonstration would be crushed. Mugabe said Zimbabwe, in the grips of its worst economic and political crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, was facing "considerable challenges" from what he called "British machinations" and a regional drought.
The economy is in its fourth year of recession with record high inflation and unemployment and a severe food shortage. "Our sovereignty is constantly under attack from the bullying states ... which seek to use their political and economic prowess to achieve global hegemony," Mugabe said. At 78, Mugabe is a left-winger who counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi among his foreign allies. Monday, the European Union extended a blacklist of Zimbabwean officials subjected to a visa ban and asset freeze. The move is aimed at piling more pressure on the country whose human rights record it says has deteriorated since Mugabe's re-election in March. ***
Zimbabwe -- False confidence***Yet still the aid maize pours in, freeing up Mugabe to spend his hard-stolen cash on important things like arms and pay-offs for the army and police and to maintain his stumbling youth brigades. This last is most important: rumour has it that there are a couple of families in Mutorashanga who haven't been beaten senseless for months now and one can't have that kind of sloppiness. Better still, it now transpires that the UNDP now plans to give some Zimbabwean banks (run by Mugabe's cronies) $85m US dollars which they will lend to licensed grain importers (Mugabe's cronies) who will use the money to import food for Mugabe's cronies. Why so complicated? Far simpler just to make cheques payable to Robert Gabriel Mugabe.***
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ONE example of why we MUST NOT lift the embargo (give LOANS) on Castro.
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Zimbabwe -- Libyan spy spills the beans***LIBYAN spy Yousef Murgham, summarily deported from Zimbabwe last week, has revealed startling details of Libya's growing economic and military stranglehold on Zimbabwe, which is immersed in its worst crisis for survival. Murgham's details are revealed in a letter he wrote to President Robert Mugabe before his abrupt deportation to Libya last Thursday amid accusations he was engaged in activities which threatened Zimbabwe's security and interests.***
Zimbabwe -- Beware the U-turn***……….The key to understanding what Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are up to - for blacks as well as whites - is the word**************** "LEASES***************." The ruling party moguls, security force chiefs and 54,000 others getting so-called "model 2" holdings, capable of being farmed on an individual basis, will not be granted the freehold their 5,000 white predecessors had (The first 2,900 seizure and eviction orders fell due on August 9 and scores of whites were detained over the past weekend for defying them, although their constitutional validity is heavily in doubt). At the first sign of political disloyalty the "new farmers", as Mugabe calls them, will be liable to instant eviction.
"Owning land for Britain" means supporting civil society, or talking to human rights groups critical of Zanu PF, or voting for an opposition party. Mugabe showered praise on his ruling party youth militia, now commonly known here as the "Green Bombers". Their fraudulent claims to be ex- guerrillas from the 1972-80 bush war in Rhodesia were exposed in the early days of farm invasions, after the February 2000 constitutional referendum. It was the crushing defeat of Zanu PF in that referendum that caused Mugabe to unleash country-wide violence under cover of agitation for land reform in order to ensure a semblance of victory in the June 2000 parliamentary elections and the March 2002 presidential poll.
This campaign of terror Mugabe calls the "Third Chimurenga" or civil war. "The Third Chimurenga has yielded a New War Veteran: these young men and women who slugged it out on the farms in support of their elder veterans...We are not apologetic about our national youth service programme...it is mandatory, it is national, it links to the politics and defence of our country…It seeks to and will build a new national cadre who is self respecting, adequate, assertive and patriotic and thus does not apologise for being black," he said. Mugabe sees his enemy as "White-ism" - the route `"through which the forces of imperialism and neo-colonialism enter."
Mugabe either does not know that it is impossible to run commercially viable farms on the lord-and-vassal system he is imposing, or feels that the economic costs are more than offset by the blessings of "political stability" (i.e. he gets to stay in power until he can hand over to his children). Commercial agriculture here only prospered by being keenly responsive to world market trends. In the 20 years since the state monopoly, the Minerals Marketing Corporation, was created, millions have been lost through the tardiness of bureaucrats in responding to potential orders - they are paid for loyalty, not for initiative.
Doris Lessing, a founder member of Rhodesia's long defunct Communist party, concedes that her father's Kermanshah Farm at Banket (one of the 2,900 now being seized, although her family sold up 60 years ago) was hopelessly sub-economic at 400 hectares - and those were the days of ox-ploughing. To maintain competitive edge in an age of mechanisation, farmers need security of tenure, title deeds that can be lodged with financial institutions against loans.***
Mr Kansteiner said Washington was working with countries in Africa and Europe to "encourage the body politic of Zimbabwe" to "correct that situation and start providing an environment that would lead to a free and fair election". US support being offered to Zimbabwean aid organisations and human rights groups is reminiscent of the West's successful move to undermine Slobodan Milosevic by providing Serbian pro-democracy activists with money, computers and other aid.*** [Gadaafi LINKS]
Forget that. Keep it simple. Put a bullet in Mugabe's head and a lot of this pain will end.
Regards, Ivan
1- the "DUBOB 9" series- those tales from the Dark Underbelly of the ( media ) Beast that the press and their handmaidens in entertainment simply don't like to talk about, or only mention once so they can claim "old news, we already covered that, nobody cares about it..."
2- the "Out of Africa" series, whose subhead might be "Africa continues to implode, and nobody seems to care..."
3- sometimes I add another category; recently it was "Jihad Cindy Rides Again," but thankfully voters showed McKinney the door, and after a final follow-up I can drop that one... altho I am working on one about her Jew-baiting, knife-wielding Father, Billy.
When I'm done gathering links, I send out a mass email to editors across America, and another to "opinionators" like Rush, Hannity, and Larry Elder. Then I add these links as an update to DUBOB 9.
As for what good it does? Dam' if I know... I at least hear radio show hosts talk about this stuff, but of course they have many other sources of information. Still, the information is getting out beyond this board.
Colonel Gaddafi wants the Durban meeting downgraded to an annual summit of OAU leaders pending the launch of the AU in Libya at a later stage. But diplomats attending an OAU-Civil Society summit here say his ambitions will sabotage any programmes intended to help Africa's recovery. "Mbeki knows that any move to put the AU under Gaddafi will immediately kill both the AU and Nepad because no Western country will pour aid into a programme or institution run by Gaddafi," said one diplomat.***
August 9, 2002 - Group Faults Libya's Nomination to Head U.N. Commission on Human Rights***UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (IPS) - A leading human rights organization has appealed to African nations to reverse their decision to nominate Libya as the next chairman of the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights. "Countries with dreadful rights records should never be in charge of chairing the Commission on Human Rights," Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said Thursday.
"Libya's long record of human rights abuses clearly does not merit such a reward," he added. But a spokesman for the Libyan Mission to the United Nations refuted the charges made by HRW. "They are entitled to their opinion," he told IPS. "Ours is an open society. We have nothing to hide and we are not in violation of human rights," he added. Moreover, he said, Libya's nomination had been endorsed at the highest levels of government - at a summit meeting of more than 50 African leaders in Durban, South Africa last month.
The original decision to nominate Libya was taken by the U.N.'s African regional group, comprising all 54 African members. It was reaffirmed by heads of state attending the recently concluded inaugural summit of the new African Union (AU), the successor to the now-defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU). ***
And no one is saying this. David Blair's book was excellent in describing why Muagbe should be killed but doesn't step up to saying so.
Irritating.
Regards, Ivan
We have a big problem in this country-- the Media- the press, who report ( or fail to report ), and the entertainment media, which tells people what they should love or despise- simply cannot admit that they were on the wrong side in their portrayals of the African situation 20 some years ago... so they simply "won't talk about it."
Regards, Ivan
A long time ago I read an otherwise-forgettable book titled "Pity About Earth..." and while I can't recall a thing about the book, the title has always stuck with me.
I truly believe that one day soon, the watchword will be
"Pity About Africa"
as the continent is pummelled between the twin scourges of disease and corrupt governments.
You know, I can't even remember what the Pack was yakking about yesterday on the TV and radio news breaks- I just filter it out, it's so irrelevant. They chatter just to hear themselves talk, and to impress their peers at the next cocktail party get together.
Meanwhile, Africa seethes, Latin America smoulders, and Muslim fanatics plot the deaths of innocents...
...but what's really important is Babs Streisand's millionth "comeback" performance...
Mugabe delenda est.
To rescue the remaining white farmers.
If Mugabe was taken out today why should any of us believe anything would really change. Knowing that, how many of our lives is it worth?
Quite frankly, it would blast a hole in Quadaffi's scheme to be "President of Africa", in addition to rescuing the farmers. Secondly, it would show petty little dictators like Mugabe to learn to behave themselves when the West tells them to. Third, given the poor state of Africa's armed forces, if this was done properly, I doubt there would be much, if any, in the way of casualties. The only reason Somalia was a mess was because of Weird Bill.
Regards, Ivan
As long as the United States, Israel, whites and Christians aren't being "aggressors" they don't give a damn who does what to whom.
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