If this were not really a serious matter, I would have wished that Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins today’s elections and then Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front leader Robert Mugabe challenges the result.
I am quite certain this would expose the hypocrisy of the West once and for all, and demonstrate that the West is not interested in the people of Zimbabwe but their own, judging from what former State Department official Todd Moss said yesterday.
Zimbabwe, is nothing more than a potential market for United States companies waiting to be exploited, and us such must be opened up for investment with no strings attached.
The country was parcelled out more than a decade ago when then United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Joseph Sullivan wrote a cable in which he gave an after Mugabe scenario.
“In a reform environment, we also recommend OPIC and ExIm Bank consider loan guarantees for projects that promote US exports and shore up Zimbabwe’s dilapidated infrastructure. This could involve badly-needed rejuvenation of General Electric locomotives at the National Railway of Zimbabwe, Caterpillar machines at coal-miner Wankie Colliery and Boeing jets at Air Zimbabwe.
“Furthermore, the country’s participation in African Growth and Opportunity (AGOA) sessions as an observer (with full admission following free and fair elections) would allow Zimbabwean firms to plan a re-entry into the U.S. market. (Most U.S.-bound textile production here has migrated to AGOA countries.).
“We should also explore possibilities for including Zimbabwe in free trade negotiations with the Southern Africa Customs Union,” Sullivan said.
The United States has never deviated from that policy and Mugabe has been the only obstacle. If he lost, that would be the end, no matter how much he protested. But if Mugabe wins this is not the time for the State Department to sit on its hands and merely wait for Mugabe to die before pushing for change.
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