Sat, 14 Dec 2002 09:19:24 -0500
"New African" magazine / Zim herald
December 2002
Stop Pushing Us Around!
by Rangarirai Shoko
The SADC is fed up with being pushed around by the EU over Zimbabwe.
For the past three years, the European Union (EU), at the behest of
Zimbabwe's former colonial power, Britain, which is strongly opposed to
President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme, has been pressuring the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) to act on Zimbabwe with the
intention of thwarting the land reform. The pressure has come in the form of
threats of aid freeze and alarmist warnings of region-wide economic, social and
political instability. For three years, the SADC quietly soaked the pressure, in
large part by pretending to be acting against Mugabe.
But the regional group has now abandoned the diplomatic niceties, and in late
October publicly rejected EU pressure over Zimbabwe, incensed by the
insulting manner Brussels had been putting across its concerns.
The South African president Thabo Mbeki, who had borne much of the EU and US
pressure by virtue of his country's economic and military clout in the
SADC, summed up the group's displeasure:
"When people say, 'do something' [on Zimbabwe], we say to
them, 'do what?', and nobody gives an answer because they know when
they say do something, what they mean is march across the Limpopo [River, that
forms the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe] and overthrow the government
of President Mugabe, which we are not going to do. What President Bush calls
regime change is not going to happen. The particular focus on Zimbabwe suggests
that particular agendas are being pursued here. And we are being dragooned to
play; to come and fulfill and implement other people's agendas. It
is Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe everyday! Is a military coup [in Zimbabwe] less
of an offence? Or is a military coup in Pakistan okay?," a visibly
exasperated Mbeki asked.
Mbeki has been told many times by Britain, America, the EU (and even, in
mid-October, by Amnesty International) to act against Zimbabwe or his cherished
dream of a flourishing Africa under the New Economic Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD) would go up in smoke. Mbeki's
counterparts in Malawi and Mozambique were given even harsher terms: "Kick
out Mugabe, or kiss goodbye to aid."
Now the SADC is saying 'enough is enough.' The regional group went
on the offensive against the EU in late October, refusing to take part in an
annual EU-SADC Ministerial consultative Meeting scheduled for Denmark in
November, unless Zimbabwe, whose leaders are barred from traveling to Europe,
was allowed to send a delegation. In the end, the EU backed down, and agreed to
shift the meeting to Mozambique to allow Zimbabwe to take part. The
SADC's militancy startled the EU.
'In general, we are beginning to see an affirmation of the SADC's
unity against outside forces. This is indeed the beginning of the breakdown of
the sanctions [the EU has slapped on Zimbabwe],' said Dr. Ibbo Mandaza, a
Zimbabwean political analysts.
But what prompted the SADC's 'revolt' against the EU? A
regional diplomat, who declined to be named, drew a long list of unsavoury cases
of the EU's 'lack of respect for African institutions',
including governments, which he said was the root cause of the diplomatic tiff
between the two groups.
'The EU has come and openly funded opposition parties and groups in the
region, in the case of Zimbabwe, it has dismissed the verdicts of the SADC, OAU
and individual African countries on the Zimbabwean presidential election, and
insensitively trid to use food aid in the SADC region as a bargaining chip.
That is unacceptable, as it touches on the sensitive issue of
sovereignty,' the diplomat said. 'Look at how disrespectful the
Australian prime minister, John Howard, has been to Mbeki and the Nigerian
president, Olusegun Obasanjo. A few days after he agrees with them that the
Commonwealth should not take any further action against Zimbabwe until next
year, he imposes unilateral sanctions. This is the sort of arrogant and
contemptuous attitude Western countries display which our leaders find
annoying,' the diplomat added.
Mbeki, Obasanjo and Howard form a troika mandated by the Commonwealth to probe
alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. They met in Nigeria in September, and
agreed to review the situation in Zimbabwe again early next year. Meanwhile, the
commercial Farmers Union (CFU), representing white farmers opposed to the land
reforms, has split up 'between doves and hawks' over the strategy
to pursue in view of the failure of both the local and international opposition
to dislodge the Mugabe government.
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"Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul!
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Mitayo Potosi
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