11 December 2008
Zimbabwe Approaching “Failed State” Status, U.S. Ambassador Says
McGee calls for African response, expresses concern over missing activists
Washington — With a cholera outbreak and the disappearance of Zimbabwean activists added to ongoing economic and political misfortunes, “the human rights situation in Zimbabwe is off the chart right now,” says U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, who urged Zimbabwe’s neighbors to act to improve the situation.
Speaking at the State Department December 11, McGee said: “One man and his cronies, Robert Mugabe, are holding this country hostage. And Zimbabwe is rapidly deteriorating into failed-state status.”
At the same briefing, the Bush administration announced it has allocated $6.2 million to help fight Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak, which has killed nearly 800 people. This assistance comes in addition to the $4.6 million Zimbabwe has already been receiving from the United States to address the crisis by providing emergency water, sanitation and hygiene programs.
During the past year, the United States contributed about $300 million in humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe. About $218 million of that was in food assistance and the rest was to organizations such as the World Food Programme and the Global Fund and to direct aid for health care. (See “Zimbabwe to Receive $6.2 Million from U.S. Aid Agency.”)
McGee echoed calls from world and African leaders and U.S. officials, including President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for Zimbabwe’s leader, Robert Mugabe, to relinquish power for the good of his country.
“It is time for Mugabe to go. He’s outlived his usefulness in Zimbabwe,” McGee said. “He needs to respect the will of the people of Zimbabwe, as expressed in the March election, and let a representative government form … in Zimbabwe that will take care of the needs of the people.”
On March 29, Zimbabwe held presidential and parliamentary elections. Despite violence, intimidation and a media environment that heavily favored Mugabe’s ruling party, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gained a majority in the country’s parliament and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won more presidential votes than Mugabe or third party challenger Simba Makoni.
However, according to official election results, Tsvangirai did not receive more than 50 percent of the vote and a presidential runoff election was scheduled for June 27. In the weeks leading up to the runoff vote, a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation directed against the MDC led Tsvangirai to withdraw from the contest out of concern for the lives of his supporters. Unopposed, Mugabe claimed victory in a vote widely condemned by the international community.
McGee said the United States seeks a peaceful solution, rather than more years of political violence. International organizations and regional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), McGee added, are “the best way to achieve these peaceful solutions.”
SADC has “a lot of options at its control” and should uphold its own laws, including those requiring a member state to take care of its people and respect human rights, he said.
“We're not going to try to dictate to SADC what they should do. You know, what we're saying to SADC is … we can see the situation in Zimbabwe is bad,” McGee said, adding that the organization has taken action with other countries in the past.
In 1994, for example, SADC intervened in Lesotho to reinstate the country’s government, which had been overthrown in a military coup.
The United States is working with countries in the region, including South Africa, to “take an active stance” on Zimbabwe. On December 11, South Africa’s health minister visited the country’s border to observe the cholera crisis and declared an emergency.
“It has not actually closed the border, but this is the next step from that,” McGee said.
The ambassador also expressed concern about 17 individuals tied to the political opposition who have gone missing despite Zimbabwean court orders to the country’s police and government to “locate them and bring them forward.”
The missing include a baby, and the ambassador called on the Mugabe regime to produce the individuals and openly charge them if they have committed a crime.
“Zimbabweans have lost confidence in their law enforcement system. And the government cannot ensure the safety and security of the people of Zimbabwe. As a matter of fact, the government may even be complicit in many of these issues,” McGee said.
CLOSING BORDERS WOULD BRING REGIME “TO ITS KNEES”
A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said Zimbabwe’s neighbors will need to take action to force the government to change what is occurring in the country.
“There is a continued outcry from the African nations that this is an African problem and it needs an African solution, but so far they’ve been unwilling to step up and show us what that African solution is. The African solution is very simple: get rid of Mugabe,” the official said.
“It takes something as simple as closing the borders,” the official said, recounting that billions of dollars continue to flow across Zimbabwe’s landlocked borders legally and illegally, particularly from South Africa. “The closure of the borders, literally, in a week would bring this country to its knees.”
Asked about humanitarian concerns of closing the border, the official replied that, under the current circumstances, “How much more can you hurt the people? It’s obvious that the government doesn’t care about the people.”
Zimbabwe’s political opposition has indicated that Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, would “live a respected life” inside the country upon stepping down from power and “will always have a place in the heart of many Zimbabweans,” the official said.
The country’s neighbors ultimately must take action because of the financial strain caused by Zimbabwean refugees. The official said 500,000 people in neighboring Botswana, or one-quarter of that country’s population, are economic migrants from Zimbabwe, and Botswana might not be able to continue to take care of them because of the drain on resources.
South Africa, which has seen xenophobic violence directed against Zimbabwean migrants, recently had been coping with 6,000 Zimbabweans entering illegally every week. With the current cholera crisis, that number has risen to between 10,000 and 12,000 every week, the official said.
The official said a popular Zimbabwean uprising against Mugabe is unlikely. “I think the real risk takers in Zimbabwe are waiting on tables and cooking food down in South Africa. They voted with their feet,” preferring to “wade across the Limpopo River and brave the crocodiles and the South African military forces” to escape the country.
