“We are truly on our own”
By Mary Revesai
THE Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) debacle in the Tanzanian capital last weekend when the assembled African leaders treated Robert Mugabe with kid gloves and virtually gave him the green light to continue his ruthless madness proved once and for all that African heads of state are not on the side of oppressed Zimbabweans.
Their shameful copout was evidence, if any was needed, that they regard organisations such as SADC, the African Union (AU), and the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) which are funded through the sweat of taxpayers in the various member countries, as talk shops to stroke each other’s egos and cover up for each other’s excesses and abuses. This impotence allowed Mugabe to go scot-free after his sojourn to Tanzania despite the show of determination to take the bull by the horns epitomised by Tanzanian leader Jakaya Kikwete’s flying visit to Harare following the battering of opposition leaders by state security agents about three weeks ago. What ensued in Tanzania was such that Mugabe could gloat upon his return home that he had received the unanimous support of the leaders of the 14 countries in the bloc. This means that even Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa, who had blasted Mugabe a few days before the summit, had been whipped into line by his peers, in the name of solidarity. This shameful duplicity on the part of the leaders was despite the fact the 83-year old Zimbabwean dictator had attended the emergency summit in the immediate aftermath of committing the most outrageous atrocities against fellow citizens, which he openly boasted about at the gathering.
In un-statesman-like utterances that should have caused outrage among his peers, the Zimbabwean dictator insisted that Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore Madhuku and dozens of opposition activists deserved to be “bashed”. It was not the first time Mugabe had expressed these crude sentiments. He made the same barbaric declarations when trade union leaders were brutalised by the police in September last year for trying to organise peaceful demonstrations to enable Zimbabweans to petition the regime in Harare over their grievances.
It is scandalous, but not unexpected that the leaders assembled in Dar es Salaam last weekend were unmoved by the scale of Mugabe’s tyranny. “Yes, I told them he (Tsvangirai) asked for it… We got full backing. Not even one criticised our actions. There is no country in SADC that can stand up and say Zimbabwe has faulted,” Mugabe declared triumphantly upon his return. This air of invincibility is an ominous warning of what lies ahead for the people as Mugabe gears up to bulldoze his way into another term of office in elections next year that could prove to be the bloodiest yet.
As if their duplicity was not bad enough, the SADC leaders rubbed salt into the wounds of suffering Zimbabweans by appointing South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki as their trouble-shooter in mapping the way forward. This is an arrogant slap in the face for the people of Zimbabwe. Mbeki has previously spent years aiding and abetting the Mugabe tyranny while claiming to be involved in behind-the-scenes “quiet diplomacy”. When he was challenged at home and internationally about the efficacy of his dubious approach, Mbeki asserted impatiently and with an air of all-knowing superiority that it was the only method that was most likely to work. When he finally came out in his true colours and washed his hands of the Zimbabwean crisis, he declared that it was up to Zimbabweans to solve their own problems. What is new now?
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