Week 6 – Final Blogs – What the U.S. is doing..

In my last blog I posted about what I think the U.S. should… so this blog, my final blog, will be about what the U.S. is doing.

The United States is preparing a new sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council after the controversial runoff election in Zimbabwe.  Yahoonews.com had these quotes about the sanctions…

“The United States is consulting with others to introduce a resolution perhaps this week to impose focused sanctions on the regime” of Robert Mugabe, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.

“I am sure it will be a period of tough negotiations and discussions. But at the end of the day what’s the alternative? Are we to ignore our own unanimously approved demands that have been ignored? I think that’s not an option.”

 

The sanctions, which will be ready in a “week or two” (seems kind of non-urgent to me….) will include a travel ban on regime officials, economic sanctions aiming to starve the regime of money, and possibly an arms embargo.  One thing I did like that the U.S. was trying to get at was when State Department Tom Casey said, “”We think that it is important that the African Union signal that a sham inauguration that was preceded by a sham election does not make the government legitimate,”

I feel like because Mugabe won the run off election, DUE TO NO OPPOSITION, he feels like he is the legitimate leader and should be left alone and the other African leaders are basically granting him that… so it’s important to let him know that he is not recognized in the African community as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe. 

The last quote that I felt was important from yahoonews.com was, “The ambassador said together with the UN sanctions, the United States also wanted to make sure “that on the humanitarian track, there is an opportunity for continued assistance to the people of Zimbabwe.”  I think its really important not to forget the humanitarian side of things and helping the people of Zimbabwe transition post-Mugabe.

Week 6 – Final Blogs – My Plan of Action

We all have to write what foreign policy we would change in a very lengthy 10 page paper and its unfortunate that only Professor Sweetman will read it so I thought I would condense my thoughts and blog about what I think the United States should do…  keep in mind I’m going to assume you have read some of my other blogs or at least know a little about what is going on in Zimbabwe for times sake and so this is not a 10 page long blog.

Right now the United States is taking a passive approach to the political crisis consuming Zimbabwe because we have very little invested in the country and the problems there just aren’t getting the media attention and manpower like the war in Iraq for example.  It’s understandable that the United States isn’t jumping off their seats to help Zimbabwe because our country does have a lot on their plate but that doesn’t mean we cant take a more prominent role in helping put pressure on someone else to do something about Zimbabwe.  That someone else would be the other African leaders that are happy to stand by and watch Mugabe destroy their once flourishing neighbor…

I think the United States needs to increase their voice and take a leading role in pressuring the African leaders to challenge what Mugabe is doing.  He is a dictator who is ruling by terror at the expense of his people and his country.  He needs to be threatened with actions such as cutting off oil and electricity to the country… cutting off all international trade that is occurring in the country… and everyone needs to state that they do not recognize Mugabe as the President of Zimbabwe unless he wins a free and fair DEMOCRATIC election. 

I am a realistic person and that is why i am not saying, “Seen in international troops and forcefully remove his ass from office!”  Zimbabwe does not pose much, if any, kind of military threat to the United States so why not take a leading role (without using troops) in helping end the human rights abuse that is taking place in Zimbabwe right now.  The problem is unless the media ups its coverage on the current problems in Zimbabwe, the people of the U.S. are not going to have the desire to advocate for our country to do something, which will in turn allow our country to keep doing nothing!  People are dying in Zimbabwe, the country itself is dying, and hundreds of thousands are displaced…  I think it is time to take action and I welcome any thoughts on what you think should happen…

Week 5 – Zimbabwe: Mugabe Blames West at U.N. Food Summit… Is he forreal???

I have talked about the food crisis before this blog briefly… and there are two OBVIOUS main causes.  One is the extreme weather conditions in Zimbabwe (severe drought and then floods).   That clearly cannot be blamed on anyone except Mother Nature.  However, the second obvious reason is that Mugabe and his government began seizing, often violently, viable, white-owned commercial farms that were the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy and providing food for the country.

These invasions led to killings and also meant the loss of jobs and homes for thousands of black Zimbabwean farm laborers that were working for the white farmers.  Mugabe’s justification for his ambitious land restitution agenda was that just 5,000 white farmers owned 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s most productive agricultural land. He said this colonial legacy had to be reversed.  This is ridiculous because this is when Zimbabwe’s tragic decline started happening and the economy went down and people started starving.

Back to the title… it is painfully obvious about what started the food crisis… but Mugabe had the nerve at the U.N. Food Summit to say the Western Countries are at fault!  He defended his land reform policies… and said that the West was the cause of the food shortage because they are purposely trying to cripple the nation’s economy.  The exact quote from USA Todays article was “Mugabe nonetheless contended that his policies of redistributing land taken from large farm holders were “warmly welcomed by the vast majority of our people” and the sanctions aim to “cripple Zimbabwe’s economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country.”"

My point of view is that if your blaming other countries for your countries problems… then you would accept their help in fixing it.  It’s like saying you broke my bicycle… and I am going to make you buy me a new one… but I will not accept your money.  HOW CAN ANYTHING BE ACCOMPLISHED LIKE THAT???  Mugabe needs to articulate what he wants from other countries because his people are the ones suffering, not him, and he is not communicating ANYTHING to anyone…

Week 5 – Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s Group Crosses the Line? Rejects aid in a nasty way…”

If you have been reading my blog you know its 90% about the ELECTION.  Election this-election that.  That is because the election is all that is being talked about with Zimbabwe right now because it is causing an enormous amount of problems in that country (no help for AIDS victims, no food aid, political violence, displacement).  I am now used to reading dozens of articles about the election but the article I just read SHOCKED me.  A spokesman for President Mugabe himself made a comment at an African Union Summit in Egypt about the other countries criticism of Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential run-off election and said

“THEY [Western Countries] CAN GO HANG A THOUSAND TIMES.” Slightly shocking?  Can you picture someone that is representing President Bush giving that as their statement?  I was in disbelief…

Mugabe want no help or AID from other countries and has actually banned AID from outside countries.  The result of this is horrific for the people of Zimbabwe and effecting the countries around Zimbabwe.  A quarter of the population in Zimbabwe are now in neighboring countries.  Because the violence does not have a resolution in sight, there will be more and more people leaving the country and this is effecting the stability and peace in the surrounding states.  Because of the ban on food aid, over half the country is not able to get food (which I will talk about in the next blog) and people are STARVING.

What is frustrating to me is that because Mugabe will not allow help, the U.S. cannot assist Zimbabwe because if they do, it would be forcefully assisting them.  This would start a large conflict between the U.S. and Zimbabwe and something the United States is trying to avoid is a military style conflict where troops would be needed…

Anyways.. my question for anyone reading this is how do you help a country that refuses help and WILL USE VIOLENCE.  What can be done?

Week 4 – Safe Area Gorzade

The first thing I would like to say about this book.. is I am glad there were pictures.  It really helps me visually understand what I am reading… since there was a lot of information.. i also think the author had a really creative reporting style which was cool.

The biggest thing I got from this book is that The war of Eastern Bosnia was all about the division of two cultures… I was suprised that I had never even heard of this War before and a little shocked … because usually I at least no the name of things that happened and I just didnt in this case…

It makes me sad that one person can divide a whole country that had been living in peace for so long.   What got me was the realization that neighbors and friends were just turning on each other like there was no history between them.  Ethnic battles are always the hardest for me to read about because I just cant imagine going through that…It’s also hard for me to understand how rational people can be influenced to do such irrational, horrible things.  How can people just kill others, torch houses, tear apart families, with no letigamate reason behind it…  there are so many devasting stories throughout this whole book…

This book was really eye opening and I feel really horrible for the Muslims it seems like they go through so much for their religion and beleifs… and this style of book was so much better than just trying to read endless facts about a war…

 

Week 4 – Bush Calls for Additional Sanctions Against Zimbabwe’s Rulers

In building on the past 4 weeks of blogging… Mugabe is officially the remaining (or should i say “re-elected” if you could call it that) President of Zimbabwe.  After what is called a “sham” presidential run-off of June 27th, Mugabe remains Zimbabwe’s leader through violence and a reign of terror.  Seeing as how the U.S. and the U.N. could not provide Zimbabwe with a fair, legitimate election… Bush’s response to all of this is “the United States will prepare additional sanctions against President Robert Mugabe’s regime and will work for strong U.N. and international action to resolve the country’s ongoing crisis.”

He also said in a statement on June 28th, “The international community has condemned the Mugabe regime’s ruthless campaign of politically-motivated violence and intimidation with a strong and unified voice that makes clear that yesterday’s election was in no way free and fair.”

For the past several weeks I have been wondering when the U.S. and U.N. were going to step up their intervening with Zimbabwe’s election process and it just seems like it can’t happen.  So many Zimbabweans were being killed and displaced that no matter what aid the U.S. gave it was not going to be able to stop he violence.

The U.S. post-illegitimate election plan is stated as follows:  Bush has instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to “develop sanctions against this illegitimate Government of Zimbabwe and those who support it.” Bush added that the United States will be pushing for “strong action” by the United Nations “including an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and travel ban on regime officials,” and would also be working with Zimbabwe’s neighbors in the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) to resolve the crisis.

I actually feel like the U.S. is dealing with this crisis a little better than i had previously thought because they are offering their full support of Zimbabwe if a legitamite government can be established by giving Zimbabwe developmental assistance, debt releif, and a sense of normalization with international financial institutions.  The U.S. is also supporting the people of Zimbabwe right now by providing food assistance (because of the food shortage crisis… preivously blogged about) and AIDS treatment.

I think the U.S. is doing a decent job without being military forceful and starting another war and they are providing assistance right now and are ready and willing to provide assistance when they country can get a legitimate government.

Does anyone have any ideas of what else the U.S. could be doing without staring another war with another country??

Week 3 – Zimbabwe: UN Security Council Condemns Govt Violence

If you read my previous blog post.. this is kind of the UN’s response to helping Zimbabwe…

In its first statement publicly condemning the conduct of Zimbabwe’s presidential election, the United Nations Security Council has placed the blame for violence, intimidation and the denial of free campaigning squarely on the Zimbabwean government.  South Africa and China were among the countries which agreed to a unanimous statement, announced by this month’s president of the council, Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States.

The statement said, in part, that “the Security Council… condemns the actions of the Government of Zimbabwe that have denied its political opponents the right to campaign freely, and calls upon the Government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence, to cease political intimidation, to end the restrictions on the right of assembly and to release the political leaders who have been detained.”

Earlier the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, reported to the council that there was a “staggering degree of violence” in Zimbabwe. According to a council press release, he said there was ample evidence it had been perpetrated by “a combination of State agencies, war veterans and youth militias.” Although there had been retaliatory violence by the MDC, it was “of a much lesser degree.”

In its statement, the council said the campaign of violence against, and restrictions on, the political opposition have made it impossible for this Friday’s presidential run-off election to be free and fair.

In a phrase which augurs badly for any hope President Robert Mugabe may have of winning foreign support if he claims a mandate on the basis of the run-off, the council said it “further considers that, to be legitimate, any government of Zimbabwe must take account of the interests of all its citizens.”

However, the council recognised the legitimacy of the March 29 elections, in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change won control of Parliament, and in which the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai drew more votes than Mugabe.

It called for a reversal of the decision, and for the government to cooperate with efforts “aimed at finding a peaceful way forward, through dialogue between the parties, that allows a legitimate government to be formed that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

I think it is really great that the international community has finally recognized the problems going on in Zimbabwe.  It is really important that the UN and US facilitate and ensure that the people of Zimbabwe are finally able to choose their own leader for the first time without being killed for their choice.  Zimbabwe is dealing with an illegitimate government that sabotaged the democratic process of it’s country to hold onto power… and hopefully in the future weeks Mugabes reign of terror will be over and he will step down.

Week 3 – Opposition calls on UN to send peacekeepers to Zimbabwe

Firs things first…. Morgan Tsvangirai, the beleaguered opposition leader, HAS PULLED OUT of the presidential runoff vote in Zimbabwe…  in turn, on Wednesday, he called on the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to oversee new election.  He said, “Zimbabwe will break if the world does not come to our aid.”  Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff against President Robert Mugabe planned for Friday because of all the weeks of political attacks and killings.

Tsvangirai’s call for a UN force coincided with a scramble of regional and international diplomacy with many African and Western institutions saying that the vote Friday would be neither free nor fair.

A key group of southern African countries had scheduled a meeting Wednesday in Swaziland to seek a regional way out of the crisis. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, however, was not scheduled to attend, officials said.

We ask for the UN to go further than its recent resolution, condemning the violence in Zimbabwe, to encompass an active isolation of the dictator Mugabe,” Tsvangirai wrote.

He added: “For this we need a force to protect the people. We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force. Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not troublemakers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns.”

Tsvangirai continued: “The next stage should be a new presidential election. This does indeed burden Zimbabwe and create an atmosphere of limbo. Yet there is hardly a scenario that does not carry an element of pain. The reality is that a new election, devoid of violence and intimidation, is the only way to put Zimbabwe right.”

In New York, the Zimbabwean ambassador to the UN said that a conspiracy led by the United States and Britain had fooled the UN Security Council into concluding that the violence gripping his nation has made it impossible to hold a fair presidential election.

Boniface Chidyausiku, the ambassador, said: “We see the international community, the Security Council, has been duped into believing that there is lawlessness in Zimbabwe and the opposition cannot campaign, which is not true.”

Chidyausiku added that his government could still fairly re-elect Mugabe on Friday even though Tsvangirai dropped from the race.

Everything I have talked about here is directly related to the United States and Foreign Policy.  Zimbabwe is basically stuck right now between a leader who wants to retain his power with violence and a Democratic movement leader who is begging for a fair election.  This country is calling out for help from with US and the UN but it’s hard for them to give aid to the Zimbabwean people because they believe the civil violence will continue and there is no one to enforce the laws in Zimbabwe.  The fact that Tsvangirai dropped out of the race this week is a real step backwards for Zimbabwe and I do not foresee a fair election being able to happen at this point with or without aid from the UN and US.

Week 2- South Africa Steps In

In addition to the violence I have been discussing in all my other blog posts, Tsvangirai is facing many other obstacles while trying to campaign.  Just last week he was detained twice just for trying to have a “Movement for Democratic Change” rally.  He is unable to campaign in peace at all, and because of this, South Africa had to step in and try to offer an alternative solution. 

South Africa is making an attempt to mediate between Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai).  They have offered suggestions such as shelving the run-off to allow for negotiations, and proposals have included making Mugabe president and Tsvangirai prime minister in a transitional government.  However, Tsvangirai refuses to even ADDRESS this compromise as a solution . 

In a hope’s to accomplish some kind of peace, representatives of Mugabe and Tsvangirai had recently gathered in Pretoria as part of a last ditch effort to draw the country back from the abyss.  According to the South African newspaper, South African Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi held a meeting between representatives of the MDC and Mugabe’s Zanu PF party at the end of May and has planned another one for this week.

The idea of a unity government received strong backing on Tuesday from Zimbabwe’s ex-finance minister Simba Makoni, who finished third in the election’s first round after Tsvangirai. Makoni said the run-off should be cancelled and talks should be held to form a transitional government that would be in place for five years to give it time to carry out reforms. He said political violence had made it impossible to hold a fair run-off and pointed out that Zimbabwe, which is facing major food shortages and the world’s highest inflation rate (as discussed in first weeks blog),  and could not afford to organise another vote.

It is unfortunate, but it seems that in Zimbabwe’s current situation, there is little hope for free and fair election… hopefully with the help of South Africa and the UN something can be organized to help Zimbabwe.

Week 2- ZIMBABWE UNDER MILITARY SIEGE

First off I would like to say that I got this information from the Daily Zimbabwe Newspaper… which was full of stores and foreign policy so I recommend that everyone check out the daily newspapers in their country.

Last week I talked about the problems arising from the current election in Zimbabwe and this week it has gotten worse.  Current President Mugabe  opposition in the current election,   Morgan Tsvangirai, who is the leader for opposition Movement for Democratic Change declared on Tuesday that Zimbabwe is now under military rule.  He is also vowing not to accept victory for Robert Mugabe in a presidential run-off later this month.

Since the election began in March, Zimbabwe has been faced with a slew of violence and deaths.  Tsvangirai went as far as telling reporters that “A campaign of violence has been unleashed throughout this country.  This country is effectively now run by a military junta and we as a people we have been exposed to state-sponsored brutality.”

It is obvious that assistance is needed from other countries at this point in Zimbabwe, and even though Mugabe does not want opinions or any kind of aid, the United Nations is stepping in later this week.  The United Nations Security Council has prepared a special debate on Zimbabwe for later this week.  Tsvangirai has been asked by many outsiders to step down from running in the election but Tsvangirai  responds to that by insisting “he will compete against the president in the run-off despite calls to cancel it in favour of talks amid mounting violence. “

I will post further information about what happens at the UN Security Council meeting in next weeks blog post and I am interested in seeing if this election can remain legitimate or whether Mugabe will succeed in declaring himself the winner by using violence and terror.