Tag Archives: Zimbabwe

The National
21 August 2008

Review of Heidi Holland’s biography of Robert Mugabe, Dinner with Mugabe (Allen Lane, 2008)

Excerpt:

One of the legacies of that time – and a testament of the power of the nationalist narrative that African independence leaders embodied – is that few if any of Mugabe’s present Western critics publicly denounced these murders. Instead he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and honorary degrees from American universities. The economy was growing steadily even in the hostile shadow of Apartheid South Africa and access to education and health services markedly improved. As Lord Corrington, the British foreign secretary during independence negotiations, tells Holland: “But other than the killing of the Ndebele, it went tolerably well under Mugabe at first, didn’t it? He wasn’t running a fascist state. He didn’t appear to be a bad dictator.”

Read the rest here

To the NYT Editor:

Re “2 Vetoes Quash U.N. Sanctions on Zimbabwe” (front page, July 12):

Now that efforts to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe and regional mediation have failed to topple the Mugabe regime, what are the alternatives?

Having lived and worked intermittently in southern Africa since 1971, I believe that there are lessons to be learned from the defeat of apartheid.

A divestment campaign in the United States pressured the minority regime. Eventually, in 1985, Gavin W. H. Relly, the chairman of the Anglo American Corporation, defied South Africa’s official policy and led a delegation of business leaders to meet privately with the banned African National Congress in Lusaka, Zambia, where they discussed the transition to a new order.

In Zimbabwe today, there are fissures within President Robert Mugabe’s cohort. The objective should be to hive off the elements ill served by a sham regime and collapsed economy. Absent the Mugabe clique, the prospects for democracy in Zimbabwe, a country with a vibrant civil society and highly skilled work force, are excellent.

James H. Mittelman
Bethesda, Md., July 12, 2008
The writer is a professor of international affairs at the School of International Service, American University.

Original: After the Vetoes on Zimbabwe: What’s the Next Step?

In a June 22 Outlook commentary, “The Only Answer to the Mugabes of the World May Be a Coup,” Paul Collier advocated encouraging coups to topple dictators and achieve “improved governance” in “such sad little states as Zimbabwe and Burma.”

For him, those countries’ governments are equivalent to their leaders, President Robert Mugabe and Senior Gen. Than Shwe. But history shows that coups beget counter-coups. While living and working in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, I witnessed sprees of illiberal governance that only worsened the prospects for democratic rule in those places. And if developed countries were to adopt Mr. Collier’s recommendation, Mr. Mugabe would be likely to interpret that approach as
vindicating his contention that neocolonial rule is the cause of Zimbabwe’s ills.

The government in a country such as Zimbabwe or Burma is not merely a strongman but a collection of interests and groups.

Western countries should step up external pressure on the ruling cliques and support local initiatives that promote good governance.

This course is morally right and politically wise.

JAMES H. MITTELMAN
Bethesda

Original