allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF Should Set Conditions for Run-Off (Page 1 of 2)

The centrality of sanctions to voting patterns is why they have to go before ZEC can announce the date for the run-off. That is if Zanu-PF and the Government it leads are serious about wanting to defend the gains of the revolution, writes Caesar Zvayi

THE MDC-T leadership and their handlers have set and are harping on conditions for participating in the impending run-off, which conditions, they say, are about levelling the "playing field," whatever that means since what is at stake in Zimbabwe is not a playing matter.

High-ranking MDC-T officials have been quoted in the local opposition, South African and Western media saying they have come up with a number of conditions to be met for a second round of voting, one of which is that Western observers and the UN be invited to the run-off.

In suspiciously similar language British foreign secretary David Milliband and his American counterpart Condoleeza Rice have been making the same demands saying "international" supervision, a euphismism for London and Washington's involvement, was integral to a credible run-off.

I agree with their calls for a levelling of the election environment as a precondition for the run-off let alone any other election in Zimbabwe.

In other words there should be no run-off until the factors militating against any competitor are removed.

I, however, differ with them on who needs to do the levelling, and in which direction the scales are tipped.

It is a fact that Zanu-PF addressed all of the MDC's concerns during the inter-party dialogue held under the aegis of Sadc as evidenced by amendments to AIPPA, BSA, POSA and the Electoral Laws.

Ironically, the crybaby opposition was let-off the hook over the illegal sanctions, and to this day, continues refusing to concede ground on the illegal economic sanctions whose existence they inanely refuse to acknowledge.

It is an indisputable fact that the illegal sanctions were imposed with a view to ensuring that Zimbabwean voters become disenchanted with the Government and see Tsvangirai and his cohorts as saviours who will deliver "a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning" without sanctions.

It is these economic sanctions that were supposed to see Zanu-PF deposed by one of two methods either through a popular uprising in the streets using the colour template the Anglo-Saxon alliance perfected in Eastern Europe or through an avalanche of protest votes at the polls, which is what nearly happened on March 29.

This agenda was outlined by former US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs in the Reagan administration, Chester Crocker, who in a foreign policy testimony to the US Senate in 2001, said "to separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu-PF we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you senators have the stomach for what you have to do."

Crocker's words, a carry-over from the utterances of the then secretary of state Henry Kissinger who said the US had to make the Chilean economy scream in order to topple the left-wing government of Salvador Allende in 1973, culminated in the drafting of the US sanctions law, the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act that was signed into law by George W. Bush.

The ZDERA not only provided for the cutting of Zimbabwe's lines of credit from all multilateral lending institutions but also provided for funding for the MDC and other quasi-opposition groupings in Zimbabwe in pursuit of illegal regime change.

It is important to note that the sanctions idea came from the same Crocker who was opposed to the imposition of sanctions against Apartheid South Africa preferring what he called "constructive engagement," which latter became Washington's official policy towards the racist regime in Pretoria.

The premise was that instead of economic sanctions on, and divestment from Pretoria, the West had to "use incentives to encourage South Africa to gradually move away from apartheid."

The sanctions law was drafted with the assistance of the MDC legal desk and had the blessing of sworn white supremacists like Senator Jesse Helms.

The sanctions law, ZDERA, compels American officials in the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks to "oppose and vote against any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe," and to vote against any reduction or cancellation of "indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe".

What is more, ZDERA also interdicts debt relief to Zimbabwe forcing the country to spend its scarce foreign currency reserves servicing debts instead of investing in economic development, particularly boosting the ailing industry that was sabotaged by the MDC and its allies.

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