Voice of America reports:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson said that Secretary Clinton will be encouraging South Africa to press Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to fully implement the global political agreement he signed with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Obama administration’s faith in dictators never ceases to amaze me. Robert Mugabe signed on to Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement for one reason and one reason only: to sustain his grip on power. Last year, Zimbabwe was on the verge of total implosion. South Africa’s ruling ANC, which still lionizes Mugabe as a conquering hero, threw the thuggish ruler a lifeline by sponsoring a new unity government between the rightfully elected Movement for Democratic Change and the reigning ZANU-PF. The Bush administration was adamant that Mugabe had to go. Obama’s State Department, on the other hand, threw tepid support behind the agreement, followed up with 70 million in foreign aid — all while paying the usual lip service on the importance of democracy. In fact, their rhetoric on Zimbabwe’s sham 2008 election sounds an awful lot like their rhetoric on Iran’s sham 2009 election.
At the time of independence, Zimbabwe was the second-wealthiest African nation, with a GDP equivalent to South Korea’s. It boasted the largest black middle class in Africa, the best education system on the continent, top-tier phone, road, and sanitation services, and was well-funded by boisterous agricultural, mining, and tourism industries. After 30 years of tyrannical Mugabe rule, Zimbabwe now sits second on Foreign Policy’s failed state index — surpassed only by Somalia. It used to be that you could visit Rhodesia and see the ruins of Zimbabwe. Now it’s the other way around.
Considering Zimbabwe’s tragic history, the United States has an obligation to do the right thing here — namely, pressure South Africa to help purge the nation of its ruinous government. That obligation stems from the failed foreign policy of another dictator-friendly U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, who was instrumental in Mugabe’s rise to power. If Secretary Clinton wants to prove the administration is committed to Africa (it claims it is), then fixing Zimbabwe needs to be a top priority. That means serious policy that helps end Mugabe’s rule, restores the agricultural sector by returning European farms to their rightful owners, and encourages the hundreds of thousands of educated, skilled Zimbabwe/Rhodesian exiles — who were chased from their homes by Mugabe’s cronies — to return home. Throwing lukewarm support behind the rightful victors in Zimbabwe’s ’08 elections and pledges of tens of million dollars in aid simply exacerbates the nation’s woes, while validating concerns that the Obama administration isn’t serious about the proliferation of healthy democracies.
