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ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !
Dear Friends,
It seems that the world's media has largely taken its collective eye off the situation in Zimbabwe. No one can deny that the natural disasters that have hit Burma and China are catastrophic in terms of human tragedy and massive loss of life but that hardly explains why there has been so little coverage of the politically inspired tornado of violence that is sweeping across Zimbabwe. The excuse, regularly trotted out by the BBC and other broadcasters, that they are not allowed to broadcast from Zimbabwe simply does not stand up to scrutiny. Neither are foreign journalists exactly encouraged to operate in Burma but that has not stopped them from getting film footage and reports out on a daily even hourly basis. The whole world has seen and heard what is happening in Burma and China. In the chaos that follows natural upheavals; the pictures speak for themselves. Words are not even needed as we watch images of devastated cities and collapsed school buildings burying hundreds of school children and their teachers, of people living out in the open without fresh water or food, with no electricity and no shelter.
Without the excuse of a natural disaster the Zimbabwean government has unleashed the dogs of war on its own people. Added to the physical misery caused by a collapsing economy: little food, no clean water, no power andconstant shortages of cash, the Zimbabwean government has, since it lost the March elections, introduced another element in Zimbabwe's relentless decline: sheer, naked terror. 'Political re-education' is how it's described by Mugabe's thugs as they systematically beat, rape, mutilate and murder their own people. And the world's media for the most part remains silent. People in the know tell me that there is a whole lot of talking going on behind the scenes to resolve the crisis, that now is not the time to give way to despair but from where I am the situation looks unbearably bleak. Daily I read of schools and villages that I know well where teachers, many of whom I helped to train, and even children have been hideously beaten and burned out of their homes. One teacher commented the other day that kids whom he had himself taught a few years ago were now part of the dreaded Youth Militia that is inflicting hideous punishment on anyone who 'voted the wrong way' What is happening in Zimbabwe is a low-grade civil war and while the world looks the other way a cruel and vindictive regime kills and tortures its own people. But it is more than vindictive, it is a calculated attempt to rig the result of the runoff; by driving people out of their homes and making it impossible for them to vote in their own wards, they are denied the chance to confirm what they have already told Mugabe: 'It's time to go. We no longer want you or your rotten government.'
There has been much discussion in the press here this week about what the international community can do when Burma refuses to allow foreign aid into the country. The convention is that the world cannot intervene in countries like Burma - or Zimbabwe - without the request of the government in power. Robert Mugabe is of course well aware of this, hence his constantly repeated claim that Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation. Thabo Mbeki reinforces Mugabe's view. It is up to Zimbabweans to solve their own problems, he says and blocks any discussion of the Zimbabwean situation at the UN. while blandly announcing that there is no crisis in the country and it does not constitute a threat to world or regional peace. In 2006 the UN Security Council imposed a responsibility on the international community ' to protect people whose governments failed to do so'. Can anyone deny that Robert Mugabe's government falls into that category? Not only does it not protect the people, it actively seeks to eradicate all dissenting voices through violence and starvation. Mugabe could stop the violence right now if he wanted to but he will not; he has degrees in violence, remember. There is overwhelming evidence that he has personally ordered the purge of the opposition supporters using his hated CIO, so-called war veterans, Youth Militia and police all under the control of army officers loyal to the regime.
Despite the almost complete absence of media coverage in the world's press, an incident occurred this last week which may signal hope for Zimbabwe. The US Ambassador and several chiefs of missions including the UK. the EU and Japan together with officials from the Netherlands and Tanzania drove out from Harare in a convoy of vehicles, presumably clearly marked with their CD number plates, to the rural areas to see for themselves the evidence of organized violence. At a roadblock they were stopped and asked by a security agent what they had been doing. 'Looking at people who have been beaten' replied an American official to which a security agent shamelessly retorted 'We are going to beat you thoroughly too' Undeterred, Ambassador McGee snapped away with his camera as the agents tried to hide their faces and afterwards the outspoken American commented, 'We are eager to continue this type of thing, to show the world what is happening here in Zimbabwe. It is absolutely urgent that the entire world sees what is going on. The violence has to stop.'
Without the help of brave local and foreign journalists – like Peter Osborne in yesterday's Daily Mail and Jan Raath in The Times - prepared to risk imprisonment and even death the world will never see the real horror that is happening in Zimbabwe today. With the announcement of the date for the presidential runoff that becomes even more urgent; Zimbabwe needs witnesses now.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH.