World leaders must speak out to help pull Zimbabwe out of a political and economic quagmire, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said on Thursday.
”Given [President Robert] Mugabe’s consistent unwillingness to respect the legitimate complaints of his people, this is not the time for silent diplomacy,” the authors wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
”This is the time to speak out.
Mugabe, who has ruled the country since its independence in 1980, is widely blamed for the political and economic crisis rocking the Southern African country.
”Zimbabwe, once Africa’s breadbasket, has become under Mugabe a basket case,” the two charged.
”As in South Africa, the solution to the economic, political and social quagmire in Zimbabwe is open dialogue.”
Zimbabwe has a 1 730% inflation rate, a shortage of basic commodities, a crumbling healthcare system and suffers massive unemployment.
Mugabe has been widely criticised over the arrests and assaults of dozens of opposition activists earlier this month, including the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai.
On Tuesday and Wednesday 35 people were arrested after raids on the MDC headquarters.
The authors say it is ”especially important” for the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ”raise their voices, for they have the most influence and can hardly be accused of interventionism.”
An SADC summit got under way Thursday in Dar es Salaam, with the Zimbabwe crisis a top agenda item.
”As the examples of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr and Nelson Mandela remind us, it is never inappropriate to speak on behalf of justice,” Albright and Tutu wrote.
”With crisis comes opportunity. This is the moment for political and civic leaders in Zimbabwe to unify around a common goal: a peaceful and democratic transition,” they wrote.
Reformers in Zimbabwe can show ”that there is a viable and patriotic alternative to the repressive and misguided leadership under which the country has suffered for so long.”
Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, was Cape Town archbishop from 1986 and 1996 and headed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Albright was secretary of state 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
Fresh approach
Meanwhile, African leaders sought to hammer out a fresh approach to Zimbabwe’s crisis on Thursday as Mugabe’s government was hit with new charges of widespread human rights abuses.
They agreed that South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki will facilitate political dialogue in crisis-hit Zimbabwe and called for Western sanctions on the country to be lifted.
A statement at the end of a two-day summit of the SADC also appealed to Britain to ”honour its commitments” to fund Zimbabwe land reforms — long a demand of President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the host of the special SADC summit, said he was confident Zimbabwe’s neighbours could resolve an impasse which has spurred sharp Western demands for action.
But Mugabe’s spokesperson struck a defiant note, saying the veteran leader would tell the West to ”go hang” as long as it tried to interfere in Zimbabwe’s affairs.
Adding to a lengthening list of accusations against Mugabe’s government, the US-based Human Rights Watch said police were targeting ordinary Zimbabweans suspected of backing the opposition, doling out savage beatings to keep the 83-year-old leader’s opponents at bay.
The SADC summit came amid pressure for a stronger African response to Zimbabwe’s crackdown, which has raised the threat of more Western sanctions on a country already deep in economic crisis.
The US, joining Britain and the European Union, condemned Zimbabwe police for briefly detaining opposition leaders on Wednesday for the second time in a month.
”Certainly we think it’s time for the African states, specifically this group of neighbouring states, to make clear that this kind of behaviour from President Mugabe is unacceptable,” US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
‘Solidarity against the British’
Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba brushed aside the criticism and said Mugabe — still revered by many as a hero of Africa’s liberation struggle — would be looking for regional support in the face of Western pressure.
”The president is here for two basic things — to explain the situation on the ground and to get solidarity from SADC in his fight against the British,” Charamba told reporters.
”He will continue to tell the West to go hang as long as those [Western] concerns undermine the sovereignty of the country,” he said, referring to economic sanctions.
In Harare, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti appealed for support from SADC leaders.
”We are fighting against inflation, against homelessness … We hope that they will be strong against Mugabe and tell him he has had 27 years of uninterrupted, peaceful rule in Zimbabwe and should go now,” he said.
Mugabe, who is thought to be running into opposition within his Zanu-PF party over plans to extend his rule, says the MDC are Western ”stooges” and police have accused party activists of a terror campaign aimed at removing him from office. The MDC has denied the charges. — AFP, Reuters