'West has no moral authority on Zim', says Mutambara

'West has no moral authority on Zim', says Mutambara

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By Staff Reporter

ARTHUR Mutambara, the leader of a faction of Zimbabwe's splintered main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday said the West had no moral authority to speak on Zimbabwe.

"We appreciate the support from western powers but the double standards of the west undermine our struggle...the only ones who have the moral authority to speak out on Zimbabwe are Africans," Mutambara said, speaking at a seminar on the Zimbabwean crisis organised by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Johannesburg.

Mutambara's comments came as South Africa defended its policy on Zimbabwe as the only way to approach President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian government and said African nations might convene a summit to deal with the crisis.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad rejected criticism of regional heavyweight South Africa's so-called "quiet diplomacy" from Australia, Britain and other Western countries, which he accused along with the media of sensationalism.

"It is not our intention to make militant statements to make us feel good, or to satisfy governments outside the African continent," Pahad told a regular news briefing in Pretoria amid the growing political crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Pahad said South Africa was working to facilitate contact between Mugabe's government and opposition activists "to keep the dialogue open and to see how we can influence each other."

Pahad and Mutambara's comments follow similar remarks by former Zambian presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Fredrick Chiluba who both said the West lacked the 'moral right' to criticise Zimbabwe.

Michael Sata, the Zambian opposition leader also joined the fray, accusing the other MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai of being a "Western puppet financed to cause trouble in Zimbabwe”.

Mugabe has come under sharp Western criticism after opposition activists, including Tsvangirai and Mutambara were arrested for trying to attend a church-organised rally in defiance of a government ban on political protests.

Opposition officials said a number of the group were severely beaten in police custody.

Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, which has emerged as one of Mugabe's fiercest critics, said on Friday the world was being too soft on the 83-year-old Zimbabwean ruler.

"We pussyfoot around far too much using diplomatic language. This man is a disaster. His country is just a total heap of misery," Howard told Australian radio.

The United States and Britain have also blasted Mugabe and called for more sanctions against his government.

Pahad said a Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting on Zimbabwe tentatively set for Tanzania next week had been pushed back to allow more time to prepare, adding that the meeting could end up as a presidential summit.

"When a summit is called you have to have heads of state. It's clear that (Tanzanian President Jakaya) Kikwete believes that this must be a discussion at the highest level for us to come to a position on the way forward," he said.

Kikwete, whose country is one of a SADC "troika" on Zimbabwe along with Namibia and Lesotho, met Mugabe this month after which Tanzanian officials said the two leaders had agreed it was time for a "new chapter" in efforts to solve Zimbabwe's crisis.

Since then Zimbabwe's official position appears to have hardened, with Harare warning last week it would expel Western ambassadors it accuses of backing opposition to Mugabe's rule. (Watch how Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa Video)

Pahad said South Africa would continue to seek to build consensus on Zimbabwe with SADC and the African Union as well as the European Union and the United States, and that hectoring from overseas was doing little to resolve the problem.

"If the outside governments had played a more constructive role from the earliest stages, we would not face the problems we do now," he said.

"Suddenly everybody is strident about what must happen," Pahad said. "It's useless for the Australian prime minister to call on us to do more without telling us what they want us to do."

In South Africa, Mutambara said unity among opposition groups was the only way liberation could be achieved in Zimbabwe.

"Many are under the illusion that there is division in the opposition movement in Zimbabwe but the past two weeks have shown the world that our core aim is to liberate our country."

Addressing the seminar before Mutambara, Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said: "It is a great tragedy that we still have two factions of the MDC. One of the basic lessons is that without unity we cannot get anywhere." - Sapa/Reuters

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