US plans to revive dialogue with Zim

By Caesar Zvayi

IN a major policy shift, the United States government has announced plans to restart annual forums with Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries, including Zimbabwe.

The forums were stopped in 2001 after regional leaders objected to US attempts to bar Harare from participating.

US Assistant Secretary of State Ms Jendayi Frazer made the revelations in Tshwane (Pretoria) when she told The Cape Times that the US isolationist policy against Zimbabwe had affected dialogue with the rest of Southern Africa.

"The Zimbabwe issue has impeded full US dialogue with the Sadc in the past, but it won’t in the future. I don’t see any reason why we can’t have forums, why we can’t engage the Sadc.

"I don’t see why we can’t, I mean we engage Zimbabwe all the time. We have an ambassador sitting in Zimbabwe, they have an ambassador sitting in Washington, we have an aid programme," Ms Frazer was quoted as saying.

She added that the Bush administration would bring Zimbabwe into a broader discussion with peers in Sadc, saying Zimbabwe’s problems could only be solved internally.

Zanu-PF Secretary for External Relations Cde Kumbirai Kangai welcomed Ms Frazer’s statement, saying: "It is a wise and welcome decision. We would be happy to enter into a new relationship and Zimbabwe will be found willing to engage in dialogue."

Ms Frazer’s statement reflects a major shift from the isolationistic policies pursued by the US and British governments over the past five years to wilful engagement, especially now that the Western-sponsored opposition MDC that was central to the confrontation, has all but collapsed.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said as much on June 14, 2004 when he announced that illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe had failed as he informed the House of Commons that London would work with Sadc to engage Harare.

Late last year, the European Union’s ambassador to South Africa, Mr Lodewijk Briet, castigated the EU’s exclusionist policy, saying it killed engagement at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans.

His sentiments were echoed by new Tory leader Mr David Cameron, who was quoted as saying London should engage Harare.

Even United Nations envoy Mr Jan Egeland, who came to Harare at the beginning of December, deviated from his humanitarian brief to ask President Mugabe to talk to the EU.

Analysts said it was worth noting that Ms Frazer’s statement just like Mr Blair’s in 2004, admitted that Zimbabwe’s problems could only be solved by Zimbabweans and, in so doing, the Westerners endorsed South African President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy, that they tried to trash over the past five years.

Ms Frazer’s statement followed the release of a radical policy report by the US think-tank — the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) — last month.

The report, titled "More than Humanitarianism: A New US Approach to Africa", says the continent had become central to the US and the rest of the world as it would equal the Middle East as a supplier of energy to the US over the next decade.

"Africa’s growing importance is reflected in the intensifying competition with China and other countries for both access to African resources and influence in this region. A more comprehensive US policy toward Africa is needed," the CFR report said. The report also laid out recommendations for policymakers to craft the new policies in line with prevailing realities and thinking.

Analysts who spoke to The Herald said the US move was understandable given Zimbabwe’s growing relations with China and the influence it (Zimbabwe) has in the region.

They said Americans feared that the Look East Policy may be adopted by the region and the US would lose valuable ground to the emerging Asian superpower.

I have wondered for years if perhaps our US policy in dealing with Mugabe failed to take account of his yearning to be treated as a bona fide "Head of State". In other words, if we had stroked him more -could we have stopped what he has done to his own country over these past years? I don't know but I do know that this man is a very complicated guy. He was educated in the US. Supposedly a Christian -yet he kept a real tribal medicine man as an advisor. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The short answer is "no". Mugabe is and always will be what he was: A hotel doorman and a megalomaniac. We should trat him accordingly. jorge