[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 107 (Thursday, June 26, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H6149-H6150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WHO WILL SAVE ZIMBABWE?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, we are about to see the
world sit by silently, not silently perhaps, but ineffectively, and
allow one of the most outrageous abuses of human rights that we have
seen in a long time to go forward.
The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is engaging in a pattern of
oppression and tyranny and thuggery and despicable conduct towards his
own people. He lost a preliminary election for the presidency despite
every effort he could make to rig the election. Rather than allow the
second round to go forward, he has ramped up the terror to the point
where the man who got more votes than he in the first round
understandably said he wouldn't participate in a run-off election which
[[Page H6150]]
would not only be a fraud but which has already led to the murder and
abuse of many innocent people.
Robert Rotberg, a very distinguished scholar of Africa, wrote an
article that was published in yesterday's Boston Globe. The headline
is, ``Who will have the courage to save Zimbabwe?''
He starts with a little history. He writes, ``After Idi Amin
terrorized and killed his own Ugandans throughout the 1970s, President
Julius Nyerere of neighboring Tanzania finally sent his army across the
border to end the mayhem and restore stability. Who will now do the
same for beleaguered Zimbabwe? Who will remove despotic Robert Mugabe
from his besmirched and exposed presidency?''
He is not calling for an army to go in, although there is certainly
far stronger justification for an army to go there than a lot of places
armies have been sent recently, but he has a program which he believes
could be helpful. But as he points out, it has to be African nations
that do this.
This is a situation given the colonial history where the United
States and Britain and France and others would not have the moral
authority to act. But Africans should.
Madam Speaker, I led a congressional delegation to Africa in April,
and I was honored to be in the presence of the current president of
South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, a man who was one of the leaders in
overturning one of the worst oppressions we have seen, apartheid in
South Africa. I was honored to be in his presence. I was delighted when
he presented a very high honor from South Africa to our colleague, the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).
But I have felt terrible disappointment at President Mbeki's
passivity in the face of the terrible repudiation of democracy by
President Mugabe. I wish that President Mbeki would have understood the
right of the people of Zimbabwe to receive the same kind of sympathy
and help that many of us tried to extend to the people of South Africa
when they were victimized.
I will include for the Record the article by Mr. Rotberg making an
argument for an African initiative to protect the people of Zimbabwe
from the tyrant, the degenerating tyrant who so viciously oppresses
them.
Mr. Rotberg closes with this: ``Zimbabwe is in shambles. The United
States and Britain would doubtless like to act unilaterally, but dare
not. Only Africans and the U.N. have unquestioned moral authority.''
And he notes here that the former Secretary General Kofi Annan did a
great job when Kenya had troubles and helped to pacify and restore
democracy and stability to Kenya. So he says, ``Only Africa and the
United Nations have unquestioned moral authority. Which African leaders
will now emulate Nyerere's profile of courage in Zimbabwe's dire time
of need?''
As one who has strongly supported the rights of the people of Africa
to be free from colonialism, one who has strongly supported the need to
provide the appropriate economic support so we can seriously diminish
poverty, as a great admirer of President Mbeki and his colleagues, I
implore them to save the good name of African democracy. And I
understand the difficulty, and they certainly aren't the ones
perpetrating this. But if the world, if Africa allows Mugabe to
continue this terrible reign of terror, it will be a source of shame to
us all.
Who Will Have the Courage to Save Zimbabwe?
(By Robert I. Rotberg)
After Idi Amin terrorized and killed his own Ugandans
throughout the 1970s, President Julius Nyerere of neighboring
Tanzania finally sent his army across the border to end the
mayhem and restore stability. Who will now do the same for
beleaguered Zimbabwe? Who will remove despotic Robert Mugabe
from his besmirched and exposed presidency?
Presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai's courageous
decision to boycott Zimbabwe's runoff election on Friday--
after Mugabe's thugs broke up yet another opposition rally by
swinging iron bars and sticks at potential Tsvangirai
voters--compels the African Union, the UN Security Council,
and major powers finally to act. Tsvangirai said that he and
his supporters were facing war, not an election, and they
would ``not be part of that war.'' Serious UN sanctions are a
first step.
Second, since South Africa shows no appetite for an
intervention and Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia--
Zimbabwe's neighbors--are unlikely to act militarily without
South African agreement an African stained Zimbabwe's tyranny
should: demand that Friday's poll be postponed until Africans
can patrol the country and oversee a free and fair real
election; demand compulsory mediation by former UN secretary
general Kofi Annan, who pacified Kenya earlier this year;
denounce despotism in Zimbabwe; and ban all Zimbabwean
aircraft from flying over neighboring airspaces, thus
effectively keeping Mugabe and his henchmen bottled up inside
their decaying country. Neighboring countries could also
squeeze land-locked Zimbabwe's electricity supplies and slow
rail traffic.
Time is short. Mugabe is clearly still intent on ratifying
his usurpation of power on Friday. Tsvangirai officially led
Mugabe in the initial presidential poll in March. In recent
weeks Mugabe's military have unleashed a relentless wave of
intimidation against Tsvangirai's Movement for a Democratic
Change and its supporters, killing 86, maiming at least
10,000, and assaulting thousands more. Tsvangirai was
detained seven times before Sunday and his key deputy was
imprisoned last week without trial on a bogus treason charge.
Yesterday, the house of another key deputy was trashed and
his elderly relatives assaulted.
Unless Africa and the UN act courageously, Mugabe will get
away with his brazen attempt to cling brutally to power and
impoverish his own people despite broad global contempt.
Mugabe has also refused to summon Parliament, which is
dominated by the Movement for Democratic Change and was
elected overwhelmingly in March. As a result, many of
Mugabe's cabinet ministers and loyalist remain in office,
drawing salaries, despite having lost their seats. Several
times, Mugabe and close associates have publicly declared
that the Movement and Tsvangirai would never be allowed to
take office or govern. ``Only God will remove me,'' Mugabe
defiantly declared Monday.
Conditions in Zimbabwe, where more than 80 percent of
adults are unemployed and nearly everyone is hungry; where
there are startling shortages of staple corn, wheat and
bread, sugar, oil, milk, and gasoline; and where brutality is
always around the next corner are even more horrific today
than they were in Uganda in 1979, when Nyerere invaded.
Famously, Mugabe told a BBC interviewer in 1999 that he was
``no Idi Amin.''
Mugabe's men have also continued to use food as a political
weapon, first stopping the supply of grain by international
relief agencies and last week physically stealing relief
shipments to give to their own supporters. Mugabe's thugs
have also harassed British and American diplomats at
roadblocks, in one case threatening to burn them alive in
their cars.
Zimbabwe's inflation now exceeds 160,000 percent a year.
One U.S. dollar buys 4 million Zimbabwe dollars at the
unofficial street rate. Mugabe and his close associates
exploit differences between official and unofficial exchange
rates to prosper while ordinary Zimbabweans go hungry or are
attacked.
Zimbabwe is in shambles. The United States and Britain
would doubtless like to act unilaterally, but dare not. Only
Africans and the UN have unquestioned moral authority. Which
African leaders will now emulate Nyerere's profile of courage
in Zimbabwe's dire time of need?
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