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We Have an Obligation to Intervene in Zimbabwe |
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It is a good thing Zimbabwe is a land-locked country.
Last week, a Chinese tanker choc-full of arms arrived at a South African port in Durban, its cargo bound for Zimbabwe. South African officials refused it permission to unload and deliver the arms, and after four days at dock it was instructed to move on.
The ship then made its way to Mozambique, another of Zimbabwe’s neighbors, which turned it away as well. Following speculation the ship was going to try to unload in Angola (also neighboring Zimbabwe, and an ally of the Mugabe government) the BBC reports this morning that it may now be headed back to China:
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the weapons were ordered last year and were “perfectly normal”. But she said the ship’s owners were considering bringing the ship back.
Ms Jiang said this was because it was proving impossible for Zimbabwe to receive the arms but this has not been confirmed by the Chinese shipping company.
The Chinese vessel was said to be bound for Angola but the US is reported to be pressuring port authorities there and in Namibia not to allow them to dock.
Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa said: “I hope this will be the case with all the countries because we don’t want a situation which will escalate the [tension] in Zimbabwe more than what it is.”
Meanwhile, in Accra, Ghana today Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appealed in person to the UN Secretary General, asking for African Union and United Nations assistance in Zimbabwe. He described the release of election results as “deadlocked” and humanitarian conditions as deteriorating, noting his party has given up on successful mediation by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
In her extensive research on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, British journalist Linda Melvern, author of two books about Rwanda, learned how the Rwandan government actually planned the genocide in advance. Also from the BBC:
After combing through bank archives and government documents she reveals, for instance, that in 1993 the government of Rwanda imported, from China, three quarters of a million dollars worth of machetes. This was enough for one new machete for every third male.
Machetes were used for many of the murders committed during the genocide.
The details of pre-genocide arms imports from Egypt and France are also given, as is the extent of French military cooperation with the parts of the Rwandan army most responsible for the genocide.
Melvern (among many others) has determined that there were plenty of early warnings in the weeks and months leading up to the massacre in Rwanda, though the international community chose to ignore them. These warnings included the importation of arms, long-standing tensions over land, political control of food, mass human rights abuses, divided territory, government control of news media, one high-profile government-sponsored group terrorizing the population, and of course, cries for help from people on the ground.
All these elements exist in Zimbabwe.
The Seminal recently reported on the escalating violence in Zimbabwe, but now human rights observers, opposition supporters, and church leaders are all expressing fear that without international intervention, Zimbabwe will be facing its own genocide.
Blocking the Chinese tanker represents a laudable act of international intervention, but our governments need to do more.
I think you’re wrongly comparing two very different situations.
While I am no fan of Mugabe and his ZANU-PF goons, their actions and tactics to remain in power bear little resemblance to those of Rwandan President Habyarimana and his Hutu-Power/MRND loyalists.
violence, invaded Rwanda from their base in Museveni’s Uganda. They demanded the Hutu government recognize their right of return, stop using ethnic identity cards and end the authoritarian rule of the MRND. But most Rwandan Hutus believed the RPF were returning to exploit and dominate the Hutus, as they had in the past.
Ethnic hatred reached a new level following the RPF’s declaration of war. The populace’s fear and anger were inflamed by increasingly frequent whispers of civilian massacres, perpetrated by both sides, as well as an increasing number of internal refugees fleeing the violence. Even before the civil war in Rwanda the economy had been falling apart and the extremely high population density was proving a serious concern because 90% of Rwandas are subsitence farmers.
Zimbabwe is suffering from the opposite problems.
Zimbabwe’s current crisis is not a result of a rebel refugee army invading, but because of the refusal to release election results. Don’t you think that’s pretty amazing? I know elections have been used by Mugabe for a long time to justify his decades-old grip on power, but I think you have to give opposition leaders, in Zimbabwe, who- even after suffering terrible state violence- remain advocates for peaceful, democratic change.
Zimbabwe is also a much larger country than Rwanda. They have 33 people per kilometer. In Rwanda that number is 343.
While there is a growing population of internally displaced nationals due to government policies, overwhelming numbers of Zimbabweans are escaping Mugabe’s failure. Over a quarter of the total population had already fled before the most recent crisis. Most refugees have ended up in South Africa where they can barely make a living, but even that is a great improvement from their home.
I could continue and if I didn’t have other shit to do I would because I’m still so pissed off by this post. Comparing the situation in 2008 Zimbabwe to 1994 Rwanda not only reveals your ignorance of African history and African geography, it also reveals a profoundly racist view of the continent. I can only assume your logic behind your post went something like this:
“I remember another African regime that bought weapons from the Chinese to use against opposition. Even though that regime was ruling a different country,fourteen years ago, I’m sure all African dictators are the same blood thirsty savages we’ve know them to be since the first white man set foot on the continent. We must intervene and correct this wrong.”
Do you even know what site you’re writing for? How would a western military or diplomatic intervention in Zimbabwe be different than all our currently failing humanitarian interventions? I think the West has intervened plenty in Africa and it hasn’t seemed to encourage tolerant, democratic leadership to appear.
While I worry Mugabe will crack down hard on opposition in the coming days and weeks, I think the Zimbabweans have got a pretty good understanding of things and our intervention should go no further than standing in solidarity with them. We must pressure other countries to target the ZANU-PF elites with sanctions and travel restrictions, while encouraging trade that will benefit average Zimbabweans and begin to rebuild what once was a African success stroy.
Bonnie, I’m not sure I understand your comments, but I’ll try to respond.
First, at no stage did I compare the CAUSES of violence in Zimbabwe to those in Rwanda, so much as I did the warnings that violence will occur. Many of the early warnings I listed are common to more instances of genocide than Rwanda: there were warnings in Nazi Germany, there were warnings in Bosnia and Kosovo, there were warnings in Darfur, in Rwanda, and now, I would argue, in Zimbabwe. Whether Rwanda and Zimbabwe suffer from the same political/ethnic/economic problems is, I believe, irrelevant to my argument that the international community has a moral obligation to not ignore early warnings of impending humanitarian/human rights crises.
Second, though I have zero desire to engage in a “who knows more” debate with you about Rwanda, I think it’s safe to say your characterization of its “civil war” is debatable. Your response here is cut off, so perhaps I misunderstand you, but the allegation that the RPF caused or triggered the massacre in Rwanda has been strongly, and convincingly disputed for 15 years. I know of no expert on Rwanda who would contest that the Hutu government (though possibly not Habyarimana himself) carefully planned, facilitated, and to an extent executed the genocide. Part of that planning was, certainly, the importation of arms, as well as sponsorship of the Interhamwe, which does indeed bear resemblance to the Zanu-PF in its “actions and tactics.” Click on the links in my post and you’ll see that there are far more informed individuals than I who believe the Mugabe government may currently be planning, just as the Hutu government did, a wave of state-sponsored violence.
Third, I appreciate your point that Western intervention rarely does any good. If you are familiar with our site (your question, if I know who I write for, implies you are) then you will know that we here at Seminal are prone to writing in the normative. Personally, I think there are steps my government (”my” being the US’s) can take to responsibly prevent humanitarian/human rights abuses, just as I think there are steps the international community can take together to intervene where governments abuse the human rights of their own populations. While I acknowledge these steps haven’t been taken yet, and will likely not be taken any time soon, I still consider identifying the ideal a worthwhile exercise. Perhaps you disagree.
Finally, I would take you more seriously if you refrained from insulting me. I may well be both ignorant and racist, but I can assure you that attacking my views, rather than me personally, will illuminate my degree of ignorance and racism, and yours, much more efficiently.
Is there not some kind of “One” initiative where we can sign up to urge our government to take this serious? I know it is not much, but it will be better than nothing.
Its funny how the western media know whats on a ships manafest..since when dose china give this shit up with out boarding said vessel???mugabes an ass hole but why drag china into this??
Has to declare all contents to get through customs in Durban in South Africa, as Zim is landlocked, so no boarding is necessary.