Feature Zimbabwe
that it imposed its sanctions on Zimbabwe because the alleged lack of democracy in the country poses “a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the interests of the United States of America”. Tat is what the preamble of ZIDERA said in 2001. And it is still the stand of President Barack Obama’s administration, which has since coming into office two years ago, twice renewed the sanctions? Addressing the Ambassador on the
other substantive issues he had raised, Charamba said that if indebtedness were the basis for being made ineligible for fresh loans, America would be in serious trouble currently, “with its aneamic economy”. If that stopped Zimbabwe from getting loans, Charamba argued, why did the USA insert in ZIDERA the clause that orders US representatives in international financial institutions to oppose the grant- ing of fresh loans to Zimbabwe. “How many states in Europe are getting
loans after defaulting? How many coun- tries – including dictatorships – have ben- efitted from American generosity against defaults and [a] poor human rights record, since 2001? Why make duplicitous argu- ments, sir?” Charamba wanted to know. Interestingly, much of what Ambassa-
dor Ray said was in sync with the views of Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister in Zimbabwe’s Inclusive Government, who did not attend the campaign launch be- cause he claimed it was a Zanu-PF activity. In fact, none of the opposition minis-
ters in the Inclusive Government attended the launch, even though the deputy prime minister, Arthur Mutambara (from the smaller MDC faction), said in a speech a day later that sanctions were in fact real and were hurting the country and people as a whole. Days later, Tsvangirai admitted to Alec
Russell of the Financial Times (London) in an interview in his home in Harare: “We [the MDC-T] are in a vicious position. We want the sanctions removed but Zanu PF is doing everything to ensure they are retained.” How? Tsvangirai did not elabo- rate, and Alex Russell, who did his utmost in the interview to get Tsvangirai to say bad things about Mugabe without suc- cess (“I used to think that he [Mugabe] is callous and all that. But you know what? He’s human after all. He’s very humane...”) said Tsvangirai sounded “less convincing” on the sanctions.
32 | April 2011 New African
MUSEVENI IN FULL CHARGE … FOR NOW?
Yoweri Museveni: ‘We will just lock them up’
Congress (UPC), a former UN special representative for children and armed conflict, did not even cast his own vote. “This was a sham exercise; I will not accept the results of the elections,” Otunnu said, and called on Ugandans to “choose between submitting to Museveni or to say enough is enough.” Samuel Lubega, an independent
Uganda’s opposition leaders have collectively rejected the outcome of the 18 February elections that saw the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni win with 68% of the vote. Four opposition leaders who contested in the presidential race are still thinking about a people’s revolution – Tunisia and Egypt-style - to deal with the problem. But will they get it? Since 20 February when he was
declared the winner, President Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has been celebrating endlessly over taking a fourth term in office. Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, defeated, for the third time, his closest challenger, Dr Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who scored 26% of the poll. The opposition has rejected the results and says there was massive voter bribery, abuse of state funds by the incumbent, and intimidation of voters. “The only option left that is allowed
by the constitution and which is peaceful, to challenge the results of this sham election, is for the people to assert their sovereign power,” Besigye told a press conference in Kampala. According to Norbert Mao, president of the Democratic Party, “Shs150bn [$68 million] was spent to buy voters.” Another candidate, Dr Olara Otunnu of the Uganda People’s
candidate, had a wrong picture posted against his name in the voter’s register. “This is already a rigged election, we are voting to get the final evidence,” he told reporters soon after casting his vote. Critics have castigated the Electoral
Commission for spending billions of shillings of taxpayers’ money on acquiring biometric voter registration technology from Germany only to produce a flawed voter’s register. The ruling NRM has told the opposition to gather its evidence and go to court. However, throughout the campaigns, Besigye had repeatedly said that if there were vote-rigging he would not go to court to seek redress but would call for “a people’s revolution”. Besigye, who petitioned the courts in vain to annul Museveni’s victories in 2001 and 2006, vowed this time not to go to the courts because he claimed they were not independent. Instead he promised to ask Ugandans to resolve the matter, via a “people’s revolution”. Museveni laughed off the threats:
“Let him try,” he told a press conference at State House, Entebbe, “we just lock them up… A revolution happens where there are conditions for it. Egypt had a revolution because the conditions must have been ripe. I don’t see those conditions here,” Museveni told Al Jazeera. Three weeks after the elections,
there were still menacing-looking soldiers and police on the streets with their anti-riot gear and AK-47 rifles. Agnes Asiimwe
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