Zimbabwean
By Vusimusi Bhebhe
30 July 2011
The West should take some of the blame for propping up Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe whose human rights excesses they conveniently ignored since the 1980s, Education Minister David Coltart said last week.
In an address to the Annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom in Sydney, Australia, last Tuesday, Coltart said former colonial master Britain and other Western nations bankrolled the Mugabe regime without regard to the atrocities it committed in Matabeleland and Midlands soon after independence in 1980.
Many of the wars fought by the West since the 2nd World War have occurred because of the appeasement and sometimes encouragement of dictatorial regimes.
Since the 2nd World War many corrupt and violent regimes have prospered because of either Western support or indifference. Saddam Hussein was supported by the US in its fight against the Iranians as were the Taliban in their battle against the Russians.
Cosying up to Gaddafi
He said the same situation recently repeated itself in Libya where Britain has, until last year, been “cosying up†to long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi in order to secure access to Libyan oil.
Western support bolstered and strengthened Gaddafi who has been accused of ruthlessly crashing a protest against his 42-year reign.
“In Zimbabwe the West looked the other way when Zanu (PF) committed a genocide in Matabeleland and even rewarded Robert Mugabe with a knighthood in 1994 – this was mainly because they were more focused on keeping Mugabe out of the Soviet sphere of influence,†Coltart said.
In the early 1980s, Mugabe, then Prime Minister, unleashed the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade into the volatile Matabeleland regions, wiping an estimated 20 000 civilians, including innocent women and children.
Several ministers and top army officials in Mugabe’s side of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government were directly involved in the atrocities, popularly known as the Gukurahundi massacres, and are believed to be hanging on to power to prolong their freedom.
Learn the lesson
Coltart noted that experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Zimbabwe should serve as lessons for the West that propping up profligate and corrupt governments has long-term repercussions.
“I have no doubt that if the West changes it will be less likely to be dragged into the intractable messes it now finds itself in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya,†he said.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the West have soured over the past decade after a cornered Mugabe turned against white farmers from whom he grabbed commercial farmland without compensation. Faced with a formidable political opposition, he also intensified the repression of fellow black Zimbabweans whom he accused of being Western puppets for voting against him and his Zanu (PF) party.