The power-sharing agreement which sets up a coalition government for Zimbabwe offers little scope for dealing with past human rights abuses, denigrating the role of civil society and making only tentative mention of a mechanism to achieve national healing, write Comfort Ero and Howard Varney of the International Center for Transitional Justice.
The two white author miss a very significant point here, that is Africans can also pardon dictators if the choose to do so. As for international law, if that is so important why is George Bush of the USA still running around and has never been brought to justice, even after attacking another country on pretext of removing a dictator, when we now know that it was all about oil.
Also the authors ignore the fact that even the USA during the civil war, the North after defeating the south, forgave their generals. Africans are choosing to forgive the offender in order to pursue a greater goal and that is peace. Yes, peace at all costs!
The authors clearly feel the African continent should follow the western world, and that has been rejected by Africa. People in Africa are saying "Viva Zimbabwe" and Africa for solving your own problems! It is a much complex way today in Africa, than the old apartheid or racists Rhodesia way of seeing things through "EURO" eyes. A lot of white anglo are busy making a billion comments, but lets also not forget native Zimbabweans also have their own opinions. As a full blooded Zimbabwe..I say the article is full of shit!
Dear Phiri, most of the able sons and daughters of Zimbabwe have run away to neighbouring countries because of Mugabe's terror. Over 4 millions!! Many of those who have remained are thugs, bloodsuckers, corrupt and who can survive through Mugabe's goodies! Those MDC supporters who have also remained are unable to put into practice their initiatives.
You talk of African solutions? Like the empty slogans under the one-party regimes that propped up small dictators here and there?
Can yo have a specific African total diffierent from the addition of 2 and 2 equal to 4?
It's an intellectual phallacy to talk about African solution when Africa is not a homogeneous entity. Had it been one though, it would be catastrophic under the dictatorship of people like murderer Mugabe and buffoon Quadaffi!!
You should rather talk about human oriented solutions instead of your scrap African solution! So many crimes have been committed in the name of motherland Africa!
You need an impartial cleansing of your mental perception of things in Africa! May be you have rubbed shoulders too long with guys of the one-party regimes?
IS europe homogeneous??? Does a spaniard or Italian look like the great Germanic aryan people of northern Europe??? And yet the EC is now a reality, protected by NATO ... an essentally European concept. (Canada et USA are largely European in all but few respects. Of course, Africa needs European solutions because our problems are essentially European in origin .... the downright racism of settlers stopped the growth of native leaders. Many able and capable leaders fell by the wayside ... people like Chad Chipunza, Isaac Samuriwo, Jasper Savanhu, Albert Lithuli, Chipembere etc, to mention a few. Though l agree with you to the extend that to talk of Africa is not realistic. Lets work on regional developments, eg Nigeria has very little in common with Zimbabwe or South Africa. Let ECOWAs do their own thing while here in the SADC go our own way.
Please look to the other side of the coin as well!! What did lunatic Mugabe do with Nkhomo and the Matabeleland?
Aka47 & Phiri, please do not lump me together with Europe. I am an African like you. You must learn to adjust to multi party democracy where an African can hold a different view from yours, especially a view that does not support dictators, murderers, those rotten guys who hold illegitimate power and who directs the army and police to silence political opponents.
It seems that your long association with thugs of the one-party regimes have prevented your minds from developing normally. As a result, your minds have shrunk to the extent that you are incapable to digest daring challenging views about a lively kicking nation that keeps its leaders under the heat of a melting pot to deliver and deliver quickly!
The time of slogans, blind followers and praise for lunatics & murderers has long gone. Wake up!
Prem, you think you have the moral authority to force people to follow europeans what they are doing. That is out! Africans, like asians will adapt europeans ways as it suits them and reject others. Japan is a very good example of that.
It seems as through it bothers you to know that Africans can think for themselves and decide for themselves.
What else could anyone expect when incompetent Mbeki mediated and allowed blood to be shed under his nose! Then proceeds to prepare this strange agreement at night, keeping details secret until it is signing, and never caring to oversee the implementation. Where else do you get murderers, rapists, people known to systematically torture and sluaghter opponents- Morgan has scars to show for his fight against them - what else, really? For SADC to pretend that they resolved the issue is an exercise in denial of the reality; for AU to celebrate shows how limited their thinking is; Why is it that the hated West are the only ones coming with correct positions - these murderers deserve more, deeper sanctions; in a normal world - one does not exist - they should be told by their neighbours to step down and allow proper elections under proper supervision - since their police and army are all political - they deserve intervention for the sake of the people inside this country and those forced to leave. I think we have expressed a lot of opinions here, reality is the carnage continues, the nation continues to beg for food and would also want to beg next year as nothing is being done to ensure productive farming period. This is not acceptable in this century, but it continues and is fact for many who die needlessly under this mess ! Why are African leaders this impervious to the truth about the Zim tragedy? Are they too old - some of them look young - do they all have this unfounded hatred of anything so-called white even if that means their entire populations - Why,why??
Elder, If Mbeki is incompetent, then George Bush must be a real moron, with a very small "IQ"
The authors rightly say that, AT LEAST FOR NOW, President Robert Mugabe and his security chiefs appear to have gotten away with serious crimes.
We the civil society activists of Southern Africa will see to it that, at an appropriate time, they be brought before a criminal court to answer for their crimes! We know Tsvangirai signed under duress. We will make sure that his successor as PM, in a not so distant future government, will give a nod for the big trial od the murderers.
There cannot be any reward for butchering innocent citizens who do not espouse the leader's political ideology!
The infamous list of Pinochet, Déby, Charles Taylor, Karadzic may one day also include lunatic Mugabe and thugs!