Sign the Open Letter at http://www.iacenter.org/africa/zimbabweopenletter

Retrieved on 13 December, 2009 at 10:47, Central African Time

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE:

First, let us begin by saying thank you. Thank you for demonstrating to and for African people and the world the courage and conviction that must be had
to be self-determining in the face of insurmountable odds. Odds that would have crushed others with any less will to be free.

The road you chose for national liberation, which was carved through your first and second Chimurengas (armed liberation wars), cut an enduring path for
us all to follow.

At this moment in time, when all the enemies of Africa have attempted to circle their wagons around you and crush your right to land and sovereignty, your
leadership and the veterans of your struggle have rallied you to unite.

The words of one of Africa’s greatest patriots are so fitting to your struggle at this time:

block quote
“No brutality, mistreatment, or torture has ever forced me to ask for grace, for I prefer to die with my head high, my faith steadfast, and my confidence
profound in the destiny of my country, rather than to live in submission and scorn of sacred principles. History will one day have...

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Dateline: Harare, Zimbabwe

If you read the headlines of recent weeks, you would swear that African demons, using brute force have stolen white people’s land and evicted them from the only country that they have ever known. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is just the reverse. The situation in Zimbabwe is one that pits the legitimate aspirations of the indigenous African masses against foreign settlers who for generations have stolen land with the help of their kith and kin in Europe, who turned a blind eye on the racist apartheid policies of the colonialist regime that governed the area known as Southern Rhodesia. Since the day that Cecil John Rhodes set foot on the African continent and set forth to claim all the land from Cape to Cairo, a genocidal pogrom has been launched against the people of Africa.

Like their allies in South Africa, the whites in Rhodesia practiced cruel and inhumane policies that made the indigenous African population less than second-class citizens in their own land. They stole all of the best farmland and left the people with areas useless for farming, either...

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President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was inaugurated for a sixth term on June 29 after winning a landslide victory on behalf of the ruling Zimbabwe African Nation Union-Patriotic Front against the opposition Western-backed Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangira.

ZANU-PF, which led the nation to independence along with the now-merged Zimbabwe African People’s Union, has been the focus of a well-orchestrated destabilization
program carried out by Britain and the United States. This Western campaign has included economic sanctions as well as an intense international media blitz which seeks to create public opinion against the ruling party in Zimbabwe.

Just six days prior to the June 27 run-off elections, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai announced that he was pulling out of the poll. The run-off was required because no candidate received 51 percent of the popular vote for president. In the legislative elections, the MDC-T won a slight majority in the lower
house of the parliament, while ZANU-PF won a majority in the Senate.

According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, a candidate cannot withdraw from a race if fewer than 21 days remain until the poll. Consequently, Tsvangirai’s
name still appeared on ballots printed and distributed to polling places throughout the country. The MDC-T leader also told his supporters not to vote in the elections, guaranteeing ZANU-PF a landslide victory.

After President Mugabe was inaugurated on June 29, he immediately flew to Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt to participate in the African Union Summit for 2008. According
to Western press agencies such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, the political situation in Zimbabwe was going to overshadow all other issues at the AU Summit. BBC reports were designed to portray Zimbabwe in a negative light and to prompt African leaders to denounce President Mugabe.

At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Chinese leaders in an effort to pressure them to support sanctions against the ZANU-PF and other efforts aimed at regime change in this southern African nation. Chinese diplomats rejected these efforts and stressed the need for interparty dialogue in Zimbabwe.

In addition to attempts to influence Chinese foreign policy toward Zimbabwe, the U.S. also undertook to draft additional resolutions for consideration at the United Nations Security Council that would further the economic assaults being carried out by the imperialist states against the country.

African leaders set the agenda

Despite these efforts, Zimbabwe was never placed on the agenda at the AU Summit. President Mugabe was welcomed warmly by the other heads of state. He was photographed with all the leaders as a full participant in the organization, which was formed several years ago after the dissolution of its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity.

Some of the agenda items discussed at the AU Summit included: Status of Implementation of the Regional and Continental Agenda for Integration; Appointment of the Members of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; and Appointment of the Judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

A series of reports were also delivered on the following projects: Outcome of the May 2006 Abuja Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, TB and Other Related Infectious Diseases; Status Report on Malaria in Africa; Promotion of Maternal and Child Health in Africa; and the Food Crisis in Africa.

On July 1, the Millennium Development Goals Steering Group was launched, which addressed the fact that: “At the mid-point in the global effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015, progress in many African countries is not on track. ... The aim of the MDG Africa Steering Group’s recommendations is to translate existing
commitments into tangible progress in every African country.”

In a press briefing issued by AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Dr. Elham Mahmoud A. Ibrahim, he stated: “Most sub-Saharan African countries face a major challenge in trying to realize their development and social obligations because of inadequate access to electricity with about 30 percent of the region’s population, and less than 8 percent of rural areas having access to electricity. This situation needs to change if sub Saharan Africa is to be economically competitive with other developing regions of the world and realize its sustainable development goals.”

The July 1edition of the Zimbabwe Herald reported that the efforts to deflect attention away from the work of the AU by the Western imperialist nations did not work. Although Zimbabwe was mentioned in some of the opening statements at the Summit, it was not from a hostile perspective as anticipated by the West.

AU Commission Chair Jean Ping said that the continent must assist Zimbabwe’s political parties to work together to advance the well-being of their country. “I would like, here, to commend the efforts of the leaders of the region (Sadc) and their commitment to assist the Zimbabwean parties in the search for a lasting solution to the problems in that country,” said Ping.

According to the Zimbabwe Herald: “At his swearing-in ceremony in Harare on Sunday just before he flew here (Egypt), Cde Mugabe said Government was prepared
for dialogue with the opposition MDC-T, but only if it came into the talks with its own agenda and not a Western foisted stance.”

What is important to recognize in the campaign against Zimbabwe by the United States, Britain and EU countries is that one key component of the efforts aimed at regime change is the spreading of false information in the press both to overemphasize the importance and significance of the opposition forces and to undercut the authority and legitimacy of the ZANU-PF government.

During the lead-up to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning in 2001 and again from 2002 to 2003, a similar program was instituted which demonized the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party of Iraq. The next steps were designed to convince people in the U.S. and around the world that it was in their best interests to support an invasion and occupation of these foreign states.

The U.S., Britain and EU are working toward these ends in Zimbabwe, and their aims have implications for the entire region of southern Africa and throughout the continent as a whole. In the geopolitical areas where the U.S. and other imperialist states have intervened, the overall conditions for the masses have worsened. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, the U.S. military involvement in these nations has created far more difficulties than what existed before. No Trackbacks

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Note: I came across this story on a forum and have attempted to get hold of the author.
This story is reposted not to infringe on copyrights but, to illustrate a harsh reality.
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For more than four decades, Larry Norton and his family farmed the same stretch of land in northern Zimbabwe. Here, he tells the devastating story of the
pressures that forced him to leave 15 August 2002.

I sit in a storage shed in Harare, surrounded by the chaotic elements of our life and home and our piles of possessions, and try to reflect on the past
few days. Last Thursday, 8 August 2002, we evacuated our farm - Dahwye - in the Mvurwi region of Mashonaland in north-east Zimbabwe, about 100km from Harare,
abandoning the home in which three generations of our family had lived for almost half a century. After two years of mayhem, we could not go on. The government-sponsored
land invasions had begun in March 2000, shortly before our 14-month-old son Oscar died from cancer. We were unable to spend his last days on the farm because
of the trouble. He died in an apartment in Harare surrounded by refugee farmers from Macheke, where in April that year David Stevens, a supporter of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was the first white farmer to be killed.

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