The West has no credibility to intervene in Zim, says Aka

The West has no credibility to intervene in Zim, says Aka
By Jack Zimba and Chibaula Silwamba
Thursday July 03, 2008 [04:00]

VETERAN politician Akashamba-twa Mbikusita-Lewanika yesterday said the West has no credibility to intervene in the Zimbabwe crisis. But Lusaka lawyer Dr Rodger Chongwe said the African Union (AU)'s resolution on the Zimbabwean post-election crisis has proved that it has no capacity to resolve problems on the continent.

Commenting on the AU resolution calling for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe following the run off elections that saw incumbent President Robert Mugabe controversially re-elected, Aka described the outcome of the just-ended AU summit held in Egypt as reasonable because it had recognised that only Zimbabweans were better placed to solve their problems.

"The West have no credibility in this matter because of their record in the past. They suffer from historic inconsistency and current inconsistency," Aka said. "I did not expect the unwise proposals of military intervention or economic sanctions because the fact on the ground is that not everyone in Zimbabwe supports Mugabe, and not everyone supports opposition Movement for Democracy Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai."

Aka wondered why there were calls for military intervention in Zimbabwe when Britain had refused to intervene militarily against Ian Smith in Rhodesia Zimbabwe and South Africa's then apartheid regime.

And chief government spokesperson Mike Mulongoti said he had not heard anything from the Zambian delegation that attended the AU summit at Sharm-El-Sheik in Egypt.

However, Mulongoti said if President Mwanawasa had attended the meeting, he would have maintained his earlier position before he left for the summit.

President Mwanawasa had called for the postponement of the run off in Zimbabwe, saying the situation prior to the poll date could not guarantee a free and fair election.

Finance minister Ng'andu Magande attended the AU heads of state summit on behalf of President Levy Mwanawasa, after the latter suffered a stroke just before the summit. But Dr Chongwe said the AU had set a bad precedent in view of the Zimbabwe crisis.

"The AU has no capacity and it has shown itself that it has no capacity, it is incompetent, it is an undemocratic institution. The United Nations is the only organisation that I know which has brought peace in most of these conflict countries. The AU has failed to bring peace in Ivory Coast, Darfur in Sudan, DRC, where can they point as their record where they have been successful in bringing about peace in conflict areas in Africa?" Dr Chongwe asked. "Knowing the African leaders as they are, most of whom are undemocratic and they don't believe in a legitimate and democratic election, they will try to force people of Zimbabwe to have Mugabe as their leader and that is wrong, that is immoral, that is illegal. What Mugabe has done, if he is not shown the door, there may be others on the African continent who will do the same thing and even after being questioned by the AU, they will say 'Mugabe did it and you accepted.'"

Dr Chongwe said there should be an interim leader to lead Zimbabwe other than President Mugabe during the transition period.

"It's up to Zimbabweans to know that in Zimbabwe there are people who contributed to the development of the country, they can run an interim government," he said.

He added that it was not enough for the AU to call for a government of national unity without taking into account the fact that the June 27 runoff election was a sham.

"In any election, there must be a level playing field for all the players in that particular election. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission failed to ensure a level playing field in conducting the run off elections. The other parties were not allowed to hold rallies, they were being arrested and yet Mugabe had a free-for-all campaign. He also used state media while others were not allowed. So what kind of elections did Zimbabwe hold? Zimbabwe held a sham election and should not be recognised," said Dr Chongwe.

The AU summit recommended that President Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the MDC should form a government of national unity.

In its declaration at the just-ended summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the AU agreed to encourage President Mugabe and Tsvangirai to honour their commitment to initiate dialogue with a view to promoting peace, stability, democracy and the reconciliation of the Zimbabwean people."

The AU, which stated that it was deeply concerned with the Zimbabwe situation, agreed to "support the call for the creation of a government of national unity."

The organisation said it was deeply concerned with the negative reports of SADC, the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament observers on last week's presidential run-off election.