SADC under pressure from Zimbabwean Exiles

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

By PHIL MATIBE

Published: November 9, 2009

Exiled Zimbabwean farmer and Author Phil Matibe has written to the heads of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) asking them to take a tougher stance on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe who has been accused of failing to fulfil his part of the Global Political Agreement.

Matibe sets out  what he describes as minimum conditions required for Zimbabwe to return into the International fold and receive International support for its Economic turn around program.The contents of his letter a reproduced below ;

Attention SADC Heads of State

THE TROIKA OF THE ORGAN ON POLITICS, DEFENCE AND SECURITY COOPERATION

Mozambique H.E Armando Emilio Guebuza – Chairperson
Swaziland His Majesty, King Mswati III
South Africa H.E. President Jacob G. Zuma

Dear Sirs,

Please find attached below the minimum pre-requisite conditions necessary for all Zimbabwean citizens to embrace the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Compliance to these indispensable political fundamentals will oblige the entire populace, implore the Zimbabwean political exile, refugee and asylee community to lobby for the full restoration of multilateral and bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and the countries in which exiles reside and have sought refuge.

We hereby demand:

1. the dissolution and disbandment of all para-military Youth Militia units;
2. the annulment of all draconian legislation including LOMA,POSA & AIPPA;
3. end to abductions, torture and arbitrary arrest of political activists;
4. establishment of an independent Truth Commission and an autonomous Electoral Commission;
5. cessation of all farm invasions, private property seizures and
6. the arrest and prosecution all known perpetrators of political violence;
7. the introduction of a new people driven constitution;
8. fresh elections under the auspices of the UN, AU and SADC;
9. the resignation of the Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono and the Attorney General JohannesTomana;
10. the resignation of all civil servants accused of human rights violations.

Conformity by ZANU (PF) to these irrevocable caveats will restore trust in the GNU. Scarce resources must not be squandered on summits and indabas that yield nothing but rhetoric, words that only serve to buy time and buttress an unpopular government.

Honourable sirs, an estimated three million Zimbabweans emigrated, not because of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, but because of the sanctions on their civil liberties imposed by your peer Robert Mugabe. State sanctioned violence, extra judicial killings, murder, torture, rape, and the general breakdown in the rule of law, became the cause of this exodus. There is no SADC country without Zimbabwean refuges and the continued flagrant violations of humanitarian law is the main cause.

Excellencies, while Zimbabweans were being brutalised by their own government, SADC held numerous meetings and its collective inaction has fueled the precipitous decline in Zimbabwe’s human rights record.

Your Excellencies, the impulsive call by the troika through an ambiguous SADC communiqué, which calls for Western countries to lift “all forms of sanctions” against Zimbabwe, is premature. ZANU (PF) must first remove the various embargoes and sanctions it has imposed on the people of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean political quagmire is man-made and presents a classical cart-before-the-horse scenario. Your colleague, Robert Mugabe, is no longer part of the solution, and the sooner SADC arranges for his exit, the quicker the impasse is resolved.

For and on behalf of the voiceless,

Phil Matibe – www.madhingabucketboy.com