Maravi

(ZIMPAPERS) No to EU supremacy:President Mugabe

No to EU supremacy:President Mugabe
By Caesar Zvayi recently in Tripoli, Libya

President Mugabe has rapped the West for making noise over allegations that Suda-nese President Omar al-Bashir commited crimes against humanity while remaining mum on self-confessed war criminals like former British prime minister Tony Blair and US president George W. Bush. Bush recently released his memoirs, titled "Decision Points", in which he confesses to sanctioning the use of torture on terrorism suspects — a crime against huma-nity.

Bush’s admission saw some leading international booksellers move his memoirs from the biographies to the crime sections of their establishments. Addressing the Third Africa-European Union Summit in Tripoli on Tuesday and in his remarks to journalists on arrival at Harare International Airport yesterday, President Mugabe bemoaned Africa’s willingness to be arm-twisted by the EU on many things, including the decision to bar the Sudanese leader from a summit on African soil.

"President Bashir was absent because he was not wanted by Europe to be present; and I do not think we should have accepted that. This continues to happen.

"Sometimes I have been called a Bashir myself, but I do not know this time why I was wanted.

‘‘I am usually not a wanted person, but those are the likes and dislikes of Europe and they show them to us and they dictate to us and sometimes we accept to be tossed, and it is unacceptable, completely unacceptable and I made a statement to that effect, that Bashir should have been present.

‘‘I do not see why anyone should say he is guilty. We don’t mind his being accused, allegations made against him but allegations are always allegations and they become reality when they are proved in court. That is why I said there is always the principle of the presumption of innocence in any case of a person who is arrested. That is the principle of criminal law and it does apply in every case, and it should apply in this case,’’ he said.

A shadow hung over the summit following the absence of African Union chairman President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, who was protesting the decision to hold the summit in Tripoli and not at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the barring of the Sudanese president.

Conspicuous by their absence were Euro-pe’s powerful trio of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Germany Chancellor Ange-la Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a development that was read as signifying Europe’s lack of commitment to AU-EU partnership.

In his address to the summit, President Mugabe queried Europe’s commitment to the ideals of democracy and human rights saying it appeared Europe only parroted these values pursuant to victimising small states.

‘‘We in Zimbabwe have learnt the hard way that notions of democracy, human rights and rule of law have no universal meaning for Europeans, but are conveniently invoked against small states which dare challenge their global interests on our soils,’’ he said.

To this end, the President said, genuine democracy can never be imposed externally, but accrues from a natural process of internal development.

‘‘Genuine democratic governance cannot and will not be a product of processes enge-ndered by outsiders for Africans on the ba-sis of values outsiders seek to inculcate.

"It can only be a product of the internal process of development in a country. In Eu-rope democratic governance came out of a long history of bloody wars and other forms of struggle. In Africa our history of struggles for freedom from colonialism are well known, as are the brutalities that were perpetrated against Africans. Europeans, therefore, cannot take a moral high ground and develop amnesia when it comes to the brutalities that Africans suffered in the colonial period,’’ he said.

He chronicled how some EU states in collusion with the United States of America were hell-bent on effecting illegal regime change in Zimbabwe by hiding behind the façade of democratisation and human rights advocacy.

‘‘Democratic processes in our countries are constantly under threat partly due to interference from outsiders. In the case of my country, Zimbabwe, heinous crimes of interference have been undertaken in the name of good governance and human rights and some such values.

"Zimbabwe currently reels under illegal sanctions imposed on it by the European Union and the United States of America whose primary motive is to bring about regime change as a response to a just land reform programme my Government embar-ked upon in the interest of social justice.’’

Turning to Chiadzwa, the President said even though Zimbabwe had met all the requirements under the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, some Western countries still did not want Zimbabwe to benefit from its diamond resources which the Westerners wanted for themselves, and continually laid ever shifting charges against Zimbabwe.

‘‘Our commitment to democratic governance and respect for human rights ought to be based on the premise that African people must not see these values simply as abstract concepts that have no bearing on their well-being and material conditions. Democratic governance must, therefore, mean more than people taking part in an election. The people must have a direct stake in the development process not merely as providers of labour but as economically empowered citizens and people in charge of their own resources, including land and mineral wealth. That would ultimately give meaning to democratic governance it, therefore, goes without saying that poverty and the unequal control of resources in our countries militates against democratic governance,’’ he said.

The President said the priority for Africa-EU partnership should be the attainment of development and economic freedom, so that governments will be in a better position to guarantee the economic and social rights of their citizens.

For true and successful dialogue to occur in areas of governance and democracy, the President said, the EU should drop double standards and selective application of these principles.

‘‘It is generally accepted that Africans do not observe elections in Europe and do not make pronouncements on the conduct of such polls, and yet it is assumed that Europeans have the inalienable right to observe and endorse the outcome of elections on the African continent.’’

Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 9:10 AM