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Comrade Bob brings Zimbabwe to ruins


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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

May 9, 2002

UNITED NATIONS — Comrade Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, has killed the golden goose. Or more aptly strangled it throught a crude mix of socialist policies, racist rhetoric, and rife stupidity. So now this Southern African land, still beautiful but once bountiful can join the ranks of the those whose self inflicted economic wounds can bring the long suffering population to starvation.

President Mugabe, the man largely responsible for the chaos said it so well declaring, "A State of Disaster," as worsening food shortages and starvation stalk the once-prosperous land.

Recent national elections, rigged to put it poilitely, naturally kept "Comrade Bob" in power from which he has ruled for twenty-two years. The old Mugabe magic of "promise them everything and fool them all the time" has worked again like a charm. While serious electoral observers, including those bullied from the European Union or the "see no evil" monitors from South Africa, could hardly vouch for the veracity of the vote, the plain fact is that Mugabe "won" in spite of a strong showing by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Now Zimbabwe's rulers go back to harassing the white and Asian micro-minority of farmers and businessmen, intimidating the press, and murdering black villagers in places far from the media' s view.

While recent press crackdowns have made the headlines, and the still scrappy independent Daily News struggles on, I will return to my perennial theme on this sad southern African land — the ultimate danger from the regime comes not from media censorship but from a man-made crisis of greed prompting illegal land seizures. The threat concerns the politically motivated destruction of the agricultural base which while once a food breadbasket, may now join many of the continent's other basket cases.

Comrade Bob's most recent accomplishment is that farm production of the food staple maize/corn is expected to be down this year by 70%! Moreover, at least 500,000 tons of wheat may have to be imported, mostly from neighboring South Africa.

Having strangled the golden goose, there is less and less food to go around. Regime encouraged occupations of white-owned farms, rural terror, and less than subtle harassment towards the Asian business/trader community has created a climate of fear. While the Asians (mostly South Asian ) number only 12,000, the threats made by Mugabe supporters echo Uganda's Idi Amin regime in the 1970's where forced expulsions became the order of the day. With such a environment, Zimbabwe can hardly hope to attract tourism nor investment. Zimbabwe will enter the long line before before what's politely called the "donor countries."

"Zimbabwe food shoratges are the result of poor rainfall, a controversial land reform program and a collapsed economy," warned the Financial Times, "Illegal land occupations and compulsory acquisitions by the state have disrupted production and have led to a reduction in planting by commercial farmers." The farm occupations, often accompanied with violence and amid a fit of glee, often benefitting members of the ruling ZANU political party, have become commonplace in the past few years.

Moreover, the UN's World Food Program, squarely blamed the government land aquisition policies for deepening the effects of the regional drought. The UN agency already providing food aid for 560,000 people expects the food needs to "rise dramatically." The WFP adds, "The vulnerable in Zimbabwe are experiencing hardship due to high inflation, declines in employment, and unprecedented HIV/AIDS levels."

Recent reports that governement encouraged and sanctioned poachers are killing rare Black Rhino on game reserves add to the gloom. The poaching brings added revenue as the sale of rhino horn exceeds its weight in gold and can fetch $60,000 per animal to mostly Far Eastern markets. Britain's Sunday Telegraph adds that conservationists in Zimbabwe conceed that 40 percent of the wildlife in the country may have been killed in the past 18 months with the most recent problem facing the rare Rhino.

But it's the human tragedy which concerns neighboring countries most. South Africa and Zambia naturally fear the spillover from the famine and political crisis in the country once known as Rhodesia. Zimbabwe's troubles can easily turn into a refugee explosion southwards towards South Africa or north to Zambia.

The USA should work along with the European Union and former colonial power Britain, to bring about the conditions which will stop Zimbabwe's slide into total chaos. On the one hand Washington and the EU can financially underwrite farm purchases so that redistribution does not come at the barrel of the gun but at least through less vitriolic coercion. This would equally and importantly set a precendent that illegal land grabs are just that — illegal — a point not lost on many militants in South Africa itself. Importantly the USA and EU should tie food aid and development assistance quid pro quo to political openess and transparency. In other words, don't reward Mugabe's mistakes and thuggery by bailing him out to the tune of development assistance. Importantly, South Africa must take a lead to put such pressures into an African context.

Actually Zimbabwe is surrounded by democratic states — Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Mugabe should take notice of his neighbors. Zimbabwe is named after the historic Zimbabwe ruins, a mysterious stone city of conical towers which was likely built during the Middle Ages by a long vanished black civilization. Sadly, it appears that Comrade Bob has tried his best to turn the entire country into a larger version of his country's namesake.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

May 9, 2002


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