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We will not be stopped from helping Zimbabwe
Peter Fabricius, Sunday Independent (SA)
November 23, 2008

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=19734

As Zimbabwe's dire humanitarian crisis worsened, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel cancelled their humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe yesterday because President Robert Mugabe's government would not let them in. Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, Carter, a former United States president, and Machel, an international advocate for women's and children's rights and the wife of Nelson Mandela, were to travel to Zimbabwe yesterday. They are members of the Elders, a group of former leaders who try to resolve conflict. Mandela is also an Elder. The cancellation of their visit came as a deadly cholera epidemic spread, and The Sunday Independent learnt that an estimated 20 prisoners were dying in Zimbabwean jails every day, victims of disease and malnutrition.

Carter said at a press conference in Johannesburg yesterday that both President Kgalema Motlanthe and former president Thabo Mbeki had intervened to try to get the Elders visas for Zimbabwe - but in vain. He said he had been told by Zimbabwe's US ambassador, before coming to South Africa, that the group would not get visas. He said the group had planned to fly to Harare yesterday and apply for visas at the airport. But Mbeki had told them on Friday night that they would not be allowed into the country. "We believe that came from the head of state," Carter said. He said that never before had he been refused a visa to undertake a humanitarian mission. Annan said he had heard indirectly that Mugabe feared that the Elders' visit would interfere with the unresolved political negotiations between his Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change on forming a unity government.

But Annan insisted that the Elders' mission would have been purely humanitarian, not political. "We seek no permission other than permission to help the poor and the desperate. Millions of people are in need of help in Zimbabwe. We want to use our influence to increase the flow of assistance, immediately and in the longer term, to stop the terrible suffering. We are here to show solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and assure them that they are not alone." Carter said that, as US president from 1976 to 1980, he had been a "partisan", supporting Zimbabwe's liberation struggle. "But it's obvious to me that the leaders of the government [of Zimbabwe] are very immune to reaching out for help for their own people." "I am extremely disappointed that we are unable to visit Zimbabwe," said Machel. "We want to talk to the people and hear their stories. "We want people to know that we care, and that we will do all we can to help them. People are dying from hunger every day in Zimbabwe and hospitals are unable to treat the sick. "We are not going to be stopped from helping," Annan said. "We are even more determined," Carter added.

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