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International
Crisis Group says Zimbabwe crisis is not exaggerated
Peter Clottey, Voice of America (VOA)
August 20, 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-08-20-voa2.cfm
The International Crisis Group says the political
impasse in Zimbabwe, believed to be the cause of the country's deepening
economic woes is not exaggerated. This followed a statement by Zambian
President Levy Mwanawasa that the crisis in Zimbabwe is overblown.
Political analysts have criticized leaders of the just ended Southern
African Development Community (SADC) meeting in the Zambian capital,
Lusaka, for failing to take action against Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe due to his inability to resolve the political and
economic crisis in his country.
Sydney Masamvu is a Zimbabwean senior analyst with
the International Crisis Group in South Africa. From Pretoria, he
tells reporter Peter Clottey that the crisis in Zimbabwe needs to
urgently be resolved.
"We are seeing a lot of diplomacy at play.
I do not want to read too much into what President Mwanawasa said,
but one could just see that SADC is just trying to present some
semblance of homogeneity in terms of their approach to the Zimbabwe
situation. And given President Mwanawasa's earlier comments on Zimbabwe
where he likened the state of affairs to that of a sinking titanic,
one could see that this time around he is the incoming chair of
SADC and taking over at a time where for the worst or for the best
a decisive move has to be made on Zimbabwe during his tenure as
the SADC chair," Masamvu noted.
He said all political and economic indicators point
to a very distasteful situation in Zimbabwe.
"The economy has been shrinking for the last
six seven years, in the negative growth, all the social indicators
are in the negative. So really you cannot exaggerate the suffering
of the people," he said.
Masamvu said although the problems of Zimbabwe should
be solved by its people, there is the need for past president's
in the region to lend a hand.
"Indeed it's correct! You need Zimbabweans
to sort out their problems themselves, but secondly, you need even
African solution to African problems. No wonder why everyone is
lauding the SADC initiative, for it puts African leaders to tackle
one of their own, and over and above as what the Zambian minister
is saying that he needs the retired African statesmen. It's actually
correct, that's the take two approach, which SADC should take on
board to capacitate in the SADC mediation process," Masamvu
pointed out.
He said retired statesmen like Nelson Mandela should
be called upon to be part of the mediation process initiated by
SADC.
"When you look at the current crop of SADC
leaders, you get the thinking that Mugabe stands head and shoulders
above the current crop of Africa leaders, especially in SADC. As
such, the track two diplomatic approach, which should be engaged
on Zimbabwe, is to rope in retired presidents who fall in the same
political league Mugabe like the former President Kaunda, President
Mandela. those are the people who can be used to give leverage to
the SADC mediation process to help President Mbeki," he said.
Masamvu said it was highly unlikely for Zimbabwe
to have a completely new constitution as is being advocated by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"I think
the compromise which would happen is that the proposed constitutional
amendment Number 18, which is being pushed by ZANU-PF would
be used to front load every constitutional reform which needs to
be done. So we are actually going to see all the parties compromising
on constitutional amendment number 18 and taking that as a vehicle
to effect some constitutional reforms. Indeed I need to state from
the onset that we are not going to see a new constitution, but rather
we are going to see a constitutional review, which would be done
under constitutional amendment 18," Masamvu noted.
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