Kaunda says Brown sanctions call not helping in Zimbabwe

Kaunda says Brown sanctions call not helping in Zimbabwe

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By Fikile Mapala

FORMER Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda has said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not qualified to comment on the challenges facing Zimbabwe.

The former United National Independence Party (UNIP) leader said Brown had no moral authority to call for more sanctions to be imposed on Zimbabwe.

Zambia ’s Post newspaper quoted Kaunda at the weekend saying Brown did not understand the historical background spawning Zimbabwe’s current problems.

Kaunda said Brown's threat to impose sanctions on President Robert Mugabe's government in the wake of a delay in announcing the March 29 presidential election results was not helping the situation.

Kaunda: “It is sad for Prime Minister Brown to say what he said about Zimbabwe. Brown does not understand what he is talking about. It is a sad thing what he said."

Kaunda, who turns 84 on Monday, is reported to have made the remarks during a speech he delivered as a special guest to recipients of recognition awards from Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Embassy in Zambia.

The former president said he had wanted to inform Brown on how the challenges facing Zimbabwe came about before he had even replaced Tony Blair, but failed to get that opportunity.

Kaunda, whose government helped Zipra and Zanla fighters during Zimbabwe's war of independence from British colonial rule, said Brown should leave Zimbabwe alone so that it solves its own challenges, in particular the political stand-off between Zanu PF and the opposition MDC.

He said: “I think people in Zimbabwe are trying to find a way out of their own problems by talking of a government of national unity.”

The veteran nationalist blasted Western countries which he accused of believing that they were the best to prescribe solutions for Africa ’s problems.

Kaunda said calls by Brown for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe were misplaced adding he wondered why a shipment of arms from China was being blocked.

He said: “As usual, they want to tell what they think is right for us… Embargoing the defence forces is not the solution at all."

Kaunda and his UNIP were ousted from power in 1991 and replaced by former trade unionist Fredrick Chiluba of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, his government made unpopular by a failing economy.

Like Mugabe, Kaunda was a proponent of the one party state ideology, succeeding in banning all opposition parties in Zambia between 1972 and 1990 under the so-called Second Republic.

Zambia's current President Levy Mwanawasa is at the forefront of calling on regional leaders to put pressure on Mugabe to release the delayed presidential poll results and enter into fresh talks with the opposition in order to end the country’s political crisis.

Mwanawasa last week called on southern Africa states not to allow a Chinese ship with arms destined for Zimbabwe to unload its cargo amid fears that the ammunition may be used against civilians.

In March last year, Mwanawasa who is also the Southern Africa Development Community chairman, advised southern Africa to take a new approach to Zimbabwe, which he likened to a “sinking Titanic”.

Mugabe has come under increasing international pressure to quit after the opposition claimed victory in the election whose outcome is still unknown, a month on. The MDC has also accused Mugabe's security forces of unleashing a wave of post-election violence against its supporters.
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