The crisis in Zimbabwe is getting worse every day. The cholera epidemic is spiralling out of control. Lack of food and famine is increasing in the countryside and according to the UN half of the country’s population of 13.5 million people will need to get food imported to be able to survive. Police brutality is yet again an aspect of every day life. State agents have resorted to abducting human rights defenders and political activists.
The former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, Graca Machel and the former US President Jimmy Carter, were recently denied entry by the Mugabe regime to travel into the country and study the situation. Even though the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) won a majority of the seats in March 2008, and a transitional power sharing agreement was signed in September, Zimbabwe remains as authoritarian as ever. The political crisis means that the escalating humanitarian crisis will not be addressed urgently. Zimbabwe is on the verge of total collapse and the international community can no longer be a passive bystander. It is time for an international emergency plan for Zimbabwe with a concrete timetable for democracy. The Zimbabwe people have been suffering for far too long.
At the time of writing the mortality rate of cholera is approaching 1000 people and there are more than 13 000 people who have fallen ill, according to WHO (World Health Organization). Medicins sans frontier warn that potentially 1,4 million Zimbabweans are at risk. People suffering from Aids and malnutrition are especially at risk. Due to the collapse of the waterworks system in the capital Harare and in several other parts of the country the epidemic (that has also now spread to South Africa and Botswana) is deteriorating. Inflation is now at an all time high, 231 million per cent and the store shelves are glaring empty. Armed Police have attacked organized doctors and nurses at demonstrations outside the Health Department in Harare. Zimbabwe has fallen politically, humanitarian and financially the last years. Now it is worse than ever.
We call on the Swedish Government to in cooperate with the world community and regional actors, like SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the AU (African Union) to agree on an emergency ten step plan for Zimbabwe:
1) The negotiations between Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the two formations of the MDC have all but broken down. Pressure must be brought to ensure that the provisions of the September agreement are complied with urgently according to a clear timetable. The September agreement must immediately be implemented and a national democratic government must be installed.
2) SADC and AU must immediately establish observatory groups who can monitor the development from the ground and supervise that the agreement is being followed. In particular SADC should immediately appoint a senior figure to be a full time envoy to Zimbabwe responsible for ensuring that both the letter and spirit of the September agreement.
3) International Human Rights Organizations must immediately be allowed into the country to study the situation.
4) If the agreement is not implemented there should be a newly held election for President in the first part of 2009 held under the auspices of SADC and the UN..
5) An immediate humanitarian UN-assistance operation should be put in place to put a stop to the cholera epidemic.
6) Adequate refugee camps should be established for the Zimbabweans that are escaping to neighboring countries.
7) African Governments through the AU and SADC should assume responsibility for the crisis. More of the neighboring countries must take a stand and end any remaining policy of “quiet diplomacyâ€.
8) Pending the implantation of the September agreement all humanitarian development cooperation should be distributed by the UN and the civil society. No money should be given to the current government before the September agreement has been implemented properly. Even once a new government has been set up any developmental assistance should only be channelled through the service Ministries, such as Health and Education, controlled by the two formations of the MDC.
9) International financial institutions should prepare crisis and recovery plans to stabilize the Zimbabwean economy.
10) A long-term Marshall fund should be established for Zimbabwe that can be launched the day the transitional government, as envisaged by the September agreement, is sworn in.
Robert Mugabe has delayed a democratic Zimbabwe for 28 years. The international community has an obligation to put an end to this. A timetable and an emergency plan for the future of the country cannot wait.
Birgitta Ohlsson,
Parliamentarian and spokesperson of international affairs for the Liberal Party of Sweden
David Coltart,
Senator for MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), Zimbabwe
17 December 2008