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Efforts to resolve Zimbabwe crisis fail as Mugabe snubs Annan
Basildon Peta, The Sunday Independent (SA)
May 21, 2006

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14409

The planned visit by Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, to Zimbabwe and his efforts to resolve the crisis there have been stalled by President Robert Mugabe's refusal to implement recommendations of a UN special envoy deployed to investigate last year's slum clearance exercise that left nearly a million people homeless. Discounting reports this week that Annan was working out a deal for Mugabe's exit from power in exchange for guarantees of Mugabe's immunity from prosecution, diplomatic sources said the main sticking point remained the Zimbabwean president's reticence in implementing the recommendations of the UN Habitat chief, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka. "I don't think the secretary-general has reached that far yet," said a UN diplomat in response to reports that Annan was working out an immunity deal in exchange for a timetable underlining Mugabe's exit. "He knows that the best way to incense Mugabe at the expense of any possible co-operation from him is to float such a proposal." In her report, Tibaijuka fell just short of labelling Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina ("drive out trash") as a crime against humanity. She nevertheless did not mince her words about "the untold human suffering and chaos" the operation, which she said could be a violation of international law, had brought on Zimbabwe's poor.

"It has created a state of emergency as tens of thousands of families and vulnerable women and children have been left in the open without protection, without shelter, without access to water and sanitation or health care, and without food," Tibaijuka said. She went on to list a number of recommendations, which she urged the Zimbabwean government to implement with the same lightning zeal and speed with which it had implemented Operation Murambatsvina, to ameliorate the suffering of the people. It is the failure of the Mugabe regime to implement any of these proposals that has stalled Annan's efforts and which also forced him to omit Zimbabwe from his itinerary during his last visit to South Africa. Had the recommendations been implemented and progress recorded in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis, Annan would have visited Zimbabwe long ago to encourage such steps and mobilise international help to jump-start the collapsed economy, diplomats said. As of now the situation had instead grown worse, and any visit would be of no purpose save to legitimise the Mugabe regime. Tibaijuka had said the suffering brought about by Operation Murambatsvina was not a result of war or conflict, or even negligence, but of the Zimbabwean government's absence of respect for the rule of law.

She recommended that the Mugabe regime open dialogue with its opponents, civil society and the donor community, saying: "There is an immediate need to restore trust between different spheres of government and between government and civil society. This process should emerge from a broad-based consultation among all Zimbabwean stakeholders. The United Nations could facilitate this process." The appointment of a credible mediator, "a religious or spiritual leader", was recommended to help conduct the ensuing dialogue. Since then, Mugabe has shown no inclination to engage anyone to establish consensus on the way forward for his country, and he has repeatedly shunned similar calls by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki. He has scorned all other Tibaijuka recommendations, including those on human rights issues, the land issue, macro-economic governance standards and others. Aziz Pahad, South Africa's deputy foreign minister, said this week Annan might not visit Zimbabwe if he did not foresee any results, but South Africa was promoting UN efforts to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. A year after Operation Murambatsvina, human rights groups report that victims are still living in dire poverty. Most were banned from commemorating the anniversary of the operation. Annan's failure to coax Mugabe caps the failure of successive efforts by the Southern African Development Community, the UN, Commonwealth and South Africa.

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