(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC still driven by western interests

MDC still driven by western interests
Reader Opinion
Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:17:00 +0000

DEAR EDITOR -- Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti visited the United States where he addressed a forum that was organised by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

As a member of the Zimbabwe Government, this is a very interesting development. According to Wikipedia NED regularly provides funding to opposition candidates in elections in countries other than the USA.

It is no coincidence that many of the Cabinet members from the Movement for Democratic Change party still see themselves as opposition leaders; meeting BBC and other international media journalists banned from Zimbabwe "in safe houses" in the country, and speaking ill of the government which they are part of.

According to Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, "A lot of what we [NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA" (Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, 2000, p. 180).

Weinstein says that the NED has principally supported candidates with strong ties to the military and who support the rights of U.S. corporations to invest in those countries with minimal restriction.

The NED has not supported candidates who oppose investments by U.S. corporations or who promise restrictions on investment rights of U.S. corporations.

This is just an interesting observation.

Stephen Gowans has an interesting article on some of the US activities concerning Zim opposition parties link at http://gowans.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/us-government-report-undermines-zimbabwe-opposition’s-claim-of-independence/

The gallavanting of Biti is proving to be non-productive.

Solutions for Zimbabwe should be found in Zimbabwe itself.

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Anonymous reader opinion (with editing)