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ABC Radio Australia
The World Today - Wednesday, 30 July, 2008 12:40
Reporter: Eleanor Hall
Interview with Senator David Coltart

ELEANOR HALL: In South Africa the crisis talks between Zimbabwean leaders stalled overnight. South Africa’s President, Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the deal for the meeting, said while the negotiators have now returned home, the talks have gone well. Zimbabwean Opposition Senator, David Coltart, said there was no trust between Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change and the ageing dictator, Robert Mugabe.

But he said he was optimistic that Mr Mugabe would sign a deal out of fear that otherwise his own military may remove him from power. Senator Coltart is the MDC’s Secretary for Legal Affairs and is in Australia this week as a guest of the Centre for Independent Studies. He spoke to me earlier today.

Senator Coltart, thanks for speaking to us. The news this morning is that the unity talks between Zimbabwean leaders have been adjourned and the leaders have returned to Zimbabwe. What can you tell us about what has caused the talks to stall?

DAVID COLTART: The talks have adjourned. There are some reports that, that is because they have reached an impasse. But my understanding is that that is not the case that they’ve reached agreements on certain issues which issues now have to be discussed with the principles. Zanu-PF in particular has to go back to speak to Robert Mugabe.

ELEANOR HALL: And are you able to tell us anything about those decisions that they might be going back to the leaders about?

DAVID COLTART: Unfortunately, you know, there is this blanket of secrecy around the talks. All the parties have agreed that they will discuss the detail and so I would be in breach of that.

The Standard
Opinion by David Coltart
28 July 2008

WHILST the MOU will undoubtedly be a positive step forward towards a negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe, many pitfalls still lie ahead and we will need Mandela-like wisdom to negotiate them.

A few weeks ago in London Nelson Mandela commented on the Zimbabwean crisis using four words which are profoundly significant as we move towards a negotiated settlement. He said that the Zimbabwean crisis was, and I quote, a “tragic failure of leadership”. At that time many took his comments as an attack on Robert Mugabe alone. However I do not believe that his comments were directed solely at Robert Mugabe. I believe that he was referring to a collective failure of leadership in Zimbabwe not just this year but over a protracted period.

It is just over 50 years since Garfield Todd’s tenure as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia ended on the 17th of February 1958. In his farewell statement Todd said “we must make it possible for every individual to lead the good life, to win a place in the sun. We are in danger of becoming a race of fear ridden neurotics — we who live in the finest country on earth”. Those wise words have been disregarded by a succession of political leaders in Zimbabwe for the last 50 years. Zimbabwe has been blighted during the last 50 years by political leaders of all races and of all ideologies who have been guilty of the following errors of judgment:

Since the early 1960s Zimbabwean political parties have generally been led by men who believe that physical force is more important than moral force. The 1961 Constitution would have led to a gradual and orderly transition from white minority rule to majority rule but it was derailed by both black and white politicians who did not believe in compromise and who preferred to place their faith in the use of force and violence either to retain power or to acquire it.

The Australian
By David Coltart
July 25, 2008

WITH talks between the Movement for Democratic Change and ZANU-PF set to
determine the future of Zimbabwe, it is incumbent on all to refer to the
vision of Zimbabwe held by its most important stakeholders: Zimbabweans.

That vision reaches out to gather in the desires and hopes most ordinary
Zimbabweans carry for peace, freedom and justice in their country. The
coming weeks are not a time for empty leadership, nor is it time for a
process of arranging the chairs of power to comfort the padded fundaments of
power-brokers. Zimbabwe has seen enough of this. We need leaders who listen
to human-scale policies.

Such a process won South Africa its much-deserved freedom. Then, the
towering figure of Nelson Mandela constructed and maintained a process that
was politically sound and broadly integrated. Mandela is the first to admit
that his leadership was reliant upon the leadership of others, of people
such as F.W. de Klerk, Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer. It was a culture of
leadership that won out.

Zimbabweans know too well the implications of a drastic and fatal failure in
leadership. The agreement between the MDC and ZANU-PF to discuss a
transitional arrangement is a step forward, but Zimbabweans have too often
seen the moral bankruptcy in our leaders to hold their hopes too high.

The political leadership of Zimbabwe has been soaked in violence and
recrimination for decades. The most concerted and avowed efforts have been
in tight circles of self-interest, spinning enduringly in power’s tiny
labyrinth.

These leadership dysfunctions have reached across all Africa and indeed,
across the globe. World and regional leaders, along with Zimbabwe’s, have
rarely failed in one area: to disappoint.

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
25 JUly 2008

• A selection of op-eds and editorials from the U.S. and around the world. Sign up for the email alert or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Obama In Berlin, U.S. Mideast Policy, and Zimbabwe’s National Unity
July 25, 2008

Australian
o National Unity: David Coltart of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe writes that there should be no consideration of a permanent government of national unity in the country, with Robert Mugabe retaining the presidency indefinitely.

Business Daily (Kenya)
o Dead Doha: In an editorial, the paper considers the importance of the WTO talks in Geneva for the developing world, and says Doha may as well be dead; but developing nations should argue their case strongly at WTO, it says.

Business Day (South Africa)
o Unfair: Brenda Wardle, a legal consultant in Johannesburg, writes on why she believes the president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, who faces charges of corruption, cannot get a fair trial.

Christian Science Monitor
o Pick Hillary: Madeleine Kunin, a former governor of Vermont, believes Hillary Clinton may be Barack Obama’s wisest choice as a vice-presidential running mate.

Daily Star (Lebanon)
o Welcome Changes: In an editorial, the paper notes changes in American foreign policy recently and says they are both welcome and overdue.

Daily Telegraph
o Swooning Europe: Toby Harnden, the paper’s U.S. editor, writes of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin on Thursday that while his soaring rhetoric may inspire swoons in Europe, American swing states voters might be a tad more sceptical.

Economist
o Unhappy America: In an editorial, the Economist says nations, like people, occasionally get the blues; and right now the United States, normally the world’s most self-confident place, is glum.

The Zimbabwe Independent
Opinion
By Constantine Chimakure
25 July 2008

TALKS to find a settlement to Zimbabwe’s decade-long crisis started in Pretoria this week with Zanu PF and the MDC still deeply divided over what the process should produce.

The negotiations followed Monday’s momentous occasion when President Robert Mugabe and leaders of the two MDC factions — Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai — signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The Tsvangirai-led MDC, the bigger of the two formations, is pushing for a transitional government (TG) headed by its president, while Mugabe’s Zanu PF insists on an inclusive government with the 84-year-old incumbent at the helm.

The African Union and United Nations have joined the consultative process, thus broadening it beyond Mbeki’s sole remit from Sadc.

Politicians and political analysts this week said what is desirable for Zimbabwe is a construction that is not blinded by the politics of the day, but rather the economics.

Zimbabwe-born South African businessman Mutumwa Mawere argued that the country was bleeding and the politics at play seems to focus on political matters to the exclusion of the fundamentals of the economic situation.

“Whether it will be a GNU or TG, the country needs a change of direction,” argued Mawere. “The policies have to change.”
He said the talks were likely to produce a GNU. “It seems that a GNU will be the preferred outcome. Both Zanu PF and MDC-Tsvangirai have largely the same number of parliamentary votes requiring a scheme of arrangement,” Mawere said. “This may take the form of a new interim constitution providing for the election of a prime minister by parliament. The prime minister will then come from the MDC factions. The president (Mugabe) will remain in situ presumably to ensure a stable transition.” He said the danger with this approach was that given the age of Mugabe, this may not work as it will favour the MDC in future elections.

Christianity Today
By a Zimbabwean pastor-scholar
Posted 7/24/2008

We’re hungry, angry, and depending on a sovereign God.

How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. (Hab. 1:2-4)

Over the last five years, I have preached often from Habakkuk. I stress the fallenness of our world and the need to be realistic about human wickedness. But Habakkuk also stresses that history demands a judgment. If God is just, there must be a judgment one day — maybe not in this life but certainly in the life to come. God’s answer to our struggles with evil and evil men and women in this world is, “The righteous will live by faith — our loyalty to God in spite of the godlessness of others.” We’re getting lots of practice.

Daily life in Zimbabwe is the painful reality of starvation, AIDS, and violence. Most families are fortunate if they can have one solid meal a day. There is no food on the shelves, there are no medicines in hospitals, and no one can afford to buy from the drugstores.

The last few months have therefore been a total nightmare for my family (me, my wife, our two daughters, our parents, and my HIV-positive brother’s family), especially as the shortage of basic and essential commodities has reached critical levels. When you can find such staples as sugar, maize meal, cooking oil, flour, rice, and salt, the price is ridiculously unaffordable. When we get financial assistance, we cross over the border to buy supplies and withdraw cash.

The Independent
By Daniel Howden and Tom Armitage in Zurich
Thursday, 24 July 2008

The Mugabe regime’s final lifeline is a small Vienna-based software company that helps it to keep printing the money it relies on for its survival, The Independent can reveal.

Jura JSP, an Austro-Hungarian firm with just 50 employees, has been dealing with the pariah government in Harare, enabling it to keep ahead of its hyperinflation crisis. Officials at the company confirmed yesterday that it supplied the licences and software used to design and print the Zimbabwe dollar, but would review this position if required to do so by the EU.

Fresh EU sanctions announced yesterday do not cover all companies dealing with the Mugabe regime, but other firms named and shamed for profiting from the Zimbabwe crisis have cut all links. The software company enables the regime to print the money it uses to pay the army, police and security agents which keep Zanu PF in power. Without access to paper money, Mr Mugabe would face an immediate crisis.

Inflation is running at nearly three million per cent and the country issued a 100 billion dollar banknote this week, worth only about 7p. The economist say John Robertson said inflation was the greatest threat to the ruling party and the rate was likely to climb to 100 million per cent within the next month. “If the software is withdrawn there is no language to describe what would follow,” he said.

Paper is running out at the state-run mint Fidelity Printers and Refiners after the Bavarian company Giesecke and Devrient stopped deliveries last week following pressure from the German government. Now Austria and Hungary are expected to come under diplomatic pressure to follow Berlin’s lead.

The Telegraph
By David Blair
23 July 2008

A Zimbabwean opposition leader, lauded for his brave struggle against Robert Mugabe, arrives in London on an official visit as the new prime minister.

Morgan Tsvangirai asks Britain to recognise his government and offer millions of pounds of aid. He urges the lifting of all sanctions and declares that Harare’s era of isolation is over. Mr Tsvangirai requests Gordon Brown’s help in releasing large sums from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

He returns to Harare and reports back to his boss - one Robert Mugabe. After they formed a “government of national unity”, Mr Mugabe stayed on as president and Mr Tsvangirai became his prime minister. Now Britain faces a cruel dilemma - recognise the government (led by Mr Mugabe) and pour aid into its coffers (controlled by Mr Mugabe), or face the blame for economic catastrophe.

At present, this scenario is pure imagination and fantasy. But events along these lines could unfold in the weeks ahead, confronting the Prime Minister and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, with a conundrum. Would they recognise and fund a new Zimbabwean government that includes Mr Tsvangirai in a senior position, but keeps Mr Mugabe as president?

The talks which opened yesterday between the opposition and Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF party could have this outcome. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is still mediating between the two sides, despite Britain’s efforts to sideline him. Senior British sources believe the talks will probably fail. If so, London will avoid its dilemma.

But what if they do sign a deal? Aside from total failure, there are two possible outcomes. The MDC wants a shortlived “transitional government” leading to fresh elections, which Mr Tsvangirai would almost certainly win.

The Washington Post
By Craig Timberg
Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed Monday to start urgent negotiations toward forming a new government, a first but very tentative step toward ending that nation’s political stalemate.

The deal signed on national television was vague, leaving aside nearly every key question about Zimbabwe’s future after nearly a decade of ruinous decline.

But it included clear language vowing an end to state-sponsored political violence, and set a deadline requiring that the talks conclude within two weeks.

The ceremony – which included a handshake between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who had not met face-to-face since Tsvangirai founded the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 1999 – generated a rare surge of optimism among Zimbabweans. What remains unclear is whether Mugabe and his ruling clique are prepared to negotiate away a significant share of power after 28 years of nearly total control.

Mugabe, looking drained and glum, described the deal as amounting to an agreement to amend Zimbabwe’s constitution and some of its laws.

“Our constitution as it is should be amended variously and in a number of ways,” he said.

The opposition offered a more expansive vision, portraying the agreement as the framework for negotiating a new government that will resolve Zimbabwe’s long-standing political and economic problems, including annual inflation rates that have run into the millions of percent.

“If we put our heads together, I’m sure we can find a solution. Not finding a solution is not an option,” Tsvangirai said.

The deal came together under heavy pressure from the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and its appointed mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who flew to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, for the signing ceremony.

Inthenews.co.uk
By Alex Stevenson
22 July 2008

Lauren St John has first-hand experience of politically inspired violence in Zimbabwe. But she still loved living in the country, where awe at its natural beauty sat side by side with an all-pervasive fear of violence and retribution. Oppression still lingers today, as Ms St John knows only too well.

I found her in reflective mood. Ms St John has just finished a memoir of her experience growing up as the daughter of a white farmer during Rhodesia’s tumultuous years of independence. Her fond memories at the farm which became the title of her book began with a tragedy, however, when her 11-year-old classmate was shot dead by guerrillas. Bruce Campbell and his family were killed by a volley of machinegun fire bursting through the walls of the Rainbow’s End farmhouse which Ms St John’s family subsequently moved into. When she moved into the house where he had lived, red blood stains were still evident on the cupboard in her bedroom.

The Campbells were victims of racist violence against the perceived colonial oppressors, but Ms St John remembers never sensing any bad feeling in the house afterwards. “My mum asked Camilla [Campbell, the surviving mother] why there’d been no bad feeling… she said it’s because there’d been so much love in the house,” she explained.

That love transferred itself to her own experiences growing up at Rainbow’s End, a thousand-acre farm which was also part game reserve. From the age of 11 to 17 she enjoyed the stunning wildlife, Jenny the giraffe and herds of wildebeest and impala. But over this experience lay the constant threat of a repeat attack. Ms St John is hugely sympathetic to opposition supporters in Zimbabwe today as a result.