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US openly admits funding Tsvangirai's office
TSM/TZG
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:46:00 +0000
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THE United States government has openly admitted that it is directly funding a parallel government in Zimbabwe to effect regime change in the country.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson has openly admitted that the US is funding the MDC-T’s parallel government by providing funds to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The United States Agency for International Development (Usaid), through its acting assistant administrator for Africa, Earl Gast, also confirmed that the US government has been funding the PM’s Office.
In his testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Sub-committee on Africa on September 30 2009, Carson pledged his support to advance US interests in Zimbabwe.
“Our assistance to Zimbabwe seeks to lay the groundwork for a return to democracy and prosperity by supporting democratic voices and civil society, including support to the Prime Minister’s Office for communications and other capacity building,” said Carson.
In his paper entitled “Exploring US Policy Options Towards Zimbabwe’s Transition” that he presented to the same sub-committee, Gast said: “In addition, funding has included support for civil society strengthening, support to help fulfill the terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) (e.g resources for the constitution-making process); programmes to demonstrate responsible governance (eg improving the public outreach capacity of the Office of the Prime Minister); assistance to non-governmental monitoring of compliance of all parties to the GPA; and support for independent media”.
It is understood that Nango (National Association of Non-Govermental Organisations) has already lined up seminars where it will start the process to monitor all the parties in the GPA.
Gast added: “The US$73 million in funding for Zimbabwe pledged by President Obama during Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s recent visit to the US includes significant inter-agency funding for HIV and Aids programmes in: parliamentary strengthening, (US$2,4 million); elections and constitution making (3,2 million); rule of law (3,8 million); consensus-building (2,7 million); media (1,5 million); victims of torture (1,9 million); civil society/local government capacity building (5,8 million); maternal and child health, including tuberculosis ($4,1 million); and family planning (1,2 million).”
These revelations are set to shame the PM’s Office which has been refuting allegations that funding for its parallel government has been coming from the US government through Usaid
In addition to running the parallel government, the PM’s Office is publishing a newsletter that is under the charge of Andrew Chadwick and is receiving funding from the Usaid.
An African diplomat privy to the presentations that were made by the International Crisis Group, the Mercy Corps group, the US Treasury Department and the Usaid to the Subcommittee on African Affairs showed that US policy towards Zimbabwe is in a quandary.
The diplomat said under the George Bush administration, US policy towards Zimbabwe was shaped by ZIDERA whose main thrust was to attack President Robert Mugabe, attack the economy through sanctions and create and fund subversive organizations.
“But now with the MDC in Government, clearly that template is falling short because a continued attack on Zimbabwe through sanctions would mean that in the event of failure, the MDC would also be blamed.
“Presentations made to the subcommittee clearly show that the US is trying to adjust, in a fundamental way, its policy towards Zimbabwe,” said the diplomat.
The diplomat said the shift in policy was necessitated by the creation of the inclusive Government, the stabilization of the economy following measures announced in Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s budget, the re-engagement of Zimbabwe, the mounting campaign against sanctions and the fact that America “now has a listening post in Government through the MDC.”
Said the diplomat: “They want to fine tune the sanctions to make them targeted but also fine tune assistance to make it targeted. They want to have a target of destruction and a target of mitigation.
“The US will use the MDC as its listening post in Government and through the Multi Donor Trust Fund they will fund seminars that they will use to source data about the goings on in Government.”
The diplomat said the US government was now trying to enter into the Zanu PF stronghold – the farmers by providing funding for agriculture.
In recent weeks, farmers have been promised lots of funding from some NGOs raising suspicion that this was a ploy to “buy farmers and deliver them to the MDC in preparation for elections.”
In his presentation, Carson spoke about “our recent notification and consultation on new targeted programmes in the agriculture and education sectors.”
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n/a • n/a
Subject: n/a
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:58:18 • When Prof Moyo first exposed this, his detractors called him all sorts of names. Now we have it in black and white that the US is funding Tsvangirai's office and also the constitution making process. Did Obama not say at the United Nations that nations should be allowed to follow their own course of a democratic model that takes into account that nation's history, culture and etc and that no country should impose their democracy on other nations? Why is the US then blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe? Can Obama and his administration allow Zimbabwe to chart its own course? The US Zidera sanctions have killed and impoverished millions of us Zimbabweans and its highest time Obama ditched this Bush policy and genuinely engage with Zimbabwe on a win -win basis and not on the current horse-raider basis.
Mhofeti • pasizw@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: US openly admits funding Tsvangirai's office
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:11:49 • What's the difference between starving people to influence their vote and using violence to influence the same people's vote? In my opinion NOTHING. From the onset, MDC took their eyes off the ball and sought to win elections on the basis of rubbishing and shouting loudest about the govt's wrongs. It was never about doing things differently better for Zimbabweans, but personal campaigns against individual members of Zanu PF. They collaborated with the international community not to improve lives for ordinary Zimbabweans NO but to make life impossible for Mugabe and Zanu PF. My question is - What do Zimbabweans stand to gain from the persecution of Zanu PF's families under MDC-T's so called struggle for democracy?
If all the amount of money and effort taken to make Mugabe and Zanu PF look worse than Hitler and the apartheid regime was directed at improving ordinary Zimbabweans' lives, MDC would have long been rewarded with an unriggable election victory. Unfortunately for MDC-T, the international ostracism and condemnation of Mugabe and Zanu PF hasn't necessarily translated to their acceptance and approval as credible alternative. MDC-T needs to accept the principle of the rule of law because you simply can't command if you can't obey.
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