Prevention Is Better Than Cure: The Case of Zimbabwe

Madam President, yet once again, some African leaders of state are showing that they do not want to learn correctly lessons of the past. Nearly 2000 persons had to die in Kenya before the post-elections crisis came to an end with the induction of Mr. Raila Odinga as Prime Minister.

The signs were very glaring that violence would be forthcoming in Kenya if the truth about the recent presidential and parliamentary elections were not told. Without waiting for this truth to be told, the official announcement came out that the incumbent President Mbaki had won the elections. As the truth became widely known, violence broke out. Nearly all African leaders of state sat idly by watching Kenya burn. It was left to committed Africans like Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Mrs. Nelson Mandela (Graca Machel) to save the day by intervening as Mediators.

Zimbabwe is about to burn. The signs are very clear. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held nearly a month ago. Calculating the elections results from the tabulations at each polling station display-board, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has declared itself the winner of the elections. In the absence of the official announcement of the results, the ruling ZANU-PF Party has called for a recount of the votes. How can there be a recount of the votes when there is no official announcement on votes counted? This insistence on recounting by the ruling party leaves one with no option but the conclusion that it has inside knowledge on what the Elections Commission is doing. Whatever the situation is, this call for a recount, in objective terms, is part if a design to sustain President Mugabe illegally in state power. Then, Mugabe has already expressed his preparedness to take part in the second-round of voting. How can Mugabe know about any second-round of voting when the official results of the election have not been announced? To make matters even more suspect and worse, the Elections Commission has proceeded to holding a recounting of votes when in fact no official results have been announced to lay the correct basis for establishing as to whether or not a recount is necessary.

Clearly, the current political developments in Zimbabwe are a recipe for violence and disaster. And African leaders of state continue to stand idly by in effective approval. No wonder, this dismality has become too vexing to serious Africans to the point that Mediator Kofi Annan has asked in a loud and clear voice: “Where are the African leaders of state, as Zimbabwe is poised to self-destruct?”

African leaders went to the Security Council after they had called for a Special Session on Africa . Non-African leaders were also at the Security Council. Would you believe that the African leaders at that Council meeting did not table the Zimbabwean Crisis? It was left up to non-African leaders, like Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain , to draw the Security Council's attention to Zimbabwe . What a shame! It was left up to the leader of Zimbabwe 's former colonial master, Britain , to table the Zimbabwe crisis at the Council. Where are the African leaders in deed?

The time is now, not later, for the Mediator Kofi Annan Team to go down to Zimbabwe and prevent the violence which is bound to come if the Team does not go there. Already, there are confirmed reports of violent state repression of MDC officials and members in the midst of official justification for receiving the shipment of arms aboard a stranded commercial ship. The few African governments, labor and other civil society leaders who have taken actions to prevent the entry of the ship into their respective ports are to be commended. Prevention is better than cure, as we bear in mind the genocide in Darfur and the massacres in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.