THE KENYAN Foreign Affairs Minister
Moses Wetangula attacked that country’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga
over his call for African Union troops to be sent to Zimbabwe to
forcibly remove the Government of President Mugabe.
Wetangula told a news conference in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi that
Odinga’s calls to the African Union to deploy peace keepers was
‘uncalled for’, saying Zimbabwe was not under invasion or armed
rebellion.
He said Kenya would respect the position of the African Union that
commissioned Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to negotiate
the matter.
He also said that AU statutes have no provision for intervention in
sovereign states, adding that the AU did not have the mandate or its
own reserve of troops for such intervention and would need to ask
member states to “donate” troops.
Troops, he said, can only be deployed by willing states and not the AU.
“The constitute Act of the African Union does not allow a country to be
invaded unless there is a rebellion which is not the case in Zimbabwe.
Secondly, the AU has no troops to send anywhere. It can only request
countries to contribute and I don’t believe that is the way to go,” he
said.
Article 4 (Principles) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union - Organization of African Unity adopted in Lome in 2000, says the AU shall function in accordance with the principles of "sovereign equality and interdependence among Member States of the Union","prohibition of the use of force or threat to use force among Member States of the Union" and "non-interference by any member States", among other principles.
Odinga's call for sending AU troops to Zimbabwe, therefore is
unthinkable. The capacity of the AU is currently exhausted due
to its involvements in Darfur and Somalia. It will be unrealistic to
expect it to add Zimbabwe on its plate.
Wetangula also criticized the West for imposing sanctions against
Zimbabwe and said that those sanctions only hurt civilians who are not
in any way linked to the Government.
“If you impose sanctions in Zimbabwe today, President Mugabe will not
miss a meal. It is the ordinary man who will be suffering. The AU must
decide a better way of dealing with the crisis,” he insisted adding
that Sadc had been mandated to be the official interface of the crisis
by the AU.
He added that similar tactics against the Boers of South Africa failed and innocent people bore the brunt.
He said the ouster of former South African president, Thabo Mbeki was a
major blow to the Zimbabwean peace process and urged the MDC party and
Zanu PF to come to an agreement about power-sharing.
"We appeal to President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to see reason and
come to an agreement to save the people of Zimbabwe from further
suffering," he said.
CONGO TALKS OPEN IN KENYA
Meanwhile crucial talks on the situation in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) have opened up at the UN headquarters in Kenya and being
chaired by President Mwai Kibaki.
Wetangula told the delegations at the outset of the talks that he hoped
both sides would be able "to put aside your differences and realize
that you have only one Congo, and that the international community is
here with you to encourage and assist you."
"Please don't let Africa and your country down," he added.
As the talks opened, the Chinese embassy in Kinshasa said Beijing was
offering to help help mediate peace in the troubled eastern region.
Report by Itayi Garande
Further information on this report can be obtained via itayi@talkzimbabwe.com
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NA. • NA
Subject: while on the other side of the world...
Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:22:46 • RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Protesters took to the fabled Brazilian beaches of Copacabana on Tuesday to draw attention to the 9,000 people they say have disappeared in Rio de Janeiro since January 2007.
Do you think this headline is for real or is it the west trying to deflect attention away from the cholera they have been instrumental in inflicting on Zimbabwe with their Smart Sanctions so we cannot import chemicals?
n/a • n/a
Subject: sanctions
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:52:48 • it was good to hear that all and sundry see that the white man worked with twasngirai to make we zimbabwean suffer. we know for real that so far over 600 lives were lost due to cholera non of the relatives of the 168 targeted with sanctions are victims courtesy to foreign minister. come on zimbabwean man in particular lets show the west that we got the balls, lets drag the west to the international court of justice for perpetrating or even worserning and abusing our human rights when they excluded zimbabwe from trading with other companies ASDA, Germany company which prints money , TESCO etc all becasue of sanctions.
Omugabe • Dziva@sanandresano.com
Subject: Look Inward & Look East for Self-development, Zim Patriots!
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:58:59 • Zim Patriots were victorious against European criminal occupation!
Zim Patriots WILL ALSO be victorious against racist European sanctions!
Good for Kenya's Foreign Minister to put the murderous demon, Odinga, in his place for the sake of Kenyans.
Because the self-hating, european mental slave, and murderous Odinga was allowed to get away with murder in Kenya, the lost leaders of the MDC (Mentally Deluded by Colonialists) at least have enough sense to not repeat the Odinga nonsense in Zimbabwe.
The Mau Mau may have allowed the beastly brits to continue colonizing Kenya; but ZANU-PF is intent on doing a COMPLETE HOUSE CLEANING of the criminal invaders in Zimbabwe.
The battle-tested Zim Patriots will continue to outlive all the racist evils of European devils.
Long live Zim Patriots!
Long live Magnanimous Mugabe, African Hero!
Long live enlightened and courageous Pan Africanists to defeat ALL racist evil of Europeans!
Motormouth • n/a
Subject: n/a
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:13:47 • A whole Prime Minister and a whole Foreign Affairs Minister in Africa's ''exemplary democratic state of Kenya'' not pulling together on such an issue as Zimbabwe? Why? The true African patriots in Kenya have suddenly awoken to the idea that these Western puppets who were imposed on them by the bloody and selling-out Annan are surely tarnishing their pan-Africanist credentials and that without land reform in Kenya Kibera will always be there. When we tell the Luo PM to mind his own business in his God-forsaken squatters' country he refuses as Zimbabwe bashing brings him filthy-lucre from his equally murderous and blood-stained masters in the West. Suddenly the Luo has been promoted by the West to become the AU, SADC and the UN put together and he gets acres and acres of press coverage in their western press! He is given two preachers of hate to support him and his base utterances, calling for the murder of a people whose country does not even share a contiguous border with his and has no shared history with them other than being African and former British colonies! Can this murderer of over a thousand innocent Kenyans be stopped by his own people who want a better Kenya that is prosperous and democratic and not this badly put together GNU circus that is creaking at the seams. When the ''centre can not hold, things fall apart'' said Chinua Achebe and it seems the centre cannot hold on this experiment. Is it that the two do not meet in Cabinet or that the Foreign Affairs Minister has seen how far Kenya has been made to sink so low in the eyes of African and black people worldwide who are cringing at its puppetry? Someone from within Kenya had to come out in the open and show the world that the deal brokered by Annan does not work and that it was a deal crafted in the halls of western capital and has no beneficiation element to the ordinary Kenyan who is still wallowing in his Kibera slum! The puppet continues to drive a red Hummer and his success is deemed as the success of all Kenyan people! How very interesting!
jairos tapfuma • cdetapfuma@yahoo.com
Subject: tell him minister
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:03:34 • It infortunate for Odinga to lead someone as knowledgeable as his government's minister of Foreign Affairs.
There's not any more truth that needs to be told to the world than what Watengula has said. Infact it is the AU and SADC that have to come out open and condemn in the strongest terms the illegal sanctions imposed by Britain and America.
This is where the whole plot is centered against Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has some of Africa's most innovative and educated people, some of the world's best skilled manpower and of course some of the world's most important natural resources. With sanctions not in place i do not think Zimbabwe can fail the way it is doing at the moment. For Zimbabweans unity of purpose would be the best way to go if no-one wants to condemn the sanctions. Cuba had sanctions imposed in 1962 by the same people who do not want to see other countries prosper in their own right, but unity made them conquer.
However for Gordon Brown and friends, one thing should be clear-Zimbabweans are not prepared to suffer under whites again, yes, not anymore. We were slaves before, and will never be again. we were farm labourers again, but now will be farmers ourselves no matter how your local companies sabotage the whole farming activity so as to portray black farmers like failed farmers.
Whether Mugabe goes or not, what he sowed will not be uprooted by anyone, or else there will be war. Yes, because he taught us that what belongs to us should be guarded jealously, there is no way any other person from some other country should come and tell us how to share our resources with him. patriotic blacks are in charge and will remain so.
Motormouth • n/a
Subject: n/a
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:23:22 • Let the son of a Hungarian or is it Polish immigrant in Britain dream on. We will never give up on our independence and no-one who is not Zimbabwean has the right to call for President Mugabe to go! Their Queen is an unelected head of state and we do not question the democratic legality of it all since it is their own business and none of ours. We just dont take kindly to numbskulls from other countries that strove to kill our revolutionary war for independence to start interfering in our way of life under a stupid call of offsetting a ''humanitarian crisis'' that they themselves have caused. These people are well aware that if you impose sanctions on a poor developing landlocked country the end result is that an economic and political crisis ensues. They know that since they have been practising this wanton and unabashed act of genocidal murder they have perfected since the days of the brutal and inhuman slave trade. We will do everything to keep our resources and we know it is these that they are coveting because their capitalist way of life is tithering on bankruptcy due massive corruption and theft. Let it die and a new global financial system should be left to evolve underpinned by the tenets of ethical and fair trading. Violence perpetrated to loot and pillage other peoples resources wont work. It will be resisted in equal if not more measures!
Nehoreka • jekanyika@googlemail.com
Subject: Truth shall set us free
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:03:52 • British To Suck Blood Of Africa: Will African Leaders Help Them?
Increase
Decrease
December 8, 2008 (LPAC)-- An avalanche of calls over the last 24 hours, led by various mouthpieces of the British Empire, for the removal of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, by military force, if necessary illustrates their ghoulish desire to see Africans die and suffer to serve their purpose. With the heightened humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe due to the recent outbreak of cholera, and with a few African turncoats like Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Kenyan Prime Minster Raila Odinga, joining their masters in attacking Mugabe, the British Imperialists believe the time is ripe to move in for the kill-literally.
British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, stated most bluntly their view of the crisis in Zimbabwe, when he said today after a meeting of the European foreign ministers “We had a good discussion about Zimbabwe, and there is real unity about the fact that, while the disease of cholera has got the headlines, the real disease at the heart of Zimbabwe is the misrule of the Mugabe regime.”
WHITE FANG • na
Subject: SANCTIONS?
Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:31:37 • November 15, 2000
Web posted at: 3:06 PM EST (2006 GMT)
BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- In a new blow to Northern Ireland's battered peace accord, Sinn Fein is set to launch a legal battle against sanctions levelled by David Trimble, the Protestant leader of the power-sharing government.
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