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Zimbabwe: "change is essential"

Last Modified: 31 May 2007
By: Jonathan Miller

Tony Blair calls for change amid new evidence of Zimbabwe's suffering.

Out of the African dawn, Tony Blair touched down in the land of quiet diplomacy to offer his sense of direction to Pretoria, the mediator in Zimbabwe's political crisis.

Vanity thrown to the wind now on the Blair valedictory tour; his message: time to get tough on Africa's authoritarian governments.

Zimbabwe's relentless descent into chaos has accelerated in recent months; in March, the repression of the Mugabe regime finally became so hard to ignore that other African presidents could no longer look the other way.

On the 11th of March leaders of Zimbabwe's democratic opposition were brutally beaten in police custody.

The regional body, the SADC, called an emergency meeting and put South African President Thabo Mbeki in charge of defusing the crisis.

Tony Blair on Zimbabwe

"African governments should also hold other African governments to account. In Zimbabwe decades of repression have forced up to one third of the country to flee, life expectancy has dropped from 60 in 1990 to 37 today,

"Now I welcome the determination of the countries of southern Africa to tackle Zimbabwe's problems through the SADC and President Mbeki's leadership to bring the two parties together.

The world is waiting, wanting to engage with a reforming Zimbabwe government. We support therefore SADC's efforts to develop a clear plan - but for the people of Zimbabwe this is urgent and change before the 2008 elections essential."

Thabo Mbeki was appointed as mediator with Harare - and was specifically mandated to: "To facilitate dialogue between the opposition and the Government " and "encourage diplomatic contacts which will assist with the resolution of the situation in Zimbabwe"

But since that emergency meeting, in Tanzania, Thabo Mbeki has been lambasted even by members of his own ruling party for his deafening silence -- and in Zimbabwe, the repression's got worse. The South African President's quiet diplomacy so quiet no one's quite sure what he's actually achieved in promoting conditions for free and fair presidential elections next year.

Channel 4 News has been receiving a steady stream of photographs from Zimbabwe. These show a round up of hundreds of activists last Friday; shots of civil servants protesting over low pay; one of the head of the Zimbabwean Law Society who was badly beaten.

Another image was shocking evidence of the violence meted out: this, showing the foot of a man allegedly tortured for his membership of the opposition. Photographs because it's become almost impossible to film there openly.

The opposition say all this is just the tip of the iceberg. One woman, Grace Kwinji, a senior leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change was one of those so severely beaten in police custody after the 11th of March roundup.

After two attempts to leave the country, she did make it out. She's now reunited with her children in Britain, where she's being treated for post-traumatic stress. When asked if she believed the repression is continuing, she said:

"I believe the repression is getting worse. This is a government in a serious panic. It's going to get worse. We are told now there are hit squads lifting MDC leaders. It is a serious situation which the international community should look at with great concern."

She sees tomorrow's one-to-one talks between Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki as vital for her country.