Monday 2 May 2016

President Mbeki "blocked free and fair elections" in Zimbabwe in 2002, says US Official.

A senior US government official, Ambassador Bellamy, admits that Mugabe reign of terror could have been ended as far back as 2002 is SA had not undermined the international community’s efforts to do so.

“The real international failure in Zimbabwe is more recent (than Gukurahundi massacre) however…. By 2002 it was clear that a majority of Zimbabweans wanted change, had voted for it, had risked their lives for it. And the change they called for was in all respects congruent with the liberal democratic values we hold dear,” said the Ambassador according to an article in New Zimbabwe.

“A number of African states, including some of Zimbabwe’s neighbors, sympathized strongly with this sentiment. The US, the UK, the EU, Commonwealth members also called for more pressure on Mugabe to respect the rule of law and acknowledge the will of the electorate.

“I remember this well as I was a senior US official and part of this lobbying effort.”

The Ambassador was sharing a platform with Senator David Coltart who is in the USA to launch his book “The Struggle Continues”. 

“South Africa was not prepared to go along. It preferred a tactic of quiet diplomacy. This gave Mugabe the protection he needed to continue business as usual. The opportunity to press for peaceful change was missed in 2002, and it was missed repeatedly thereafter as Western powers continued to urge action on Zimbabwe and South Africa resisted.

 “A free and fair election under strict international supervision was all that was needed. Zimbabwe’s tragedy is that it never happened.”

I agree 100% with Ambassador Bellamy that the International Community did show a real interest in ending Zimbabwe’s disastrous Zanu PF dictatorship from 2002 onwards. Sadly their efforts did not produce the desired result because of the SA government intransigence. It is clear that SA President Thabo Mbeki’s quite diplomacy accomplished nothing as Mugabe is still in power!

When the history of Zimbabwe comes to be written the world will know that the International community did try to help but could have done a lot more, particularly given the tragic human misery that has befallen the people of Zimbabwe and the whole SADC region as the result of the carry-on in Harare after 2002. It is a matter of historic record that it was the US who turned on the pressure of the white racist regime in SA to stop propping up the white Smith regime in Rhodesia in the 1970s that forced the later to accept regime change. Similar pressure could and should have been brought to bear on President Thabo Mbeki.

History will judge President Mbeki harshly for his blundering incompetency in allowed President Mugabe back into power especially after the 2008 elections which were marred by the worst politically motivated violence even by African standards of dodgy elections. After such barbarism Mugabe did not deserve the soft political landing President Mbeki contrive by imposing the GNU on the people of Zimbabwe.

At the end of the GNU Zimbabwe could and should have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship it failed to do so because the two MDC factions in the GNU tasked to implement the raft of democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections failed to get even one reform implemented. Yes SADC leaders could have pressured MDC to implement the reforms; still one cannot blame SADC or SA for MDC leaders being corrupt and incompetent.

Senator David Coltart was a senior member of the MDC and a member cabinet throughout the GNU. He was very candid in his book about the barbarism of the Mugabe regime during the Gukurahundi “madness” as Mugabe has since acknowledged. Sadly the Senator was very economic with the truth about MDC’s breath-taking incompetence and betrayal of the nation, especially during the GNU sell-out.

Ultimately it is the people of Zimbabwe must take responsibility and blame for the political mess the country is in. It is not enough to accuse the international community, SADC, SA and even our own political leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai of not doing enough to end the Zanu PF dictatorship when we the people have done very little or nothing to stop Mugabe riding roughshod over our freedoms, human rights, dignity and our dreams!


Zimbabwe’s an independent and sovereign nation and per se the destiny of the nation is in our own hands and not the international community or anyone else. We need to wake up to this reality or Zimbabwe will never ever get out of the political and economic mess Mugabe has landed us in!  

4 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

The Zanu PF factional wars are over; the G40 faction is all but finished. When Mugabe told the war vets that the war vet association was an affiliate organization that could not tell him and Zanu PF what to do; he was being his usual arrogant self. Having played such a key role as the foot soldiers who intimidated, harassed beaten and even murdered the civilians to keep Mugabe in power the war vets felt emboldened to call his bluff. They hit back with the statement of their own; they told him they are the stockholders of Zanu PF and Mugabe and the other leaders are stakeholders who could come and go. Mugabe chickened out; he knew they had him!

For the first time in his whole political career Mugabe is feeling powerless; if he does not hand over power he will be told to do it soon enough! He is finished!

Zimbabwe Light said...

The trouble with people like you is pick a fight over issues that have been established and agreed as fact and then add on the nonsense in the hope no one will notice. I have never disputed the fact that SADC should have never proposed the GNU as a way out because there was no need for it since Mugabe had lost the elections.

Indeed I said at the time that MDC must refuse to sign the GPA and insist on the holding of fresh elections. You can read my comments at the time at zimbabwelight.blogspot.co.uk.

What I also said in the articles all these years ago and repeated above and will repeat here is that MDC should have made the most of the bad GNU job by implementing the democratic reforms. Tsvangirai and his MDC friend definitely sold-out in failing to implement the reforms. SADC leaders did their best to remind Tsvangirai to implement the reforms, MDC leaders like Samuel Sipepa Nkomo has since publicly admitted that fact.

You can deny that MDC did not sell-out in failing to implement the reforms all you want Mudhara that will change nothing because that is an established historic fact!


The people of Zimbabwe must know that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are corrupt and incompetent and therefore per se are not fit to hold public office ever again. If the people still go on and elect these village idiots again at least they cannot say they did not know the MDC leaders are idiots!

Zimbabwe Light said...

MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would be end the Zanu PF dictatorship and taken the nation from the dark into light. The only reason why not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU was because MDC leaders including David Coltart, Tendai Biti to say nothing of the village idiots like Tsvangirai were breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

David Coltart acknowledges in his book that the 2013 constitution gave Mugabe excessive powers with no checks and balance and yet the idiot even with the benefit of hind sight of the rigged 2013 elections still maintains the weak and feeble constitution is good for Zimbabwe.

David's book is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Ijaha
I would agree with you on his work as a human rights defender particularly during Gukurahundi.

I beg to differ about his work in MDC. We are talking about some of the most incompetent and corrupt group of in Zimbabwe's history. These are the idiots who failed to get even one reform implemented in their five years in the GNU. MDC leaders, including David Coltart, sold-out the nation to the tyrant Mugabe for gravy train lifestyles, a $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, a chance to globe trot for Senator Coltart, etc.

To add insult to injury Senator Coltart has refused to apologize to the good people of Zimbabwe for betraying them and make them suffer under this Zanu PF tyranny. Any one singing Coltart praise are doing so out of ignorance!