‘Dogs of war’ almost spoilt Samora’s party
Sunday, 23 October 2011 01:48
By Munyaradzi Huni
CRY, oh cry, my beloved Africa! Did you see how the “dogs of war”, that some are insultingly calling “revolutionary fighters”, unleashed by the imperialist puppets calling themselves the National Transitional Council and armed by the highly discredited Nato with the evil blessings of the warmongers in Washington and London, killed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya last Thursday?
It was so barbaric, disgusting, devilish, heartless, stinking and stupid! Very, very stupid indeed!
Let’s get things straight here. Col Gaddafi was wrong not to allow democracy in his country. He was very wrong not to allow any elections over the 40 years that he was in power and he was very wrong not to allow any opposition party in Libya.
Very wrong indeed, but those “dogs of war” had no right to murder him like they were skinning a rat.
If bringing democracy to Libya meant killing Col Gaddafi, then Lord help Africa!
If Col Gaddafi was a murderer, then Libya has gone from one murderer to the other because the NTC murdered Col Gaddafi in front of the cameras.
Watching the imperialist television channels last Thursday evening, I began to understand why this world is full of suicide bombers. What were Col Gaddafi’s children, relatives and sympathisers thinking as they saw Col Gaddafi being murdered in such a callous way?
Despite all the barbarism, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, who will go down in history as one of the most useless secretaries-general at the supposedly international body, had the audacity to say this cold-bloodied murder was a “historic transition”.
US President Barack Obama took the lunacy to shocking levels when he addressed the media, saying: “We have achieved our goal. Nato mission will soon come to an end.”
So this was the goal. It was never about protecting the Libyans. It was about killing Gaddafi in the most dehumanising way. With that reckless and silly statement, I lost the little respect I still had for that sickening Uncle Tom.
Col Gaddafi’s murder was not a laughing matter. No normal human being should wish that to happen to any other human being.
There is nothing to celebrate.
Nothing at all, unless one needs urgent attention from the psychiatrist.
Last week I was in Maputo, Mozambique, during the international symposium to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the death of that country’s founding father, President Samora Machel.
During that symposium, one professor from Eduardo Mondlane University asked: “If Samora Machel was here today, what do you think he would say about Mozambique in particular and Africa in general?”
The question was directed at Mozambique’s former president, Joachim Chissano, who quickly went into overdrive saying: “I always answer that question this way. Samora is not here.
“If he was alive he would have his brain functioning. Now he is not here, so I don’t know what he would say.”
Some delegates were not happy with Cde Chissano’s somewhat “arrogant” response and so when President Mugabe later responded to the above question, he received a standing ovation. As I watched the “dogs of war” murdering Col Gaddafi last Thursday, the prophetic words by President Mugabe rang in my ears.
“If Samora was here, perhaps he would say we have not done enough to develop our economies . . .
“He would say Africa is being attacked and you are saying nothing. Are you reversing the revolutionary deeds of the continent’s founding fathers?
“He would say what is happening in Libya is wrong. He would say it’s wrong for Europe to say it wants to correct the political system in Africa by doing what they are doing in Libya.
[LEFT: President Mugabe chats with Mrs Graca Machel at the Mozambican Heroes Square last week while Botswana President Ian Khama Seretse Khama (left) listens on. ]
LEFT: President Mugabe chats with Mrs Graca Machel at the Mozambican Heroes Square last week while Botswana President Ian Khama Seretse Khama (left) listens on.
“They are killing Gaddafi’s children and grandchildren. They are hunting for Gaddafi and they want to kill him? What has happened to the right of life?
“The UN is no longer as strong as it was.
“The AU is not as solid as the OAU was when it was formed . . . Some of our countries are supporting the action being taken against Gaddafi. It disgraces us, but I suppose it’s a phase we are going through,” said President Mugabe.
Well, two days after President Mugabe’s statement, the “dogs of war” whose only meaningful contribution to the supposed war was to shoot into the air for the cameras, killed Col Gaddafi in a way that will haunt them till death visits them.
Well, enough about Col Gaddafi.
God will punish the “dogs of war”, the puppets in the NTC and their imperialist sponsors who were hiding under the cover of Nato.
In Maputo, President Mugabe did not receive a standing ovation only after speaking about what Cde Machel would say about Mozambique and Africa if he was alive. Just like in South Africa, the people in Mozambique just adore President Mugabe.
He received lots of applause and praises from many delegates who before they gave their contributions at the symposium, started by saying: “I am so happy to have finally met you President Mugabe. You are my hero.”
President Mugabe clearly showed that he is a fountain of knowledge in the mould of people like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and Samora Machel because his contributions at the symposium left political science students from Eduardo Mondlane University calling for more.
Even the rector at the university, Mr Orlando Quilambo, was full of praise for the President after the presentations.
“We want to thank you President Mugabe for enriching this symposium with your vast experience and knowledge of Samora Machel. We are so grateful.”
Cde Machel’s widow, Graca, was also charmed by President Mugabe and, from the blue, she announced that she wanted the President to assist in the investigations to find out what really happened in the events leading to the death of her husband.
Cde Machel died in a plane crash in the Mbuzini Mountains on the border of Mozambique and South Africa when his Tupolev 134 crashed, leaving 34 people dead and only nine survivors. There was strong suspicion that the apartheid regime in South Africa was involved in the death of President Machel.
At least we know and we saw the “dogs of war” murdering Col Gaddafi on television. Will we ever know who killed Samora Moises Machel, the revolutionary whose legacy will forever shape African politics? - The Sunday Mail
Labels: ASSASSINATION, LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, NEOCOLONIALISM, ROBERT MUGABE, ZAMORA MACHEL
Read more...
Let's work to realise Samora's dream, Sadc told
Wednesday, 19 October 2011 00:00
From Munyaradzi Huni in MAPUTO, Mozambique
PRESIDENT Mugabe says Sadc countries should go beyond paying tribute to Mozambique's former President Samora Machel and work for the realisation of his vision within the region.Speaking at an International Symposium to mark the 25th Anniversary of the death of President Machel here yesterday, President Mugabe said the Mozambican leader had sacrificed his life for the freedom and independence of the region. His ideas, the President said, will forever influence the politics of Southern Africa.
"President Samora Moises Machel will remain dearly imbedded in our hearts and minds," said President Mugabe.
"We would not be what we are today were it not for the vision, skills and principles of Cde Machel."
President Mugabe said Zimbabwe's independence would have taken much longer were it not for President Machel.
"The late President Samora Machel was a great revolutionary, a resolute and fearless fighter, military commander an astute politician, above all, a unique diplomat and a noble statesman whose contribution to the fight against colonial subjugation and exploitation will remain legendary," he said.
The President said Cde Machel believed that the boundaries of the liberation struggle extended far beyond Mozambique.
He said he first met Cde Machel in Zambia in 1974 and he "immediately struck me as an astute revolutionary whose resolve to end colonialism was beyond doubt".
The President said Cde Machel's agreement for Frelimo and Zimbabwean forces to jointly fight Portuguese colonialists in Tete gave the later guerilla fighting experience.
He said during the Détente phase of the Zimbabwean struggle, Cde Machel, former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and the late founding Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere were instrumental in the formation of Zimbabwe People's Army to reignite the liberation struggle.
As a result, Zanu and its military wing Zanla received logistical support from Frelimo.
"We draw profound inspiration and remain eternally grateful for his unwavering conviction and principled stand for the freedom and dignity of the oppressed people of Africa and in other regions of the world,'' said President Mugabe.
He said the Frontline States were instrumental in mobilising moral and material support for liberation movements in Southern Africa and President Machel was a key player.
President Mugabe said Mozambique paid a heavy price for its principled support for the total liberation of Southern Africa.
"President Machel stressed the need for inter-State relations to be based on absolute respect of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in the affairs of other States," he said.
"These are the principles of the United Nations Charter. Despite the hostility of Western countries to independent Mozambique, President Machel found virtue in making more friends and fewer enemies internationally.''
Before President Mugabe spoke, Dr Kaunda warned the West against demonising him.
"Don't demonise Mugabe, he is an angel," he said.
Dr Kaunda explained the bilateral dispute between Zimbabwe and Britain, saying the British Government reneged on the Lancaster House Conference agreement to fund land reforms.
During question time, President Mugabe received a deafening applause after he explained that if President Machel was still alive, he would have said what is happening in Libya is wrong.
Delegates, including President Machel's widow Graca, cheered President Mugabe as he spoke.
Labels: GRACA MACHEL, KENNETH KAUNDA, LIBERATION, ROBERT MUGABE, SADC, ZAMORA MACHEL
Read more...
Land — A cornerstone of Lancaster House settlement
By David Martin
This is the fifth in a series of eight articles on the events of late 1979 and early 1980, the last stages leading to independence of Zimbabwe.
"You do not understand history. The right in power, not the left, solve major world problems: De Gaulle and Algiers, Macmillan and the ‘wind of change’, Nixon and China . . . I think we will have a settlement in Southern Rhodesia under this woman [Mrs Thatcher] within 12 months."
On May 4 1979, President Samora Moises Machel had arrived eight minutes late for a cabinet meeting that had been scheduled to begin at 9am in Maputo, the Indian Ocean capital of Mozambique.
He apologised to his assembled ministers and told them to be seated. Then he asked why they were so gloomy; had he not heard that Margaret Thatcher had won the British election the previous day, they asked?
Yes, he replied. That was why he was late for the meeting; he and his wife had stayed up the previous evening drinking champagne to celebrate Mrs Thatcher’s victory. The assembled ministers looked at Machel as if he had taken leave of his senses.
Their reaction was predictable. The British shadow foreign secretary, Francis Pym, had said that if the Conservatives were elected they would recognise the "internal settlement" signed by Ian Smith, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and James Chikerema.
Such a move threatened to place British forces on the side of the white settlers against the liberation movements.
As the leader of a neighbouring country which had become the main rear base for Zanu-PF during the war of liberation, Machel had shared a keen interest in the Southern Rhodesian outcome, and particularly in the land issue.
He pre-empted the first interview he gave after Mozambique’s independence in June 1975 by demanding of this writer: "Tell me about white Rhodesians."
We talked for two-and-a-half hours about the farmers and the land and Ian Smith (whom he called a "tobacco seller"), resulting in the formal interview for The Observer being postponed until the following day.
In August 1979, Commonwealth leaders assembled in Lusaka across the River Zambezi for their biannual summit. It was the first Commonwealth meeting attended by representatives of Mozambique, now a Commonwealth member.
The Lancaster House talks in London followed and by Christmas 1979 the ongoing Southern Rhodesian crisis had been resolved, at least on paper — three months ahead of Machel’s predicted deadline.
But it was not an easy meeting. The former US Secretary of State, Dr Henry Kissinger, had laid out the principles for a settlement during his shuttle diplomacy in 1976. Kissinger, despite the pessimism at the time, had set in motion the diplomatic process that would lead eventually to the settlement of the Rhodesian impasse.
In the third volume of his memoirs of those years, Kissinger writes: "Our allies expressed their goodwill and avowed their readiness to make a financial contribution to reconstruction and transition costs for the European minorities should a breakthrough to majority rule actually be achieved."
It was upon this promised financial support (which by then had been increased) that a settlement became possible at Lancaster House. But, as is often the case when establishing principles, the details were glossed over by those who were not directly affected by the land and other issues.
Land became the sticking points at Lancaster House and the then Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sonny Ramphal, spoke privately to the US ambassador in London, Kingman Brewster, about the issue.
Brewster was a former president of Yale University and a close friend of the then US president, Jimmy Carter, and his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance. Both men were extensively consulted by Brewster on the basis of the breakthrough Kissinger had achieved in getting Smith to accept majority rule.
There followed a secret meeting at in November 1979 at the Ramphal’s official residence at Garden House, 40B Hill Street, London W1.
Initially, only three people were present: Ramphal, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, as the political leaders of the Patriotic Front. Brewster was later invited to join the meeting.
They discussed "the fundamental rights guarantee proposed by the British for prompt and adequate compensation to the white farmers", Ramphal recalled.
"This took no account of the reality of land distribution in Zimbabwe and how future leaders would redress that reality without having to pay vast sums of money promptly and adequately.
"The meeting concluded that the constitutional provisions proposed by the British would have to be accepted, but these would only be accepted alongside the resources necessary to pay for the land.
"It was decided that the US would make a gesture by starting such a fund and Brewster immediately received approval from Carter and Vance. One American stipulation was that it be referred to as an ‘Agricultural Development Fund’ and not as money to buy out the white farmers. We thought this would encourage the British. But this never happened."
Ramphal blames Thatcher for not instituting the fund.
"In those first 10 years, all of this should have been worked out in London. But it was not," he said, adding that" "Robert was interested in the details as well as the principle regarding land at Lancaster House."
In Harare, the interpretation is different. Thatcher, they believe, partially accepted the agreement that had been worked out during the first 10 years of Zimbabwe’s independence when an entrenched clause prevented land acquisition except on a "willing seller, willing buyer" basis.
Depending upon whether you choose to believe the British or Zimbabwean sums, the British government gave Zimbabwe GBP 44 million or GBP 30 million during those first 10 years.
This sum, however, pales into insignificance when measured against the amount that was actually promised. The British Foreign Secretary of the time, David Owen, wrote subsequently: "The last labour government in 1977 under Jim Callaghan promised substantial sums: GBP 75 million from Britain and US$520 million from the States."
That they did not deliver these sums is perhaps less important than the fact that they accepted the principle, which was the basis of the Lancaster Agreement.
Thatcher refused to renew the British support to buy out the white farmers once the 10-year clause had expired in 1990. Her successor, John Major, held discussions with the Zimbabwean Government and in 1996 sent an Overseas Development Assistance mission to Zimbabwe to evaluate the first phase.
This mission found that the first 10 years had been largely positive and recommended ways forward. However, before the recommendations could be implemented, John Major lost the 1997 elections to the Labour party and Tony Blair.
Blair flatly refused to accept Britain’s colonial responsibility and the undertaking made by his predecessors in the Conservative government and on November 5 1997, the British Minister of Overseas Development, Clare Short, wrote the now infamous letter the then Zimbabwean Minister of Agriculture, Kumbirai Kangai, as follows:
"I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers."
With the stroke of a pen, Short sided with the racial land division which dated back to the days of white supremacy and terminated the agreement that Kissinger, the Lancaster talks, Thatcher and Major had so carefully nurtured.
It is scarcely surprising that the Zimbabwean government regarded the new British position as a "repudiation of a cornerstone of the Lancaster House Agreement".
l David Martin was former Africa correspondent of The Observer, London, and a chronicler of the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, who passed away in August 2007.
Labels: LANCASTER HOUSE AGREEMENT, LAND REFORM, ZAMORA MACHEL
Read more...
