In this issue:

MDC Activates Financier Plan, Agrees To Zimbabwe Runoff

City of London Reveals Gameplan for Zimbabwe Regime Change

Mbeki To Investigate Charges of Violence in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Ruling Party Urges Supporters To Shun Violence

Leading U.S. Papers Push British Zimbabwe Policy

Zimbabwe Opposition, Like Nazis, Aided by Economic Warfare

From Volume 7, Issue 20 of EIR Online, Published May 13, 2008
Africa News Digest

MDC Activates Financier Plan, Agrees To Zimbabwe Runoff

May 10 (EIRNS)—British-run Zimbabwe opposition leader and Movement for Democratic change (MDC) Presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai today announced that he will enter a runoff election against President Robert Mugabe. Neither won enough votes to avoid a runoff in the first round on March 29; the date for the runoff has not yet been announced.

When he made his announcement, Tsvangirai demanded that several conditions, proposed by the City of London, be met before he would participate: an end to violence (which the government blames on the MDC and its backers), international observers, restructuring of the election commission, free media access to Zimbabwe for the nations backing the MDC, and Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeepers. He also called for the replacement of the SADC-designated mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki. As for the charges of violence, Arthur Mutambara of the MDC called for "total war on Robert Mugabe." He had to backtrack later, saying he didn't mean using violent methods in his war.

Yesterday, Mbeki visited Zimbabwe, consulted with a team he sent there to see who was behind the violence, and met with Mugabe for three hours. Proceeding from the standpoint that this was not an international crisis that posed a threat to world peace, he said, "The solutions to the problems of Zimbabwe rest in the hands of Zimbabweans," according to the transcript of an interview he gave to al-Jazeera TV. Mbeki pointed out that he and his fellow South Africans had negotiated their solution to end apartheid, and Zimbabweans should do the same with this crisis. "The rest of us must assist." He didn't mention that the very forces that are screaming the loudest about Zimbabwe, supported the apartheid government, calling their support "constructive engagement."

City of London Reveals Gameplan for Zimbabwe Regime Change

May 8 (EIRNS)—The mouthpiece of the City of London-based Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy, the Economist, admitting that a runoff election to determine the next President of Zimbabwe will be unavoidable, on May 3, laid out its perspective for overthrowing the Zimbabwe government. Confirming the April 17 report in the Guardian, that the "British media have long since abandoned any attempt at impartiality in its reporting of Zimbabwe," therefore, "the prospect must be of continued economic punishment and crisis," the Economist calls for a UN-supervised runoff, and for Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC) leaders to take the diplomatic lead away from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was appointed by the SADC to mediate between the government and the opposition, and has been carrying this out for several years. Mbeki earlier this month charged that the leader of a faction of the Zimbabwe MDC opposition party, Morgan Tsvangirai, is an agent of a foreign power, a reference to the British.

The Economist sanctimoniously claimed that the government of President Robert Mugabe would use violence, intimidation, and vote-rigging in the runoff, and therefore Tsvangirai, who won nearly 48% of the vote (to Mugabe's 43%) would only agree to participate in the runoff if there were a stronger presence of international monitors, preferably from the United Nations. The government charged that Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC and its supporters, inside and outside the country, and not the government, are responsible for the violence, as the MDC claims. The stories of government-sponsored violence are given prominence in the British press, and from there are picked up by the news media in Europe and the U.S.A. Tsvangirai has not been in Zimbabwe since the March 29 election—he has been living in exile, going from country to country, primarily in the southern Africa region, looking for support from these countries, as if their leaders were his constituency. He has not returned to Zimbabwe, he says, out of fear of violence. However, a few weeks ago, he was held up at gunpoint in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is something, according to the Zimbabwe press, that has never happened to him in Zimbabwe.

In the peaceful March 29 elections, neighboring SADC countries had provided the observers. Implying that the runoff would not be fair if run by the government, with SADC observers, the Economist concludes that Tsvangirai would win the runoff if the election were fair. However, all British claims of vote stealing during the lengthy recount, turned out to be nothing but propaganda.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is dutifully playing his part in this British gameplan. He is talking to African governments about how the UN could help ensure a credible runoff, and said on May 5: "I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of violence and intimidation within Zimbabwe."

Mbeki To Investigate Charges of Violence in Zimbabwe

May 8 (EIRNS)—South African President Thabo Mbeki told southern Africa religious leaders on May 2 that he will send a team to Zimbabwe to investigate claims of violence, according to an sabcnews.com release, and find out who was to blame. Mbeki was "adamant" that everything would be done to ensure a peaceful second round of voting, which includes the deployment of a South African team to Zimbabwe, according to the release.

Zimbabwe Ruling Party Urges Supporters To Shun Violence

May 8 (EIRNS)—Countering British-led efforts to blame Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party for perpetrating violence in the period leading up to the run-off election, Zanu-PF on May 5 urged Zimbabweans to campaign peacefully and desist from violence, according to the Zimbabwe Herald May 6. Party national secretary for information and publicity Nathan Shamuyarira said: "We are urging our members to avoid violence.... We are also urging the opposition to avoid violence and respect peoples lives."

He charged that there was a deliberate move by the British and Americans to make Southern Africa a theater of civil wars, as has happened to Iraq. Shamuyarira added that Zimbabweans should refuse to be drawn into war, saying supporters of both Zanu-PF and the opposition MDC-T were Zimbabweans, who should not be divided by outside influence.

Shamuyarira condemned what he termed double standards by the MDC-T, which he accused of beating up people and parading them to the foreign press as victims of Zanu-PF violence against opposition supporters.

Violence organized by outside forces to discredit the government has been a long-standing modus operandi in Zimbabwe. As long ago as April 19, 2000, a Zanu-PF delegation at a conference told the Guardian that their border patrols had stopped a very large truck that was attempting to enter the country with a full load of "the most sophisticated weapons—enough for a small war."

Leading U.S. Papers Push British Zimbabwe Policy

May 9 (EIRNS)—The New York Times and the Washington Post had editorials today attacking Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, and South African President Thabo Mbeki for defending him. The line of attack of both editorials followed the gameplan laid out by the May 3 London Economist: Intensify the assault on Mbeki to knock him out of his role as Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC)-appointed mediator between the Zimbabwe government and the British-backed opposition, so that the way would be open for an Anglo-Dutch financial cartel-sponsored initiative to knock Mugabe out in a runoff election supervised by the cartel.

The Post editorial was particularly vicious, attacking Mbeki as the principal obstacle to international intervention against Zimbabwe, charging that he has done nothing to stop what the Post called "Mugabe's campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe, for opposing him." "It is past time for the SADC to relieve Mr. Mbeki of his duties," said the Post.

Mbeki sent an eight-man team, headed by Kingsley Mamabolo, to investigates claims of violence in Zimbabwe. The Post quotes Mamabolo, that the team did find there had been violence. But the Post did not report his entire statement, which was quoted in the May 8 Zimbabwe Guardian, based in London, that investigations were still under way to find out who the perpetrators of the violence were. He pointed out that claims of violence have been levelled by both the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the ruling Zanu-PF party. He said, "We need to know what the scale of the violence is and who is doing it."

Zimbabwe Opposition, Like Nazis, Aided by Economic Warfare

May 8 (EIRNS)—An Opinion & Analysis article in the May 4 Zimbabwe Herald compared the role that City of London-instigated economic warfare against Zimbabwe is playing in inducing significant numbers of people affected by the economic warfare to vote for British-backed opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to the role that economic warfare played in gaining votes for the Nazi Party in Germany in its early phases, until 1930.

The author, Tafataona P. Mahoso, a professor and Zanu-PF official, writes, "What those who denied us the vote for 90 years [i.e., the British—ed.] have done, is to use money, sanctions, corruption and hunger to purchase 47%" of the vote [that received by Tsvangirai], "with the intention, just like Hitler's intention, ultimately to overrun the whole country."

Mahoso points out that the core of the Nazi Party in 1930 was made up of the most marginal strata in Germany. They voted for Hitler because he promised relief from their suffering caused by economic warfare, and didn't know what Hitler's real goals were. Mohoso said, "This is the situation Zimbabweans find themselves in today. Many of them voted for change, but that can mean almost anything."

All rights reserved © 2008 EIRNS