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Annan visit, the Carter factor
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Annan visit, the Carter factor

By Stephen T. Maimbodei

I have read Graham Hancock’s "Lords of Poverty: the Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business" many times since 1992 and love it for laying bare the rotten innards of the international aid business.

It is a world of vultures; where the poor are big business for the rich and powerful from the glittering cities of the Western world.

Africa’s natural disasters and civil strife are also a boon.

Real and imagined humanitarian crises have propelled them to dizzying heights of influence and prominence.

And once again the people of Zimbabwe are being short-changed by sons and daughters of this continent working in cahoots with powerful Western governments and their media.

As usual, President Mugabe is to blame, and what is new about that?

The intended visit by the trio of the so-called "Elders" comprising former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy Carter and former Mozambican and South African First Lady Graca Machel, which has already taken the lime light from the beneficiaries of the "humanitarian assistance", makes one wonder what the bigger picture is.

It all has to do with Western policy towards Zanu-PF, which never changes even as we expect a new US administration to take over next year.

When I listened to Carter and Annan desperately trying to paint sordid pictures of Zimbabwe, I felt very sad and went back to Hancock.

The challenges faced by ordinary people in this country cannot be trivialised to this level, and neither can they be dealt with in a one-day meeting with principals of the power sharing deal.

Concerned people need to be on sight to see what the West’s so-called "travel bans" have done to the dignity of the Zimbabwean people.

That the so-called "Elders" desperately wanted this visit despite advice from Government is cause for concern.

Both Annan and Graca Machel are Africans whose countries are members of regional blocs, Sadc and the African Union, to which Zimbabwe belongs. Sadc is yet to complete its mandate of ensuring that the power-sharing deal is implemented, with the assistance of the AU.

So, what agenda is the "Elders" mission, which is now being implemented from neighbouring South Africa, meant to achieve?

Zimbabwe’s revolution cannot also be reduced to fuzzy terms such as "governance, rule of law and human rights" whose shelf life and credibility are questionable.

Machel knows Zimbabwe’s situation too well to believe that a 28-year journey could have completed the unfinished business centred on land.

Frelimo and Zanla fought side by side as comrades-in-arms for land and self-determination.

Why is it also that the visit looks like the "Elders" are passing a vote of no confidence not only on talks facilitator former President Thabo Mbeki, but also on Africa’s regional bodies?

And why also set such a dangerous precedent — bypassing the continent’s recognised bodies?

At whose bidding is this raucous visit being made? What is amazing is that before the dawn of the multi-billion-dollar aid industry, the UN, with assistance from organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross, were able to handle humanitarian crises in any part of the world without sending such circuses as this one.

Annan knows this since he worked for the UN for many years before becoming its top diplomat.

Why this peculiar approach towards Zimbabwe?

Thus Annan’s claims that they would now assess the humanitarian crisis from neighbouring South Africa are nothing but a smoke screen to the real issue behind the visit.

If the mission was humanitarian, why the consultations with some regional leaders?

What value do the consultations add to the humanitarian situation if the very countries cannot directly assist the people of Zimbabwe?

Why also has Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga been so quick to condemn Zimbabwe, while at the same time calling for a peacekeeping force to be deployed?

What peace is there to keep in a country whose humanitarian crisis Annan describes as "intolerable"?

A peacekeeping force for food and cholera? Sounds more like declaring war on "terror".

How different is this mission from the UN-sponsored fact-finding mission by Anna Tibaijuka who lives under the pall of a human catastrophe in Nairobi called Kibera?

With this kind of aiding and abetting, how far again is Zimbabwe from another UNSC-sponsored resolution?

However, The Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru implied it in last Saturday’s instalment.

The missing link in the whole saga is former American Democrat President Jimmy Carter.

The 84-year-old Nobel laureate told the media that it was a "novel experience" for him since he had never before been denied a visa.

He probably needs to know that thousands of well meaning Zimbabweans are denied entry visas into the United States every day.

Carter, President from 1977 to 1981, hails from America’s Deep South.

He was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, and was widely criticised for the poor state of the economy and also viewed by some as weak in handling foreign policy.

Apart from the 1979 Lancaster House Conference taking place during his presidency, it was also during that same year that the Iranian revolution took place and Americans were taken hostage in Teheran.

It was also during the Carter administration that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Zimbabwe, Iran and Afghanistan! These are still hot spots on the international scene and the United States is fully involved in all of them.

Why then are we missing the plot? And why do we call something a visit when it is not?

Is it also a coincidence that Carter, one of the few US presidents to leave office with one of the lowest approval ratings is doing a Zimbabwe mission when Bush is exiting office with the lowest approval ratings, over the economy and foreign policy?

The Carter administration was party to the Lancaster House Conference in 1979 and Zimbabwe gained independence the year Carter was defeated by the Republicans.

Carter has also so far been the only US president — serving or former — to visit Zimbabwe (in 1986).

However, it was a visit full of controversy.

Carter walked out of the US Fourth of July commemoration after then minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Cde David Karimanzira attacked US policies. From that time relations between Zimbabwe and the United States nose-dived and the Reagan administration cut aid to Zimbabwe.

Nevertheless, Zimbabwe remained under Carter’s spotlight through his Carter Centre. In its February 1993 issue, the NGO’s newsletter Africa Demos described Zimbabwe as a "directed democracy", meaning "although it had a political system in which formal institutions and practices of constitutional democracy were present, in practice, however, the extensive powers of the ruler, party or regime severely limited contestation by individuals, organised groups, legislative assemblies and the judiciary".

However, the July/August edition described Zimbabwe as a "moderate democracy", meaning that "formal commitments to a democratic transition were accompanied by only measured, cautious and preliminary steps toward institutionalisation or pluralism. "Promises reflected a sense of democratic purpose, but needs were not yet commensurate with pledges".

Only the Lord knows how Zimbabwe’s political system could transform so dramatically in so short a period. Carter’s value to the delegation actually lies in what happened at the 1979 Lancaster House Conference.

Former Commonwealth secretary general Sir Shridath Ramphal (1975-1990) revealed the extent of the Carter administration’s role in brokering a deal between the Patriotic Front and the Smith regime in an interview with Gugulethu Moyo and Mark Ashurst.

Sir Shridath was adviser to the Patriotic Front led by President Mugabe and late Vice President Joshua Nkomo at the Lancaster House talks.

Said Sir Shridath: "I made the suggestion that we must find a way to get a guarantee of support from the British government [and] internationally, of funds that would allow them to compulsorily acquire enough land to begin the process of land resettlement. And I said to them: ‘I invited the American ambassador to meet with me’.

"I said to him: ‘If you don’t help now, Lancaster House will break up. All that we have achieved will be lost and that will only strengthen the hand of apartheid South Africa.’ Kingman [Brewster, the American ambassador] said: ‘I am with you. I think this is the right approach. I have to talk to Washington. Give me 24 hours’.

"He came back the next day. He had spoken to Cyrus Vance [the American Secretary of State] who had spoken to President Carter and they had authorised Brewster to say to me, and through me to the Patriotic Front, that they would support the establishment of an agricultural development fund and they would make a substantial contribution to it, that they would recognise the right of the government after the elections to use this fund to help to defray any compensation, that the fund would be a responsibility they would accept, providing it was matched by the British government and had an international character.

"That was the American response. It could not have been more positive. He left me with no doubt that it would be very substantial. I said: ‘That’s fine you telling me, but you have to say this to the Patriotic Front.’ The next day, the [American] deputy ambassador came to my home and I told Mugabe and Nkomo what the ambassador had told me.

"He confirmed to them that this was the position of the American government and that they would inform the British government. He recommended that on the basis, the Patriotic Front should return to the conference…"

Twenty-eight years later, it is disturbing that successive US administrations make it look like land is no longer an issue and would rather use "governance" as the central issue to the Zimbabwe question.

So, has Carter come to fulfil that 1979 promise in full, and help the Obama administration in the process?

After the falsehoods and demonisation peddled for so long about the Land Reform Programme, what will Carter tell President Mugabe?

Will he continue to claim, despite the humanitarian problems, the real issue is about elections?

However, why hide behind the Mandela name when all we know is that this is nothing but another regime change strategy fully sponsored and supported by America, Britain and their allies?





http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=948&cat=10