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Open
letter to SADC leaders
Zimbabwe
Youth Movement
May
14, 2007
This letter comes from the children of a small nation called Zimbabwe.
We are not as old as you are nor are we as wise as you are. We are
only children, poor children for that matter. This we say because
we believe we do not have the right to be addressing you, rather it
would be more than a privilege if this letter passes through your
hands, let alone enter your incoming-mail baskets. Honourable
elders, we write to invoke your memories, conscience and probably
sympathy. Most of us as you might remember were born in the numerous
refugee camps that were scattered throughout the region in the 70's.
We are Zimbabweans by citizenship but most of us have our umbilical
cords interred in the soils of your countries; Chifombo in Zambia,
Chimoio in Mozambique, even as far as Mgagao in Tanzania. We cherish
the courtesy of life that you bestowed unto us. We salute Nyerere,
Kaunda, Khama and Machel. We thank you rather belatedly for the
lorries and aeroplanes that ferried us back to Zimbabwe in 1980.
It was indeed a touching moment to see Comrade Machel on the podium
together with our very own Robert Gabriel Mugabe- the fresh from
the bush Mugabe.
How did you
leaders of Africa feel when we got our independence? Except for
you Thabo Mbeki, we can definitely answer for all the others: there
was general happiness and relief. As for you Mbeki we do not know
where you were but even if Nelson Mandela was not allowed newspapers
at Robben Island, we believe he got the message as soon as it happened
and definitely he was at the most happy and at the least envious
of the new state!
It is twenty-seven
years since the then energetic and fifty-six year-old Mugabe took
power; we still listen to Bob Marley's Africa Liberate Zimbabwe.
Do you remember the song Mwanawasa. Obviously you remember that
one Your Excellence, but do you also remember the Dare reChimurenga
meeting at Mulungushi Rock Hotel and the Kafue forests in 1970 and
1971.
May you please
ask Kenneth Kaunda why we had those meetings in Zambia and not in
Rhodesia? If he refuses to tell you then you might as well take
it that it was maybe because Rugare Gumbo had been expelled from
Zimuto High school and detained at Whawha prison, or maybe Emmerson
Munangagwa had been sentenced to death, or maybe Mugabe and other
nationalists had been abducted and unlawfully detained since 1966,
or maybe the Smith regime had killed protesters against his proclamation
of Rhodesia as a republic on 2 March
1970? So Mwanawasa; Hentchel Mavuma, Collen Chibango, Sendisa Ndhlovu,
Maddock Chivasa, Wellington Mahohoma and many others were expelled
from the University of Zimbabwe, Batanai Hadzizi , Lameck Chemvura
and more recently Gift Tandare were killed by the Zimbabwean authorities.
Right now many opposition activists including MDC's Ian Makone and
Dennis Murira are detained illegally by the Zimbabwean Police. Isnât
this a scenario typical of the 1970 situation? Don't you think it
is time that we also had meetings in Kabwe, Gaborone, Arusha, Chimoio
and Musina forests? Thabo Mbeki, when you said AIDS is caused by
poverty, the whole world doubted your scientific aptitude but we
never doubted your intelligence.
When your vice
took a bath to protect himself from HIV we did not doubt your government's
wisdom either. When you came out of that meeting in Tanzania and
you declared yourself mediator between Mugabe and Tsvangirai ,we
thought you were running out of intelligence and wisdom; but you
are our elder -just like Mugabe - we cannot disrespect you.
We would, however,
like to know if corruption, inflation, unemployment and general
economic decline are caused by a power struggle between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai?
Mbeki, the crisis
is not about Tsvangirai being beaten in elections or on the head.
It is between the people of Zimbabwe and the Government of Zimbabwe.
It is between the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe and their blood-thirsty,
insensitive, arrogant and gun-totting government.
We have a junta
in power, a warlord is ruling us. He does not respect our lives;
if he slaughtered 20, 000 people in 1982 what can stop him from
killing ten? In short, Mbeki we do not need any mediation. What
we dream for is an accountable, transparent and responsible government.
What we want as of now, Mbeki ,is your protection from this gun-totter.
If you cannot rebuke him then give us the chance to rebuke him.
You cannot invade
Zimbabwe but you can influence the course of change in our country.
You have a moral obligation to welcome us in the forests of Musina,
equip us and be quiet as we redefine the course of our revolution,
that way, Quiet Diplomacy would work! Finally, we would want to
ask you why the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland went ahead
in 1955 despite the massive African resistance led by Nkomo, Kaunda
and Kamuzu Banda? Africans had no guns but whites had. Why did the
white-engineered Zimbabwe-Rhodesia coalition fail; Africans had
guns! So leaders of Africa wake up to the call for international
duty!
Freeman Chari
Secretary General
Zimbabwe Youth Movement
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