Open Letter To Mbeki

Open Letter To Mbeki

The Zimbabwe Independent

Thursday, 08 May 2008 17:41
I WRITE this letter to enlighten you of the correct situation
prevailing in the country you have tended to have so much interest in
although not in a completely impartial and progressive way.

You may be wondering who I am since I seldom write to people like you
who are seemingly detached to people on the ground.

I am the downtrodden, the hungry, the frustrated, the letdown unheeded
voter, the oppressed, the dispossessed by Murambatsvina, the orphaned and
dehumanised by self-imposed rulers, the unemployed, the tortured, the raped
and the peaceful Zimbabwean who has his patience stretched to the limit and
who feels that he cannot take it anymore to the point of death.

I refuse to call yours "quiet" diplomacy on Zimbabwe for yours is not
quiet but loud in its vulgar, uncaring and insensitive nature in respect of
the citizens of this country.

When a true friend of Zimbabwe’s downtrodden majority, President Levy
Mwanawasa called you to attend the Sadc regional bloc’s extraordinary
meeting on Zimbabwe you chose to pass through Zimbabwe for reasons best
known to yourself.

Of course you will state that you wanted to hear from the horse’s
mouth the situation prevailing at the time and that you were best suited to
do so as the appointed mediator.

But sir, an honest mediator and broker does not come out of such a
meeting speaking in complete harmony with one party to the conflict he is
purporting to solve.

Simple rules of diplomacy will tell you a simple answer such as "I
have no comment at this juncture since I am still to meet with other heads
of state" would have sufficed to the inquisitive reporters.

But you chose to be very loud in your unwavering support for the
ruinous and manipulative regime in Zimbabwe.

For you to concur with the assertion that there was no crisis in
Zimbabwe, smacked of one drowned in the opium of his mentor’s cellar.

Now after being quizzed in New York on what you meant, you responded
by quipping that there was no electoral crisis and as usual you were
"misquoted".

Even that statement you purport to have actually said is absurd as the
failure to announce election results weeks after they have been held
constitutes a crisis in my book.

Your insistence to the United Nations to allow Sadc and AU to deal
with Zimbabwe’s problems is instead a dishonest ploy to protect the regime
in Zimbabwe while the world permanently waits for a solution from you which
will never come.

Even if you say you are dealing with the problem and have produced a
violent-free election, what about the post-election period?

The machinations and antics being perpetrated by the regime are clear
for all to see but you choose to hear no evil nor see no evil. What a shame!

You seem to want to see more bloodshed and killings to genocidal
levels for you to agree that there is a real crisis at hand.

It is the likes of you who tacitly believe that in Africa there is no
crisis until there is an exchange of gunfire and mass killings.

But one does not need high levels of intellect to know that one life
lost is one life too many.

We know this and we have chosen to be a peaceful people but
unfortunately we have been let down first by the regime and by those like
you.

What is progressive Mr Mbeki, for your regional blocs is to have
proper peer review mechanisms not just in name only or those meant to
appease those who rightfully see it necessary to scrutinise us.

We need to turn our regional blocks into self- scrutinising and
correcting bodies.

An extension or development of such bodies would culminate in the
formation of a regional election body that runs member countries’ elections
as opposed to sitting governments’ appointed commissions doing so.

Such an electoral body would have members drawn from member countries
seconded by their parliaments.

Since most conflicts emanate from election disputes such a body would
ensure transparency and impartiality.

This, in my view is a proactive way of dealing with potential
conflicts.

Let me conclude by offering my solution to the Zimbabwean question you
refuse to admit is a crisis.

It is essential that the regime in Zimbabwe should not only recognise
MDC but accept the will of the people which clearly mandated the MDC and
Morgan Tsvangirai to form the next government.

Robert Zinyohwera,

Harare.
.

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