Mugabe is an embarrassment to the African Union and the United Nations

Sometimes last week, I received a hate mail from one Larry Hill, who though his name looked European, I suspected was some blind Zimbabwean supporter of Robert Mugabe come rain or sunshine. The man was annoyed with me over an article I had written earlier in the week. In that article I questioned why the World Food Programme in Rome had excluded Mugabe from a farewell dinner soon after the World Food Summit in Rome. This is what Larry Hill said: Hello Jerry, in regards to your article “How Mugabe’s Speech caused him a plate of chips in Rome, written on Wednesday, June 11, 2008” I have to say I read the article and felt pitiful that I almost cried at Africa. You have sold your soul to the white propaganda machine for a mere $0.10 and you are not bothered at all. I would rather you go pick up a book and read about the colonization of Africa, The Berlin conference of 1884, the 500yrs of Slavery. The stupid African kings thought they were just selling their brothers from different tribes, but in turn the whole continent was enslaved. Now the continent is again under siege from the great grand sons of the former colonizers and you can’t see that? Why not talk about the promises the British reneged on, they have not paid a dime of the 50 million pounds they were to pay for the resettlement of the white settlers. The Land question in Zimbabwe had not been answered. I believe this is hard to envision, given Kenyans lost their land long time ago and they don’t even remember what it means to own land. Very sad.” When I read this article, I didn’t even feel angry at this Zimbabwean African who found it necessary to judge me for writing about Robert Mugabe. What was even more annoying was the fact that Larry Hill, in his blind faith for Robert Mugabe despite the latter’s atrocities, didn’t even bother to open his eyes to see what was unfolding in his country! Perhaps his kind is the reason despots in Africa continue to act with impunity. They have a cult-like following despite their crimes against humanity. This article is directed at the African and the world community. What is happening in Zimbabwe is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to go on when the Rwanda trials are still going on next door in Arusha Tanzania. How can the world community, more so Africa stand there and fold their arms while Mugabe is slaughtering his own people? How can the African leaders, more so Thabo Mbeki and Jakaya Kikwete call themselves African leaders while one of their own in the SADDC region is carrying out genocide right in front of their eyes? Wasn’t it an insult to see Ban Kimoon the UN Secretary General shifting the embarrassment to the African Union just hours after the UN Security Council merely condemned the Zimbabwe crisis? Why is it that when there is a crisis of this nature in Africa, it is always an African problem that requires an African solution? On what basis did the Allied Forces invade Iraq twice in 1993 and 2003, the latter still going on today? On what basis did the Americans and their allies hang Saddam Hussein? Were Saddam’s sins against humanity worse than Mugabe’s murderous orgy currently in progress? On what basis did the NATO forces invade Bosnia and Kosovo at the height of genocide in that region? How come when Rwanda was burning in 1994, it was an African problem that did not require super power and UN interventions? How come when the apartheid regime was carrying out genocide inside South Africa while murdering innocent civilians in cross border raids among frontline states, the super powers that controlled the UN decisions stood by for forty years and did nothing for Africans except Fidel Castro who intervened militarily in the region? To the African leaders and the United Nations, I say that Robert Mugabe has crossed the line. The despot must be removed by force if necessary to stop him from further annihilating his country, his record as a freedom fighter notwithstanding. Zimbabweans did not fight for freedom only to be massacred by one of their own! Because of the shame of what is going in Zimbabwe, the African Union and the United Nations stand condemned in the court of World Public Opinion. Contact: jerryokungu@gmail.com www.africanewsonline.blogspot.com