Re: An letter to Against the Current

[jenyan1 <jenyan1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 17 May 2001 Borba100@xxxxxxx wrote:

> This bill, somewhat reminiscent of the Senate Appropriates bill of 1990,
> which outlawed aid to Yugoslavia unless Repbulics opted for secession,
> calls for harsh sanctions against Zimbabwe unless it adheres to US
> demands and, according to  Senator Feingold, one of its sponsors:
>
> "The bill also offers assistance to the remarkable forces working within
> Zimbabwe in support of the rule of law, in support of democracy, and in
> support of basic human rights for all of Zimbabwe's citizens. It establishes
> a fund to finance the legal expenses for individuals and institutions
> challenging restrictions on free speech in Zimbabwe, where the latest
> campaign has also included a media crackdown. The fund would also support
> individuals and democratic institutions who have accrued costs or penalties
> in the pursuit of elective office or democratic reform. I had the chance to
> be in Zimbabwe in December, and I do not believe that I have ever encountered
> a more dynamic, committed, and genuinely inspiring group of civil society
> leaders than the group I met in Harare a few months ago. These forces must
> not be abandoned in Zimbabwe's time of crisis."
>
Jared,

Times were when all the statements of this sort would have been issued by
British High Commission (Embassy). On one notorious occasion in 1979 the
British High Commissioner was shuttling between political rallies in
Kampala openly, but unsuccessfully, campaigning from the back of an
open Land Rover for the reinstallation of his (?) choice of President, a
stool pigeon by the name of Yusuf Lule who had been exiled after two
months in office. As it is, Milton Obote the erstwhile socialist who had
antagonised the powers that be in the 1960's and thus been deposed in
1971, was able to return to power in 1980. There followed five years of
political drift and deepening civil war. Obote, who now shed his socialism
and acquired new friends in the World Bank and IMF, lost the civil war to
Yoweri Museveni. The latter has for the last decade been the World Bank's
star pupil in Africa.

John Enyang