Robert Mugabe: Can He Stand The Pressure of Imperialism

As the weight of the world bears down on Robert Mugabe and his sweeping land reforms, how will he survive? As usual, Britain and the United States are really giving Robert Mugabe a hard way to go. UN Sanction, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International are all in the mix to demonize Mugabe and his sweeping land reform programs. They call it the “fast track” to land reform. They would like the “slow track”, but it took twenty years, from the time of Zimbabwe’s independence until the year 2000 for land reform to start. Would you call that the fast track? Still Zimbabwe has been expelled from the British Commonwealth of States (so what, it’s just a neo-colonial tool to maintain control of Britain’s former colonies), suffered UN economic sanctions, and the mischief of diplomats, the corporate press, mercenaries and sabotage. The victims of a few billion dollars, a handful of NGO’s funded by mega-capitalists like George Soros and his cohorts from the European oligarchy of aristocrats who want to bring down any foreign government, political or economic movement for change that is bad for business.

This week the government of Zimbabwe threatened to expel the U.S. ambassador, Christopher Dell. Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told a news conference he had summoned Dell and protested against his "undiplomatic" behavior for saying that the government was mismanaged and corrupt. Mumbengegwi said the U.S. ambassador was trying to incite a political revolt against Mugabe by attacking the government of Zimbabwe. The minister stated that the government of Zimbabwe would not hesitate to invoke the provisions of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations should at "any time in the future the U.S. ambassador again act in violation of the laws of the country". President Mugabe responded to Ambassador Dell’s remarks by telling him on Tuesday to "go to hell". Perhaps, Hugo Chavez inspired President Mugabe when he remarked that he should “Go To Hell”. Hugo Chavez says that he was certainly inspired by Mugabe. Do you think that any “diplomat” in a host country in Western Europe would be able to say such things about that government and expect not to be expelled? They just have no respect for Africans. Their belief in their own superiority is clear when they say and do things like this. This is not about human rights or democracy, it’s about business and Mugabe is bad for business.

They are also infuriated with Mugabe because he has locked up one of their most useful Dogs of War, Simon Mann. Mann [with the glasses]was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 for illegally purchases arms and planning a coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea. The government of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea with the assistance of the African Union foiled this attempt through their collective effort. It became a very embarrassing situation when the names of people like Mark Thatcher, son of former PM Margaret Thatcher came up as the financiers of the coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher was eventually fined and expelled from South Africa, which he had made his home and returned to London. The government of Equatorial Guinea wanted him extradited to stand trial for attempting to topple the government, but South Africa refused the request for extradition because Equatorial Guinea has the death penalty. The second Brit involved in the mercenary debacle was Simon Mann. Mann was a former British SAS officer turned executive/mercenary. His company Executive Outcomes returned Sierra Leone to the control of the diamond monopoly as well as helped to return oil holding in Angola to its British/Canadian interests. Simon Mann was captured, alone with almost 100 South African mercenaries by Robert Mugabe while they tried to purchase weapons in Zimbabwe and sleeps in a Zimbabwe prison as we speak. That kind of organization and purpose is exactly what the imperialist and neo-colonialists are afraid of. They would want to continue to empower an African elite that would continue to “work with them”, not for the people of Africa.

Because of the Mark Thatcher[pictured to the right] Simon Mann incident, South Africa is passing legislation that will outlaw any former member of the South African Defense Force from entering into any private military force, security force or foreign force in an effort to stop mercenary activities.

There is so much propaganda about Robert Mugabe’s land reform program that it’s very difficult to tell just exactly what is going on. But what is true is that Mugabe’s land reform has infuriated Great Britain, and their biggest ally the United States. We can't blame this diplomatic policy on the Bush Administration, Bill Clinton's Administration supported the same policy [it was just easier for us to believe there might by some truth to the propaganda coming from Bill Clinton]. The campaign to remove Robert Mugabe from office and return all lands to Zimbabwe’s White farmers is a number one priority. After all, what makes these African people think they can government themselves and control their own resources.

The truth of the matter is that Robert Mugabe did not begin the land reforms and he was fine with Great Britain [even though he had been president for 20 years] as long as he didn't do anything that was bad for business. It was the veterans of the war of independence that decided twenty years was long enough to wait and they were going to start the return of lands to the indigenous people of Zimbabwe themselves. Mugabe had a choice, to either go along with them or not. He chose to go along with them, which of course put him at odds with the international community. At issue for those twenty long years was: who would pay reparations to the White farmers? Mugabe believed that Great Britain should pay since they were the ones that brought the farmers to Zimbabwe in the first place. Great Britain wanted Zimbabwe to pay its own reparation and they went back and forth about this issue for twenty years—that’s not the “fast track”. The war veterans decided for themselves.

Anyway, you see the problems that could arise if they have to start giving things back and it has finally come to that. They are even more afraid that it will cause a domino effect throughout Africa [especially South Africa] or even the world. The fact is, that more white farmers have been killed in South Africa over land reform, some 1500 compared to Zimbabwe with only 10 White Farmers killed. It is just that the stigma of apartheid still looms over South Africa's heads and they are afraid that they will be looked at as trying to forge a neo-apartheid society. But Robert Mugabe is easy pickings [so they think].