Black murder, white murder. The story of Zimbabwe

Black murder, white murder. The story of Zimbabwe

26/03/04
(READ MTHULISI'S PREVIOUS ARTICLES)
THERE is a dangerous notion about the story unfolding in Zimbabwe which needs some tackling and frank analysis in order that historians may in future not identify stupidity or dishonesty on our part.

It is that President Robert Mugabe's tyranny is essentially home grown and is a surprise to the West and the entire world.

Independent newspapers in our country have also shaped this unfortunate notion. Witness how, in their accounts, they omit the essential link between our tragedy and the age-old outright dishonesty in Washington, No 10 Downing Street and the Buckingham Palace.

Witness how if the Western institutions say a word of ridicule or reprimand President Mugabe they fail to put it into a context to allow many to identify the ground upon which Mugabe's exclusive tyranny stands.

By so doing they aid the official propaganda that the independent press is solely "pro-West" and "anti-Zimbabwe". We have many gullible people in Zimbabwe who probably matter more than the informed ones and they believe such crap.

The true story is that this regime showed its colors right in its infancy and the West knew everything about it but refused to act because Mugabe was doing them a service. During the elections in 1980 Mugabe's cohorts were out in the rural areas beating just about anybody who campaigned in what they regarded as their territory.

"The argument that Mugabe is better today than he was in the 1980's is evidently sustainable"

MTHULISI MATHUTHU

After romping to victory the government went about erecting camps in the areas where it had no support. In those camps anything happened. As everybody now knows, the net result was gross abuse of human rights.

Consequently, about 20 000 people were either thrown down the disused mine shafts or hacked into pieces before being thrown into dip-tanks and anywhere.

The captain and author of this tragedy, President Mugabe remained a saint. He was knighted and dined with the Queen, Kings and many other Western leaders.

Once this story of Midlands and Matabeleland went out they all cried: Lies.

Diligent journalists were even fired for daring report on the carnage. Read Peter Godwin's book, Mukiwa. A brilliant story was wasted thanks to the Western powers' unwillingness to have a friend and an ally in Southern Africa (Mugabe) soiled in the middle of the Cold War which had to be won at all costs.

With the region being a host of the Cold War clashes a puppet was essential and even if the people were being killed. Worse, if those dying were poor black people with no powerful connections what so ever. In that way Mugabe survived. A racial component is clearly not missing here.

Come the period between 2000 and today. Mugabe's hatchet men kill 9 whites, seize their farms and kill more than 150 black people. At once the ostriches come home rushing. All the computers run the story.

All newsrooms send journalists down and Washington cries foul when they are pushed out. Once a white farmer was gunned down outside Harare and a picture showed his body guarded by his little pet the story wins prime space all over the world which is good since cold blooded murder is unacceptable anywhere.

But moral questions still arise. Is the murder of a white person in 2002 more shocking than the hacking of tens of pregnant women in Kezi in 1983?

What is more shocking between the deportation of Andrew Meldrum and the firing of a journalist in London who reports clear cut genocide in Zimbabwe?

In the 1980's the Observer fired Donald Trelford who had a world class scoop while Meldrum was deported for filing new angles to an old story yet his fate won more space. Witness the discrepancies!

The argument that Mugabe is better today than he was in the 1980's is evidently sustainable. We are witnessing here two devils that suddenly found no more reason to work together that is why Mugabe is deliberately defying the Western leaders because he is fully aware of their tactics since they were his comrades.

His tactics are just the same as those of the Western warmongers. Like Bush Mugabe believes in bombing, blackmail, propaganda, erecting Guantanamos, killing, bribing and sheer deceit. That is not a coincidence but it's a telling pattern.

Yes Blair was not there when Mugabe was being treated with kid gloves but he is the Prime minister of a nation that brought Zimbabwe to where it is today.

There are some traditions, which he has to keep and is keeping even if he is a Labour MP. This entire current obsession about Mugabe as though he has suddenly become a devil incarnate has tended to make the Zimbabwean ruler look like a hero.

Mugabe who is supposed to occupy his true position as a puppet and tyrant in the annals of history now lays claim to heroism. A story is not being told how Africans in South Africa, Libya, DRC and many other countries view Mugabe with much admiration.

Because of the recorded insincerity of the West these people wrongly believe that Mugabe is being sacrificed for standing by his people. They imagine that Mugabe is a true African leader who all his life has stood for black emancipation through and through.

The truth is that once his friends in the West discarded him Mugabe's mask fell and cleverly he picked it up and fled crying "imperialist".

Those who woke up at that moment saw as if a genuine black democrat was fleeing an evil Blair and Bush and they embraced his delusional rhetoric. A man who instigated one of the biggest atrocities in peacetime has suddenly become an emancipator of the down trodden blacks! How ironic - thuthuma@yahoo.com
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