22 November 2008
opinion
US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James D McGee speaks to Robert Wood, Deputy US Spokesman and US media during a special briefing on Zimbabwe's current state during a video conference link.
Excerpts:
Wood: Good morning in Zimbabwe. Ambassador McGee, welcome. This is Robert Wood, the Deputy Spokesman. Ambassador McGee is here and he's going to talk to you all about the political situation in Zimbabwe. So without further ado, I will turn it over to Ambassador McGee. Welcome, sir.
McGee: Thank you, Robert. Let me start off by saying that we have a multi-faceted issue here in Zimbabwe. We have a very bad, dire political situation that's being -- leading to a food and health emergency, man-made, in this country.
I think you're all aware of the problems on the political side of the house. Let me just briefly go over those. There was an agreement signed for a unity government on September 15 this year. Here we are, approximately eight, nine weeks later, and we still have no government formed. The Zanu PF, Robert Mugabe's ruling party, has refused to act in good faith. They want to maintain all the powerful ministries, all the security ministries, as well as the financial ministries, under their control and give a group of smaller social ministries to the control of the MDC, the Movement for Democratic Change headed by Morgan Tsvangirai.
This impasse seemed to have been broken a week and a half ago during the Sadc summit that was held in Johannesburg. But still, even after that, we have not had any forward movement on that situation. And the political situation still remains at a critical impasse here in Zimbabwe.
I think what's even more important today, though, is the humanitarian crisis that is following up from this political impasse. We're seeing the humanitarian situation here in Zimbabwe really go down the tubes. Food situation, food and security situation, is extremely dire. Estimates from the United Nations community is 1.5 million Zimbabweans are at risk of food insecurity right now, and by the end of this crop season that number could jump up to over five million people.
The health system has totally collapsed. The three major hospitals here in Harare have closed. They've closed their doors for patients. We have anecdotal stories of clinics in the countryside being unable to operate. People are routinely turned away from clinics. And in some places, police have been stationed outside of clinics to ensure that no one can enter the premises. Doctors and nurses are not being paid. So that's the reality of the situation on the ground here in Zimbabwe on this health system.
The water situation, sanitation situation, has gone through the ceiling. I just received a confirmed report about 15 minutes ago there are now 294 confirmed deaths from cholera here in Zimbabwe. There are over 1 200 confirmed cases of cholera, and another 2 500 unconfirmed cases of cholera. The South African parliament just released a statement this afternoon, saying that they would provide assistance to Zimbabwe to try to deal with this cholera epidemic, because much of it is occurring on the border where Zimbabweans are trying to leave this country and make their way into South Africa.
Question: Sue Pleming from Reuters. Mr Ambassador, you spoke about a cholera epidemic. What is the US doing to try and ease the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, and particularly the health crisis that has emerged?
McGee: We are working with the international community. We're bringing in assistance and trying to provide clean water. Cholera is something that is fairly easily treated. You need salt, you need sugar, you need clean water. Unfortunately, those are three things that the average Zimbabwean does not have. So we're working with NGOs and local communities to try to provide water tablets, saline tablets, the things that are necessary to take care of the epidemic here in Zimbabwe.
Question: Ambassador, this is Desmond Butler from the Associated Press. Do you feel that Mugabe has played you, given the September 15 agreement? Has he employed a strategy from the North Korea-Sudan playbook of pretend to play along with what the international community wants and -- but merely stalling for time and trying to hold on to power?
McGee: Desmond, I don't think he's even trying to be coy about this. He's made it clear that he is not easily going to give up power here in Zimbabwe. The Sadc, the Southern African Development Community, clearly came out with statements saying that there should be a unity government; there should be power- sharing. And Mugabe has pretty much said that Tsvangirai would never sit in a government here in Zimbabwe with any true power.
So, no, I don't think he's trying to play us. I think he's snubbing his nose at the international community and pretty much saying this is my country and I'll do with it as I please.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) need a new strategy for the problem?
MCGEE: I think the strategy here is we continue to put the pressure on Mugabe. We have our targeted sanctions. The European Union, the Australians, and many other like-minded Western nations are following us with those sanctions. The other issue is that we need to continue to work with Sadc, the African Union and the United Nations to continue to spin up their sanctions, their actions against this repressive regime headed by Mugabe.
QUESTION: Lach Carmichael from AFP. I just wanted to follow up on Desmond's question. How is he holding on to power? And what weaknesses do you see, if any, within his power structure? Are there any factions that are tilting away from him?
MCGEE: Actually, I think his grip on power may be actually stronger than it was this time last year. Mugabe continues to hang on to power through the political patronage system. There's still a lot of money that flows through the formal and even more money that flows through the informal economies in this country. The president uses a lot of political patronage, political pay-offs to ensure loyalty. He does have the absolute loyalty of the security -- the heads of the security forces. Once we get down to lower levels in the security forces, probably at the major or colonel level, and then in the enlisted ranks, that loyalty isn't nearly as great. But those people who control those services are absolutely loyal to President Mugabe because, number one, they continue to receive funding from him, and number two, their hands are absolutely as bloody as his.
And as far as that goes, last year, there was a power play to strip Mugabe of power. One of the factions within his own ruling party, Zanu PF, did make a power play. They lost. Frankly, they lost. Mugabe stood up to them. They backed down. And I believe that he is as strong today as he was a year ago and maybe even in the last five years.
QUESTION: Sylvie Lanteaume from AFP. So doesn't it mean that, actually, you need another strategy? Because if he's stronger than last year, it means that the actual -- the current strategy doesn't work.
MCGEE: The current strategy still takes in the reality on the ground. The people of Zimbabwe need to do something for themselves. The regional communities here need to step up and do something to help the people of Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe are those who are suffering.
And as much as we can help them with the humanitarian assistance and as much as we try to assist them with our political stance against this country, if there is going to be meaningful change in Zimbabwe, it's going to occur because of a peaceful democratic change here within the country.
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Mugabe actively desires a number of his people to die. Some of cholera. Some of starvation. This is punishment for them voting against him in massive numbers in the march 2008 election. Shocking but true. Mr alex weir. Harare