Zim Govt scoffs at US regime change calls
Posted: Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Herald Reporter
December 23, 2008
The Herald

GOVERNMENT has dismissed renewed attempts by the United States to instigate illegal regime change in the country, labelling the fresh onslaught the "last kicks of a dying administration".

This follows US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer's statements that Washington would not recognise any Government that would have President Mugabe.

This is despite the fact that the country's three main political parties have already signed an agreement that upholds President Mugabe as Head of State and Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

In addition, a mutually agreed-on Consti-tutional Amendment to give legal effect to this arrangement has already been gazetted.

"We have lost confidence in the power-sharing deal being a success with (President) Mugabe in power," Frazer told the media in South Africa.

She was in Pretoria to "consult with regional leaders about the deteriorating political and economic crises in Zimbabwe" and to communicate Washington's stance on the envisaged inclusive Government. Frazer also tried to "bribe" the opposition to pull out of the broad-based agreement saying the US would cancel Zimbabwe's debt to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund if illegal regime change was effected.

She indicated that the US would not extend any assistance to fight cholera as long as President Mugabe remained in power, vindicating Government assertions that the West was trying to use the outbreak for illegal regime change purposes.

Yesterday, Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown echoed Frazer's call, saying: "Power-sharing isn't dead, but (President) Mugabe has become an absolute impossible obstacle to achieving it."
Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde George Charamba, who is also President Mugabe's spokesperson, scoffed at Frazer's utterances, saying they were nothing new.

"We have no time for US President George W. Bush's diplomatic flute. We are talking about an administration whose sun has set. Why bother?"

He said Gordon Brown's administration was also on its way out in Britain and the British prime minister was ill-advisedly trying to gain relevance back home through posturing on Zimbabwe.

Bush leaves office on January 20 and the Government has accused him of trying to use Zimbabwe to salvage his poor foreign policy record. Washington has imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe through the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 and has been actively agitating for a military invasion of the country.

Independent MP, Professor Jonathan Moyo scoffed at Frazer's comments saying they were an indictment on the MDCs, particularly the faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

"The announcement by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, that the US has withdrawn its support for Zimbabwe's September 15 inter-party political agreement is not only a pathetic self-fulfilling prophecy since the Bush administration did not support that agreement in the first place, but is also the clearest evidence that the US government's arrogantly neo-colonial stance on Zimbabwe is premised on the sad but real fact that America has a regime change puppet in Zimbabwe in the form of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party who are ever ready to parrot an American line on Zimbabwe no matter how harmful," Prof Moyo said.

Prof Moyo said in the circumstances nobody should be surprised if Tsvangirai starts parroting Frazer's statement, and that the MDC-T leader should prepare himself for rejection by Zimbabweans.

Another political analyst questioned the logic of Malloch-Brown's statement saying: "How can he on one hand say power sharing is dead while at the same time saying President Mugabe should not be part of it when he is not only a signatory to the September 15 agreement but also the Head of State as endorsed even by the opposition here?"
Officially opening Zanu-PF's 10th National People's Conference in Bindura last week, President Mugabe described Frazer as a "little girl" who was out of touch with the reality in Zimbabwe and the rest of the world.

"There is this little girl called Jendayi Frazer. She was in South Africa recently making all sorts of noises.
"She thinks that Africans are idiots, little kids who cannot think for themselves."

The US, Britain, France and their African askaris like leader of the Botswana military junta Seretse Khama Ian Khama and Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, have been calling for military intervention in Zimbabwe.

Yesterday, MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa was quoted by AFP as saying: "It is their (Britain and US) own view and we will not be drawn into commenting on it."

These calls have been rejected by Sadc and the African Union and last week Tsvangirai also dismissed military invasion as an option.

Tsvangirai is currently holed up in Botswana.

However, Botswana has backtracked on its recent sabre-rattling, with Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani saying: "I do not think the army of Zimbabwe would remain in their barracks in the face of a foreign invasion. The problem with an invasion is that innocent civilians would be killed."

The British media have also warned against invading Zimbabwe saying that would be akin to sacrificing Britons against "the tried and tested veterans of the Congo," in reference to Zimbabwe's exploits during Operation Sovereign Legitimacy. 

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