Messages From Zimbabwe

“All I’m trying to do is not join my ancestral spirits just yet.”

ZAPU Leader, Joshua Nkomo

“Carter is unrepentant about his administration’s support for Mugabe. At a Carter Center event in Boston on June 8, he said that he, Young, and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had “spent more time on Rhodesia than on the Middle East.” Carter admitted that “we supported two revolutionaries in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.” He adopts the “good leader gone bad” hindsight of Mugabe’s early backers, stating that “at first [Mugabe] was a very enlightened president.” While conceding that Mugabe is now “oppressive,” Carter stressed that this murderer of tens of thousands “needs to be treated with respect and assured that if he does deal with those issues [democratization and human rights], he won’t be punished or prosecuted for his crimes.” Though it has supervised elections in over 60 countries, the 25-year-old Carter Center has no projects in Zimbabwe, nor has Carter (who demonstrates no compunction about lecturing others) attempted to atone for the ruin that his policies as president wreaked.

History will not look kindly on those in the West who insisted on bringing the avowed Marxist Mugabe into the government. In particular, the Jimmy Carter foreign policy — feckless in the Iranian hostage crisis, irresolute in the face of mounting Soviet ambitions, and noted in the post-White House years for dalliances with dictators the world over — bears some responsibility for the fate of a small African country with scant connection to American national interests. In response to Carter’s comment last month that the Bush administration’s foreign policy was the “worst in history,” critics immediately cited those well-publicized failures. But the betrayal of Bishop Muzorewa and of all Zimbabweans, black and white, who warned what sort of leader Robert Mugabe would be deserves just as prominent a place among the outrages of the Carter years.”

From “The Sterling Times” – How Tyranny Came To Zimbabwe

“Countries such as the US and Britain have taken it upon themselves to decide for us in the developing world, even to interfere in our domestic affairs and to bring about what they call regime change.”

Robert Mugabe

“Our erstwhile former colonisers still wants to govern us by remote control.”

“I don’t feel lonely. There are others who think as I do, whose ideals I share. But what one notices is lack of courage… a kind of surrender to European authority, I suppose it’s because of poverty.”

“None of them will stand up and say to them ‘go to hell’. We shrink in asserting our rights. We need much more courage in the African Union.”

“As for outsiders they should keep away. We have entertained them because we did not want to offend, some of them are our friends but really there have nothing to intervene here about, nothing at all. We have a democratic environment, a democratic constitution.”

“Those who say printing money will cause inflation are suggesting that you just fold your hands and say ‘aah, let the situation continue and let the people starve.’ The Good Lord up there has given you a brain and the brain must function, not in a stereotyped manner but in a flexible manner… so I will print money today so that people can survive.”

Robert Mugabe – speaking in February 2006 in a 90 minute interview on government-owned television, ZBC. (My thanks to TB for reminding me of thess quotations.)

“We don’t need the largesse from the IMF or the World Bank. For the past 10 years we have been operating on our own resources without any financial support, which demonstrates the resilience of our economy. We have been pummeled as far as we are concerned and all that we are asking for is the lifting of the sanctions.”

Zimbabwean Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa

“The voice of Mr. Bush and the voice of Mr. Blair can’t decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq.”

Robert Mugabe – who rules Zimbabwe, even though a court in Zimbabwe has ruled that the last election that returned him to power, was not “free and fair”.

“The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds.”

Ugandan proverb (relates to MDC’s legal challenges)

“Robert Mugabe has won the Rhodesian elections outright. It’s a fantastic victory and I can’t remember anything that has given me so much pleasure for a long time. When I think of the systematic distortion by the British press of Mugabe’s position, it’s an absolute disgrace. The Tories must be furious.”

Tony Benn (4 March 1980)

“Countries such as the US and Britain have taken it upon themselves to decide for us in the developing world, even to interfere in our domestic affairs and to bring about what they call regime change.”

 

Robert Mugabe – Tyrant, dictator, depot…

“The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.”

Robert Mugabe