John Hayward Posted: 16 May 2008
Keywords: Government & Foreign Affairs,
"Zimbabwe cannot any more be seen as an African problem needing an African solution - it is a humanitarian disaster."
So wrote the Ugandan-born Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, in The Observer last September. Today, seven weeks after the presidential election was won by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the humanitarian disaster has turned into something more closely resembling genocide, yet we the international community apparently continue to do nothing to prevent Mugabe's brutal campaign of intimidation. Today's account in the Daily Mail of the suffering being inflicted by the government against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change ahead of next month's run-off is horrifying, even without the unpublished photos that have appeared on blogs such as the respectable Archbishop Cranmer's.
Of course, the story is exactly the same in Burma. Tens of thousands are now dying as a direct consequence of the military junta's refusal to accept international assistance following the devastating cyclone that hit the country two weeks ago. We should have expected nothing less from a regime that has destroyed 3,000 villages, forced 1,500,000 people to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced people, recruited up to 70,000 child soldiers, and imprisoned 1,300 political prisoners, including the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party won a landslide 82% victory in Burma's last democratic election, in 1990. But we might have hoped for more from the world's leaders than mere talk of possibly dropping aid into the country by parachute in the event that diplomatic efforts fail - which was clearly the case some days ago.
So much for the International Responsibility to Protect Doctrine, adopted by the United Nations just three years ago, and the good intentions expressed at December's EU-Africa summit, when the German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the two continents to action over Zimbabwe, insisting "We don't have the right to look away when human rights are trampled on." Perhaps Archbishop Sentamu was right when he lamented, "Blair's 'ethical foreign policy' is a long-forgotten memory, sacrificed upon an invasion undertaken without UN sanction."
Please, be aware that the perspectives reflected here, even by Sentamu are, I daresay one-sided. There are others like from New African magazine, and they are worth noting. They would help enlighten us on what has been going on in Zim since the mid 90s. Actually since their independence in 1980. In the EU-Africa summit referred to, Merkel was rebuked that her sentiments on Zim were highly misinformed. Do not be similarly misinformed, beloved friends. Let us encourage each other onto love and good deeds... Shalom.
cash money 3 June 2008