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Mandela posse should take on Mugabe
James Kirchick, The Examiner
July 20, 2007

http://www.examiner.com/a-837983~James_Kirchick__Mandela_posse_should_take_on_Mugabe.html

WASHINGTON - On Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, retired U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected president, announced the launching of a promising new initiative. Calling itself "The Elders," the group plans to tackle a host of seemingly intractable global problems. Funding comes from Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic.

This posse of aging statesmen has yet to specify what will be on its agenda. There is certainly no shortage of misery in the world for its to address, but let humble me offer a modest proposal.

Over the past seven years, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has turned his once prosperous country into a wasteland. Having stolen productive, white-owned farms to award his political cronies, Mugabe now rules over a country that depends on massive amounts of food aid, even though not long ago Zimbabwe used to export grain and other staples. Millions are starving, and it is estimated that a quarter of the population - over 3 million people - have fled for neighboring countries, namely Mandela's homeland of South Africa.

Is this not a worthy cause for The Elders, led by Mandela, to help alleviate? After all, if this "diplomatic league of superheroes," as The New York Times referred to them, cannot fix the problem, who can?

According to The Times, the initiative is Branson's idea, and its genesis arose when he tried to arrange a meeting among Saddam Hussein, Mandela and Annan in early 2003, in hopes that the latter two men might be able to persuade the Butcher of Baghdad to relinquish power so as to forestall the American-led invasion. This was a marvelous idea; had it proven successful, it might have averted a war and its bloody aftermath.

A similar scenario would prove even more fitting for Zimbabwe. Mandela is universally respected in Africa, more so than any statesman before him or any in the future is ever likely to be. If Mandela were to use his fame and popularity to call on his fellow African leaders and demand that Mugabe resign, there is every reason to believe that the Zimbabwean dictator's reign would be closer to an end.

To be fair, Mandela has criticized Mugabe before, but it was an isolated incident. Seven years ago, as Mugabe's intimidation of political opposition began to make headlines, Mandela said of African dictators generally, "The public must bring these tyrants down themselves" and "pick up rifles." But Mandela did not finger the Zimbabwean tyrant by name; when asked specifically if he was referring to Mugabe, he replied, "Everybody here knows who I am talking about. The situation exists in many parts of the world, especially in Africa."

It seems that there are two entities one is best advised not to criticize: God and Nelson Mandela. But Mandela's silence on the crimes being perpetrated in the country next door do not just mar his legacy as one of the 20th century's great historical figures, it betrays the values of human rights and political freedom he embodies.

Speaking out on Mugabe's politically induced starvation, torture, harassment of journalists and political opponents and other myriad offenses would cost Mandela nothing. And there's no telling what sort of on-the-ground political impact his castigation of a fellow liberation hero might have. After retiring, Mandela apologized for his inaction on the AIDS crisis while he was president. He still has time to avoid an apology over Zimbabwe.

* Examiner columnist James Kirchick is assistant to the editor in chief of The New Republic and reported from Zimbabwe last year. He can be reached at jkirchick@tnr.com