Britain Must End Its Interference in Zimbabwe!

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Britain Must End Its Interference in Zimbabwe!

British Destabilise Africa:
Food Riots Spread as Hunger Deepens

Zimbabwe War Veterans Deny Farm Invasions

Gordon Brown spoke at the UN Security Council meeting yesterday, April 16, held to discuss peace and security in Africa and strengthening ties between the UN and the African Union. He used the occasion to encourage further interference in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. The Prime Minister informed the UN that in his view the current president of Zimbabwe had not won the recent election, even though the official results have yet to be announced. He added that a single message should go out from New York, “that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe; and that we stand ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future”.

            Of course such remarks are nothing but hypocrisy because it has been successive British governments and their agencies that have played a leading role in preventing the people of Zimbabwe exercise their democratic rights by interfering with Zimbabwean elections, political system and economy. Indeed it cannot be forgotten that the majority of people in Zimbabwe were not legally entitled to vote in elections until they had liberated themselves from the vestiges of British colonial rule in 1980.

            Gordon Brown also made a series of other pronouncements on the future of Africa, which he prefaced by referring to the tragic events in Rwanda, which are always resurrected in order to provide the justification for future intervention and interference by Britain and the other big powers not only in Africa but throughout the world. When Gordon Brown states that “today there is still a gaping hole in our ability to address the illegitimate threats and use of force against innocent peoples”, he is not addressing the growing problem of state terrorism and violations of international law perpetrated by Britain, the US and others in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Rather he is seeking to extend and justify the intervention of the big powers wherever such action serves their interests.

            As Brown presented it, the government’s strategy in Africa is to train and support “peacekeeping” operations in Africa, while also advocating further intervention in the form of “reconstruction and development”. In this regard Brown spoke of what he referred to as “fragile and conflict states” and the need for new international mechanisms to deal with them. In this context when Britain assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council next month, the government will propose new mechanisms to enable the UN to propose, implement and monitor missions that can interfere in countries not just on the grounds of “peacekeeping” but also for “stabilisation” and “reconstruction”. This will mean that as well as troops, “civilian experts” will also be on stand-by, so that under the auspices of the UN, countries can be completely re-ordered along the lines decreed by the big powers.

            Of course what the Prime Minister failed to mention is why countries might require “peacekeeping” and “reconstruction”. He might for example have mentioned the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan, where “peacekeeping” is needed in order to quell the patriotic resistance of those who refuse to accept invasion, and “reconstruction” is a mechanism for the big monopolies to profit by rebuilding a dependent economy in place of one destroyed by war and sanctions. It is in this context that Gordon Brown’s remarks in regard to being “ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future” must be understood. The government is announcing that it is also ready and willing to aid the restructuring and rebuilding of Zimbabwe, if the appropriate election results are announced.

            As for the election results, these are the concern chiefly of the people of Zimbabwe and that country’s Electoral Commission has already made its legal position clear. It is sometimes the case that results of elections are delayed and it has been pointed out that when there was considerable delay announcing the final result of the US presidential election in 2000, the government did not issue threats, nor prematurely announce the result. What is most glaring in regard to Zimbabwe is that the British government continue to act as if it were the colonial power and continues to allege that it is the best friend of the people of that country. Nothing could be further from the truth. What must be demanded is an end to all such colonial relationships. Britain must end its interference in Zimbabwe!

Executive Intelligence Review News Service (EIRNS), April 9, 2008

The energetic British attempts to create chaos and famine in Kenya and Zimbabwe in Africa, take place against a background of worldwide hyperinflationary food price increases and sudden food shortages, which are threatening both to kill large numbers of people, and to bring down governments in the Third World. The developing potential food crisis and famine arise from decades of British and Brussels attacks on national food self-sufficiency, and outright food scarcity policies masked as "agricultural free trade".

            Josette Sheeran, director of the United Nations World Food Programme, warned that "a perfect storm" is threatening millions as food prices soar and as the need for aid grows rapidly, during a visit to East Africa, reported The East African. "We are seeing a new face of hunger," she declared at a UN conference in Ethiopia on April 1. "We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. Often, we are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."

            Worsening economic pressures related to the cost of food have resulted in civil disturbances in five African countries in just the past three months – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Senegal. In Kenya, the "political" violence has led to increased hunger among the displaced, and in Tanzania, 38% of children under the age of five are stunted in height due to chronic malnourishment.

            Another UN official warned in Dubai that rising food prices will set off worldwide unrest and threaten political stability. Sir John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development (DIHAD) Conference, "The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe. Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."

            Holmes estimated that food prices had shot up 40% (!) on average worldwide since the summer of 2007. Soaring fuel prices will also contribute to the unrest, he said, including the direct contributions to food price hikes made by increases in diesel prices, fossil fuel-based fertilizer prices, etc.

            The Guardian listed the worst food unrest, most recently, as threatening the stability of Egypt, Haiti, and Ivory Coast, but also the riots in Cameroon in February; in Mauritania, Mozambique, and Senegal; and protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia, and Indonesia. UN staff in Jordan also went on strike for a day this week to demand a pay raise in the face of a 50% hike in food prices.

A leader of Zimbabwe's war veterans on April 10 denied that there was an invasion of white-owned farms in the wake of the election results delay.

            "There are no farm invasions in Zimbabwe," national chairperson of the War Veterans Association Jabulani Sibanda told SABC radio.

            Sibanda said war veterans had merely gone to investigate claims that whites were preparing to "take back the land" after opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai declared he had won the presidential poll.

            The Commercial Farmers Union on April 9 had announced that more than 60 farmers had been driven off their land. However, Sibanda said that "anyone that had been thrown off the land, it is not by war veterans. Some went to farms to investigate the groupings of white people. There is no one that has been thrown off their land. War veterans are disciplined."

            He warned against white people planning to take back farms given to blacks during the land reforms. "The people of this country, they are prepared and ready to protect their country if there is an invasion, an invasion of any kind," he said.

(Source: Sapa-AFP, Johannesburg)