[A-List] US urges overthrow of Mugabe

[Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxx>]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/25/wzim25.xml&s
Sheet=/news/2003/06/25/ixnewstop.html

Daily Telegraph
June 25, 2003

US urges overthrow of Mugabe
By David Rennie in Washington


America yesterday offered Zimbabwe "generous
assistance" in exchange for its ruling Zanu-PF party
ousting President Robert Mugabe and agreeing to hold
free elections.

Making the offer, Colin Powell, the secretary of
state, admitted that "Robert Mugabe and his cohorts
may cry 'blackmail'." But he said they should be
ignored. The starving, oppressed Zimbabwean people
could not wait much longer for their "rescue".

Washington, working with Britain and the European
Union, has imposed a visa ban on Zimbabwean leaders,
frozen the government's overseas assets and sent
substantial aid through non-governmental channels.

Mr Powell is now proposing a direct bargain with
disaffected elements of Zanu-PF: join hands with the
opposition party in parliament and amend the law to
allow for Mr Mugabe's removal.

He said: "With the president gone, with a transitional
government in place and with a date fixed for new
elections, the United States would be quick to pledge
generous assistance to the restoration of Zimbabwe's
political and economic institutions, even before the
election."

Writing in the New York Times, Mr Powell called on the
world, in particular South Africa and its neighbours,
to take strong action "that fully reflects the urgency
of Zimbabwe's crisis".

He accused Mr Mugabe of political violence,
vote-rigging, economic mismanagement, "unchecked
corruption" and the cynical transfer of commercial
farmland to his cronies.

"In the long run President Mugabe and his minions will
lose, dragging their soiled record behind them into
obscurity. But how long will it take? How many good
Zimbabweans will have to lose their jobs, their homes,
or even their lives before President Mugabe's violent
misrule runs its course?"

Mr Powell expressed confidence that other donors would
be "close behind" Washington in rewarding a new
transitional government.

But the promise does not appear to have been fully
co-ordinated with London, the second-largest donor to
Zimbabwe. Britain is likely to be wary of any scheme
that could be portrayed by Mr Mugabe as a western plot
to impose change.

? Peta Thornycroft in Harare writes: A Zimbabwean
officer who led massacres of thousands of people in
Matabeleland in the 1980s told the high court in
Harare yesterday that he was offered thousands of
pounds to secure the security forces' support for the
opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Air Marshal Perence Shiri, often described as the
"Butcher of Matabeleland", was giving evidence for the
state in the treason trial of Mr Tsvangirai, leader of
the Movement for Democratic Change, and two
colleagues.

They deny charges of plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe
and stage a coup before last year's widely condemned
presidential election, which Mr Mugabe won.

Marshal Shiri, an army brigadier at the time of the
massacres, told the court that Job Sikhala, an MDC MP,
offered him 10 million Zimbabwean dollars (about
?7,500) to win over generals and the rank and file to
serve an MDC government.

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Macdonald Stainsby
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--
In the contradiction lies the hope.
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