Hypocrisy and a Hidden Agenda

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Hypocrisy and a Hidden Agenda

Text of President Robert Mugabe's Speech at 62nd Session of UN General Assembly

The British in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Constitution:
Zimbabwe Senate Approves Elections Bill

Zimbabwe-China Aid:
China's Harare Envoy Says Beijing Has Not Reduced Aid

Britain-Zimbabwe-EU:
Zimbabwe Scoffs at Brown's Summit Boycott Threat

Writing in The Independent on September 20, 2007, Gordon Brown affirmed his "British" credentials by "speaking out" about another country, namely Zimbabwe, from his "high moral ground". Speaking about an African country and its "problems" without any reference to colonialism and Britain’s role is not only hypocritical but shows that colonialism is still acceptable to Brown, who has already been at the helm with the US in two major imperialist wars. So not surprisingly Brown’s article is advocating interference in Zimbabwe, suggesting the appointment of an EU envoy "to help support the transition to democracy". So whom will this "democracy" serve?

It is certain that Brown, while presenting a concerned "responsible" face on the "matter" of Zimbabwe, is actually concerned with Britain’s interests in the region, chiefly the spread of "universal values" and "shared institutions" under which the monopoly capitalist class can plunder the wealth created by the Zimbabwean working people.

The land of Zimbabwe was colonised by the British in 1890, and named Rhodesia, after the colonialist Cecil John Rhodes. Formation of this colony was seen as a continuation of the British Empire's plan to bring the whole of the "uncivilised worlds under British rule". In Zimbabwe ordinances allowed for inequitable distribution of the land that provided Zimbabwe's large population of farmers with sustenance. Under these ordinances, 6,000 white settlers seized the best half of the land while the worst half was left to the 600,000 black peasant farmers.

There was huge struggle and civil unrest amongst the Zimbabweans and during the 1960s the movement for liberation and independence developed, out of which political parties such as the Zimbabwean African People’s Union (ZANU) were born. After another period of struggle and armed conflict, based on the principle that "we are our own liberators", in 1980 as head of a united movement Robert Mugabe was elected president of the now free from colonial rule nation of Zimbabwe. Mugabe went on to re-establish the rights of the Zimbabwean people to their farm land that was stolen from them, and with the new government there was going to be no kow-towing to the big powers.

Gordon Brown is now attacking Mugabe on the basis that he will not comply with the agenda that Britain and other big powers have in the present contention for the re-colonisation of Africa. Brown talks of the huge amount of aid given to Zimbabwe by Britain. This aid is just another means by which Britain is aiming to control Zimbabwe, discounting that the Zimbabweans want to live off their own wealth, wealth that is being stolen by British and the big monopolies. Ignoring Zimbabwe’s right for self-determination, Brown states "working with our international partners we must do more to press the Zimbabwean government to change".

Gordon Brown goes on, "We will ensure that the EU maintains sanctions against the 131 individuals in the ruling elite, including President Mugabe, who have committed human rights abuses." This is serious hypocrisy in which Brown scolds the Zimbabwean "ruling elite" while he himself is committing human rights abuses all over the world as a personification of the interests of the ruling elite in Britain.

British and international interference does not stop at the imposition of sanctions. Brown wants to send an EU envoy as well as the UN to dispatch a "humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe". Under the signboard of a humanitarian mission lies the agenda of interference which is not only a sleight on the Zimbabwean people who should be left by the international arena to determine what happens in their own country, but it is also a serious threat to world peace in that Brown and co. care nothing for the sovereignty of Zimbabwe.

Brown proclaims "We need to be ready for the day democracy returns to Zimbabwe." How Brown is going to go about "exporting" such a "democracy" is a serious concern for the Zimbabweans and the world’s people. The people have the bitter experience of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan all in the name of "democracy" and "regime change". The lessons that interference led to sanctions, led to lies, led to war, are far too strong to ignore Brown’s attempts to take Britain down this path with other sovereign nations.

Brown writes. "We are working with African and international partners to prepare a long term recovery package for when conditions exist to allow economic reconstruction to begin." This is the cue for the monopolies to further their interests in expanding the interference in the Zimbabwean economy and the furthering of their privateering and plunder of Zimbabwe’s resources.

Brown’s article on Zimbabwe is part of the whole media disinformation about Zimbabwe. The British working class must pose the question as to why Brown and the media are so hot-headed about Mugabe. Below we are posting Robert speech to the 62nd session of UN General Assembly so that readers can draw their own conclusions.

As with many countries in Africa, Zimbabwe has its problems. But it is crucial to put these in perspective and to look at the source of these problems, and for the working class and people to reject the imposition of the dictate and values of the imperialist system of states, but to take up a fraternal and proletarian internationalist stand towards the people of Zimbabwe. The problems in Zimbabwe have their source in the legacy of colonialism, the continued interference of Britain and other powers, the neo-liberal agenda of the international monopolies stealing Zimbabwe’s resources and wealth, not to mention the problems caused, for example, by climate change which themselves are caused by the reckless irresponsibility of the monopolies and the governments which serve their interests.

The British working class and people must oppose the hot-headed portrayal of Zimbabwe, as the issue is not whether Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government are "good " or "bad" but that it is up to the Zimbabwean people to decide their future, and to solve their own problems. Self-determination and defence of sovereignty must be the call of all oppressed people, in solidarity with each other internationally.

Statement by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, R. G. Mugabe, on the occasion of the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 26 September, 2007

Your Excellency, President of the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Srgjan Kerim, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government, Your Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Mr President,

Allow me to congratulate you on your election to preside over this august assembly. We are confident that through your stewardship, issues on this 62nd Session agenda be dealt with in a balanced manner and to the satisfaction of all.

Let me also pay tribute to your predecessor, Madame Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, who steered the work of the 61st Session in a very competent and impartial manner.

Her ability to identify the crucial issues facing the world today will be remembered as the hallmark of her presidency.

Mr President,

We extend our hearty welcome to the new Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, who has taken up this challenging job requiting dynamism in confronting the global challenges of the 21st Century. Balancing global interests and steering the United Nations in a direction that gives hope to the multitudes of the poor, the sick, the hungry and the marginalised, is indeed a mammoth task. We would like to assure him that Zimbabwe will continue to support an open, transparent and all-inclusive multilateral approach in dealing with these global challenges.

Mr President,

Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. Its negative impact is greatest in developing countries, particularly those on the African continent. We believe that if the international community is going to seriously address the challenges of climate change, then we need to get our priorities right. In Zimbabwe, the effects of climate change have become more evident in the past decade as we have witnessed increased and recurrent droughts as well as occasional floods, leading to enormous humanitarian challenges.

Mr President,

We are for a United Nations that recognises the equality of sovereign nations and peoples whether big or small. We are averse to a body in which the economically and militarily powerful behave like bullies, trampling on the rights of weak and smaller states as sadly happened in Iraq. In the light of these inauspicious developments, this Organisation must surely examine the essence of its authority and the extent of its power when challenged in this manner.

Such challenges to the authority of the UN and its Charter underpin our repeated call for the revitalisation of the United Nations General Assembly, itself the most representative organ of the UN. The General Assembly should be more active in all areas including those of peace and security. The encroachment of some UN organs upon the work of the General Assembly is of great concern to us. Thus any process of revitalising or strengthening of the General Assembly should necessarily avoid eroding the principle of the accountability of all principal and subsidiary organs to the General Assembly.

Mr President,

Once again we reiterate our position that the Security Council as presently constituted is not democratic. In its present configuration, the Council has shown that it is not in a position to protect the weaker states who find themselves at loggerheads with a marauding super-power. Most importantly, justice demands that any Security Council reform redresses the fact that Africa is the only continent without a permanent seat and veto power in the Security Council. Africa's demands are known and enunciated in the Ezulwini consensus.

Mr President,

We further call for the UN system to refrain from interfering in matters that are clearly the domain of member states and are not a threat to international peace and security. Development at country level should continue to be country-led, and not subject to the whims of powerful donor states.

Mr President,

Zimbabwe won its independence on 18th April, 1980, after a protracted war against British colonial imperialism which denied us human rights and democracy. That colonial system which suppressed and oppressed us enjoyed the support of many countries of the West who were signatories to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Even after 1945, it would appear that the Berlin Conference of 1884, through which Africa was parcelled to colonial European powers, remained stronger than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is therefore clear that for the West, vested economic interests, racial and ethnocentric considerations proved stronger than their adherence to principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The West still negates our sovereignties by way of control of our resources, in the process making us mere chattels in out own lands, mere minders of its trans-national interests. In my own country and other sister states in Southern Africa, the most visible form of this control has been over land despoiled from us at the onset of British colonialism.

That control largely persists, although it stands firmly challenged in Zimbabwe, thereby triggering the current stand-off between us and Britain, supported by her cousin states, most notably the United States and Australia. Mr Bush, Mr Blair and now Mr Brown's sense of human rights precludes our people's right to their God-given resources, which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists.

Mr President,

Clearly the history of the struggle for out own national and people's rights is unknown to the president of the United States of America. He thinks the Declaration of Human Rights starts with his last term in office! He thinks she can introduce to us, who bore the brunt of fighting for the freedoms of our peoples, the virtues of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What rank hypocrisy!

Mr President,

I lost eleven precious years of my life in the jail of a white man whose freedom and well-being I have assured from the first day of Zimbabwe's Independence. I lost a further fifteen years fighting white injustice in my country.

Ian Smith is responsible for the death of well over 50,000 of my people. I bear scars of his tyranny which Britain and America condoned. I meet his victims everyday. Yet he walks free. He farms free. He talks freely, associates freely under a black Government. We taught him democracy. We gave him back his humanity.

He would have faced a different fate here and in Europe if the 50,000 he killed were Europeans. Africa has not called for a Nuremberg trial against the white world which committed heinous crimes against its own humanity. It has not hunted perpetrators of this genocide, many of whom live to this day, nor has it got reparations from those who offended against it. Instead it is Africa which is in the dock, facing trial from the same world that persecuted it for centuries.

Let Mr Bush read history correctly. Let him realise that both personally and in his representative capacity as the current President of the United States, he stands for this "civilisation" which occupied, which colonised, which incarcerated, which killed. He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities.

He still kills.

He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be out master on human rights?

He imprisons.

He imprisons and tortures at Guantanamo. He imprisoned and tortured at Abu Ghraib. He has secret torture chambers in Europe. Yes, he imprisons even here in the United States, with his jails carrying more blacks than his universities can ever enrol. He even suspends the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Take Guantanamo for example; at that concentration camp international law does not apply. The national laws of the people there do not apply. Laws of the United States of America do not apply. Only Bush's law applies. Can the international community accept being lectured by this man on the provisions of the universal declaration of human rights? Definitely not!

Mr President, We are alarmed that under his leadership, basic rights of his own people and those of the rest of the world have summarily been rolled back. America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We seem all guilty for 9/11. Mr Bush thinks he stands above all structures of governance, whether national or international.

At home, he apparently does not need the Congress. Abroad, he does not need the UN, international law and opinion. This forum did not sanction Blair and Bush's misadventures in Iraq. The two rode roughshod over the UN and international opinion. Almighty Bush is now corning back to the UN for a rescue package because his nose is bloodied! Yet he dares lecture us on tyranny. Indeed, he wants us to pray him! We say No to him and encourage him to get out of Iraq. Indeed he should mend his ways before he clambers up the pulpit to deliver pieties of democracy.

Mr President,

The British and the Americans have gone on a relentless campaign of destabilising and vilifying my country. They have sponsored surrogate forces to challenge lawful authority in my country. They seek regime change, placing themselves in the role of the Zimbabwean people in whose collective will democracy places the right to define and change regimes.

Let these sinister governments be told here and now that Zimbabwe will not allow a regime change authored by outsiders. We do not interfere with their own systems in America and Britain. Mr Bush and Mr Brown have no role to play in our national affairs. They are outsiders and mischievous outsiders and should therefore keep out! The colonial sun set a long time ago; in 1980 in the case of Zimbabwe, and hence Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. Never!

We do not deserve sanctions. We are Zimbabweans and we know how to deal with our problems. We have done so in the past, well before Bush and Brown were known politically. We have our own regional and continental organisations and communities.

In that vein, I wish to express my country's gratitude to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa who, on behalf of SADC, successfully facilitated the dialogue between the Ruling Party and the Opposition Parties, which yielded the agreement that has now resulted in the constitutional provisions being finally adopted. Consequently, we will be holding multiple democratic elections in March 2008. Indeed we have always had timely general and presidential elections since our independence.

Mr President,

In conclusion, let me stress once more that the strength of the United Nations lies in its universality and impartiality as it implements its mandate to promote peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and international law as outlined in the Charter. Zimbabwe stands ready to play its part in all efforts and programmes aimed at achieving these noble goals.

I thank you.

This article appears in the September 14, 2007, issue of "Executive Intelligence Review".

1890: The Pioneer Column of the British South Africa Company forcibly seizes the territory later to become known as Southern Rhodesia.

1930: The Land Apportionment Act displaces many African families from the richest soils to "tribal reserves" on non-arable lands.

1965: Ian Smith's apartheid regime declares its Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

1979: The Lancaster House Agreement lays the ground for Zimbabwean independence in 1980. It stipulates that for the first ten years of independence, the Government's acquisition of land is limited to the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle.

1992: The Land Acquisition Act removes the "willing seller, willing buyer" clause. Land redistribution speeds up. IMF imposes structural adjustment programmes, whose conditionalities will come to include the abolishment of free education, health-care and government subsidies for basic commodities.

1997: Clare Short, Britain's Secretary of State for International Development, writes a letter repudiating Britain's colonial responsibility for land reform.

1998: International Donors' Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement is held in Harare.

1999: Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) is founded through landowners and the UK's Westminster Foundation. White farmers increasingly resist the resettlement, often substantially destroying equipment and other property before leaving farms.

2000: Referendum on a new constitution is defeated by a well-funded campaign of the MDC. A Constitutional amendment is passed in parliament, allowing Government acquisition of farms on condition of compensations for improvements made. There are farm seizures by war veterans, and violence between ZANU-PF and MDC supporters.

2001: George W Bush signs into law the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (S. 494), which, among other things, imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe, that hit the economy and the people hard.

2005: Operation Murambatsvina receives widespread attention in Western media as shacks in downtown Harare are bulldozed as part of the government strategy against poverty and crime. Operation Garikai, the building of new housing for the poor, gets much less coverage. MDC splits into two factions due to disagreements over parliamentary elections.

2007: Members of the leadership of both competing MDC factions are beaten by the police while they are trying to break in to a police station during an illegal demonstration. MDC supporters retaliate with petrol bombs against private homes of police officers, several of whom are severely injured. Only the first of the incidents is reported by British-controlled media.

(Harare, 26 September 2007, Sapa-AFP) Zimbabwe's senate has approved legislation for joint presidential and legislative elections next year following a compromise between the opposition and government on constitutional reforms.

"All the 56 members of the senate voted in favour of the third reading of the bill," state television reported late Tuesday.

The draft law now awaits President Robert Mugabe's assent.

Senate leader Samuel Mumbengegwi commended South African President Thabo Mbeki for persuading the ruling and opposition parties to agree to a compromise on constitutional reforms.

In a surprise move last week, lawmakers from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) reached an agreement with government on the constitutional amendment bill.

The bill reduces the presidential term from six to five years, redraws constituency boundaries and provides for joint presidential, parliamentary and local government polls.

The agreement in parliament came days after top MDC officials met Mbeki, who was tasked by the Southern African Development Community with brokering dialogue between the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the opposition.

The MDC has campaigned for a new constitution for the former British colony.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told lawmakers last week that the agreement "should send a clear message that Zimbabweans are their own liberators and brook no interference in their internal affairs".

Analysts have warned that the amendments, initially opposed by the MDC, could cost the opposition victory in next year's polls.

Mugabe, 83, is seeking a seventh term at a time when Zimbabwe is grappling with the world's highest rate of inflation, widespread food shortages and mass unemployment.

(Johannesburg/Harare, 20 September 2007, Sapa-dpa) China's ambassador to Zimbabwe Yuan Nansheng has dismissed reports that Beijing has cut back on aid to the southern African country, Zimbabwean state media said Thursday.

"China has become a major trading partner to Zimbabwe, second only to South Africa," the official Herald daily quoted Yuan as telling reporters in the capital Harare on Wednesday. "China is also the largest investor in incremental investment to Zimbabwe," he said.

"The fact is that the Chinese government is offering all sorts of assistance to the Zimbabwean government and people, including loans, grants and food assistance besides humanitarian aid," Yuan added.

Recently newspapers in Britain have quoted Chinese officials as saying Beijing was confining its aid to Zimbabwe to humanitarian help only.

On Wednesday, the London Times quoted Li Guijin, China's special envoy for Africa, as saying China's developmental assistance to Zimbabwe was having limited success because of the rapid economic decline there.

"China's assistance is mainly humanitarian," Li was quoted as saying.

"China in the past provided substantial development assistance, but owing to the dramatic currency revaluations and rapid deterioration of economic conditions, the economic outcomes of these projects have not been so good," he added.

But Zimbabwe's Herald said economic co-operation between Harare and Beijing was deepening and expanding.

Trade between the two countries totalled 270 million dollars in 2006, according to Zimbabwe's state radio. It said the trade figure were 205 million dollars in the first half of this year, with 116 million dollars in Zimbabwe's favour.

Last month, Britain's Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Mark Malloch-Brown, said officials had told him during his visit to China that they were changing their policy on Zimbabwe.

"That puts it in the same position as Britain, which is the second-biggest provider of humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe," he was quoted as saying.

Mugabe's government accuses Western powers of destroying his country's economy through their policy of targeted sanctions that include an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel restrictions on top government officials.

Meanwhile the Chinese ambassador announced that 4,000 tons of soya beans were on their way to Zimbabwe from his country following the conclusion of a food assistance deal.

Zimbabwe is experiencing critical food shortages. A third of the population is expected to be dependent on food aid between now and March 2008.

(Harare, 20 September 2007, Sapa-AFP) Zimbabwe on Thursday said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was "wasting his time" with his threats to boycott the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon if President Robert Mugabe attended.

"President Mugabe was invited and he is going to Lisbon as Zimbabwe's representative whether Gordon Brown attends or not," deputy information minister Bright Matonga told AFP.

"Brown is wasting his time."

The comments came at the back of a Thursday newspaper article in which Brown said Mugabe's attendance at the summit would divert attention from crucial issues.

The EU has imposed a travel ban on Mugabe, 83, and Brown said that "there is a reason for this – the abuse of his own people. There is no freedom in Zimbabwe; no freedom of association; no freedom of the press."

Matonga said: "Brown has never been to Zimbabwe and he has never engaged Zimbabwe so he is not the best person to talk about our situation.

"He and his peers in the EU must remove the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe which are hurting our economy."

The travel ban has long hampered efforts to organise a second summit between the European Union and African states. The first was held in Cairo in 2000.

Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has said that it has no intention of discriminating against Mugabe in relation to the December 8-9 summit in Lisbon.