Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Elders' visit: more questions than answer

Elders' visit: more questions than answer
Peter Chimutsa - Opinion
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:34:00 +0000

FORMER US President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and the widow of the late Mozambican president Samora Machel, Graça Machel, have indicated that they will visit Zimbabwe regardless of whether the Zimbabwean government extends an invitation or not.

This is an interesting development. Who invited these “high level diplomats” then, if not the government of Zimbabwe?

Maybe the three ‘delegates’ or Elders would care to tell us.

President Jimmy Carter who was born exactly the same year that President Mugabe was born (1924) and the two other delegates have nothing else to assess in Zimbabwe. All assessments have been carried out and reports written. We do not need any more academic work on Zimbabwe.

Perhaps someone out there would care to tell us when these “eminent persons” decide it was time to come to Zimbabwe and with whom they discussed that trip.

It is quite a strange coincidence that the trip is announced at the same time as MDC-T President’s visit to Europe seeking humanitarian assistance at the invitation of President Nicholas Sarkozy. Maybe this trip was hatched in the corridors of European institutions?

Foreigners, especially outside the African continent should realise that there is already a structured process taking place in Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian needs and to seek a solution to the Zimbabwean problem and there is no value addition by sending these three individuals whose mandate is not clear anyway. What constituency do they represent? Where are they going to go? Who are they going to meet? Who will be responsible for their security in Zimbabwe, if not the Zimbabwean government?

Such arrogance by the “international community” should be resisted. Zimbabwe is not free-for-all.

President Carter is in no position to advise on the situation in Zimbabwe. Many of us still remember his funding of anti-Soviet, Afghan Islamist factions on from 1979 onwards. His termination of the Russian Wheat Deal led to loss of many livelihoods that depended on agriculture both in his own country and the then Soviet Union.

Carter prohibited American athletes from participating in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and heightened tension between the two countries and split the world into two camps.

Former secretary-general Kofi Annan could have done more for Zimbabwe and for the region during his tenure at the world body rather than now to avert the situation we find ourselves in. He condemned, rather than use his good offices to engage.

This visit attracts more questions than answers.

Labels: GRACA MACHEL, JIMMY CARTER, KOFI ANNAN

posted by MrK @ 10:51 AM