Zimbabwe’s state press called on President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday to sever diplomatic ties with Britain and Australia, blaming British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government for all the southern African country’s economic and political crises.
”The time has now come for Zimbabwe to fully engage Britain head-on by cutting all diplomatic ties with the former colonial master and its sidekick, Australia,” the government-controlled daily Herald said in a front-page editorial. Mugabe announcement on Sunday night that he was withdrawing Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth after it decided to continue Zimbabwe’s suspension from the 54-member association indefinitely.
The Herald is controlled directly from Mugabe’s office. Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were seen as the leading protagonists for Zimbabwe’s extended suspension. Zimbabwe was first suspended in April last year after the Commonwealth found that Mugabe had rigged his victory in presidential elections a month before.
The Herald said that Mugabe’s decision to pull out of the Commonwealth ”only deals with the symptoms and not the cause of the disease.”
”The issue is not the Commonwealth or any other third parties but Britain and its Prime Minister, Tony Blair.”
It said Britain had brought about ”sanctions,” imposed by the European Union, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, which had ”savaged” Zimbabwe’s economy.
The Herald went on: ”The country’s political landscape has been put into disarray following the creation of the British-sponsored (opposition) Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a host of non-governmental organisations that have sought to cause mayhem and instability in the country by staging foolish demonstrations and media campaigns designed to precipitate instability and undermine the Zimbabwean government.”
It said that international concern about human rights, democracy, press freedom and the independence of the judiciary were ”a smokescreen to maintain the colonial grip on Zimbabwe”.
”Kicking Britain out of Zimbabwe and withdrawing from London will have its repercussions, but it will be a worthwhile price to pay and a true test of sovereignty,” The Herald said.
”Smart” sanctions have been imposed since 2002, and apply exclusively to Mugabe and members of his immediate ruling clique. Diplomats point out they go no further than banning them from travel and from holding assets in the countries imposing the sanctions.
Britain, the colonial authority until Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, has been the government’s largest aid donor and currently is the biggest contributor to famine relief needed to feed 5,5-million people facing starvation, and has given 26-million pounds since September 2001.
Cultural ties run deep between the two countries, and Britain has become home to an estimated 100 000 illegal Zimbabwean economic refugees fleeing economic chaos at home.
The government routinely blames the British labour government for its problems, accusing it of spying, sabotage and even of hijacking Zimbabwe’s fuel supplies on the high seas. International and local civil rights groups have recorded thousands of cases of murder, torture, assault, illegal detention and other human rights abuses by the government and ruling party militias since 2000 when Mugabe, fearing imminent defeat in parliamentary elections launched a campaign of repression to try and destroy the pro-democracy MDC.
The Commonwealth secretariat reported before the weekend’s Commonwealth summit that Mugabe had done nothing to carry out democratic and electoral reforms he agreed to since the suspension was imposed.
Mugabe, who turns 80 in February and is now in his 24th year of rule, last week denounced calls for him to retire. He said he intended to stay in power at least until 2008. – Sapa