SADC Will Not Abandon Zim, Says Kikwete
Posted: Monday, May 7, 2007The Herald (Harare)
May 7 2007
SADC will not abandon Zimbabwe while no amount of sanctions and isolation will make the West's regime change agenda work, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has said.
In an interview with the New African magazine, Mr Kikwete said Western countries were pushing for Zimbabwe's isolation, but Sadc would maintain solidarity with Harare.
"Sadc cannot abandon Zimbabwe. We cannot abandon the people of Zimbabwe. There are others who want to isolate Zimbabwe. That is tantamount to abandoning Zimbabwe. But we say we cannot abandon the people of Zimbabwe.
"We have solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. We work together with the people of Zimbabwe. We will try to help them sort out their problems," said Mr Kikwete.
Asked if the illegal economic sanctions and other forms of isolation against Harare would achieve the intended goal of getting people to stage an uprising against the Zimbabwean Government, he said: "Of course, this is the assumption, but it is not a one-plus one equals two.
"Our societies are different. Subsistence peasants have very little interaction with the world outside their farms or homesteads. It is only when they go to hospital, and people don't fall sick everyday, that they may have something to do with government institutions.
"My aunt (the younger sister of my late father who is now 91), she has never been to hospital. I fall sick, but she doesn't fall sick. Of course, you may say this is a rare case, but that is the situation we have in Africa. Under normal circumstances, to think that this Masai roaming the plains with his cattle is going to go into the streets because you have isolated the government of Tanzania, he doesn't give a damn! All he needs from the government is to allow him to take his cattle to the market. He finds beauty in having a large herd of cattle; he doesn't want to have anything with street protests."
Mr Kikwete added: "Yes, isolation may work in urban areas, but the rural population anywhere in Africa far outnumbers the urban population. Isolation may work in urban areas but will never work in rural areas. And this is precisely what happens -- you go to elections tomorrow, the government loses in urban areas but the rural areas continue to vote for it, and the government remains in power. "
He said Western leaders want their African counterparts to condemn President Mugabe and have him removed from power.
"Oh yes, everywhere, everywhere! Zimbabwe is a big story of huge interest everywhere. There is a lot of dissatisfaction in Europe and beyond of what is going on in Zimbabwe, and they see President Mugabe as some kind of devil, somebody who shouldn't have been there, and they think that we in Africa should have done something to have him removed."
But President Kikwete said Sadc would engage Zimbabwe in dialogue and help it solve its problems.
"We have always had differences with the international community. They want us to join in the chorus of open condemnation of Zimbabwe but we have been saying: 'Fine, you can condemn when something is not going right, but our approach has been let's talk about the issues'."
The Tanzanian leader said certain people were mistaken to think that the recent Sadc extraordinary summit in Dar es Salaam was called to read the riot act to Zimbabwe.
"Of course, there are those who thought the summit should have discussed the removal of President Mugabe. Well, I told them, removing Mugabe was not on the agenda. The objective has always been how do we help Zimbabwe? Legally Mugabe is the President until the next elections."
Mr Kikwete said Sadc was confident its initiative to help Zimbabwe would work although it needed time and the lifting of the illegal sanctions.
"We know it will take time. But we need to send the message across. Isolation, which is the strategy that has been adopted by the Western countries and their allies, will work only, in fact its effectiveness depends on submission. You isolate countries to force them to submit. This is the idea. But how long will it take for Zimbabwe to submit? So I think the best way is to look at the issues, bring them to the negotiating table, and not wait until the Government submits to isolation. It may take many years and during these many years, so many people would have suffered. "
Mr Kikwete said there should be limits to freedom in response to a question on the limitless freedom demanded by the opposition MDC.
"We are putting across the same message, that we have freedom but we cannot give anybody the freedom to demolish the country and say it is my freedom to do so. So freedom cannot be limitless. There must be certain limits."
He said it was puzzling that there was so much interest on Zimbabwe in the West and its media but little concern about the Democratic Republic of Congo where 100 people were killed and 200 injured in three days of fighting recently.
"Of course, it is something interesting, something really interesting. But maybe there isn't much interest in Congo as it is in Zimbabwe. That surprises me too."Printer friendly version
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