Omar,

I totally subscribe to your view points. Why is the west always in the habit
of subversion of democratically elected governments when those governments
do not dance to their tunes? We see it in Zimbabwe and we have also seen it
in Palestine.

I have been to several international conferences in East Africa where I meet
Zimbabweans and often discuss what is happening in their country. Many of
them do not share the negative view points of the west on Zimbabwe.
Sanctions imposed are often quoted as the main cause of the sufferings of
that country. Inflation of 7000% is nothing but a reaction to the scarcity
of important commodities (food, clothes..) but also of some luxury
commodities that are not locally manufactured. Sanctions can lead to the
scarcity of such commodities

I also agree that the west cannot love Zimbabwe more than Mugabe. That
should go without saying.

Alhaji Jeng

-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] På vegne av OMAR DRAMMEH
Sendt: 28. september 2007 16:12
Til: [log in to unmask]
Emne: SV: FWD: Text of Mugabe's speech at 62nd session of UN General
Assembly

Mr Bailo Jallow,

Oppression in any form, shape or size is a result of moral decadence in any
given society. Thus, it will be mind-boggling to me for any well meaning
person to condone the infringements of the rights of the common people. I
believe this is a similar view shared by the host of people who sympathise
with and support Mugabe?s standpoint. What are equally decadent are the
sinister machinations and conspiracies to get rid of a democratically
elected government (Yes, he was voted into power; don?t mind the vote
rigging propaganda). Both the SADC and the AU do not subscribe to regime
change in such a manner, and they can?t be more right for standing behind
the man, especially with the empty threats of Brown. Last week ITV news in
England made several reports on the plight of the people in Zimbabwe, and if
Brown and co feels their pain, they should reconsider their policy on
Zimbabwe, which in the first place wreaked all the havoc. How on earth can
the West love Zimbabwe more than Mugabe?  He is the one who spent 11 years
of his life behind bars for the CRIME of freeing his people from the
shackles of oppression. I believe Zimbabwe should democratically find her
own solution. They now have that chance in March 2008. Subverting a
democratically elected government by foreign powers is by no means a good
alternative. I see where Chavez and Ahmadinejad have embraced.

Ramadan greetings to you too.

Regards,
Omar




> From: bailo jallow [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 2007-09-28 14:03:06 CEST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: FWD: Text of Mugabe's speech at 62nd session of UN General
Assembly
> 
> Mr Drammeh,
>    
>   Thanks for sharing with us Mugabe's speech at the UN General Assembly.
Coincidentally happen to share his views on the history of Western
colonialism in Africa and their on-going neo-colonialist and imperialist
pursuits throughout the globe. 
>    
>   What I however find objectionable from African leaders like Mugabe is
their crude, subjugative and blackmail style of reasoning that their fellow
Africans be either for them or are otherwise for the West. Their is a third
way which they fail to acknowledge.  Any form of political opposition to
their regimes is as such written off as an association of traitors and
agents of the 'evil West'. Consequently, such leaders believe that they have
licences and warrants for their regimes to unleash terror and punishments on
opposition sympathisers. Let's consider thiis: What justification does the
Mugabe government have to demolish solid and legally-built legal homes in
areas populated predominantly by opposition supporters on the flimsy basis
that the building permits that they acquired from the Government itself was
flawed. Seeing is believing! When I saw the sacrilege being committed by
Mugabe's henchmen on his orders , I could hardly believe the cold
hearltlessness of his
>  regime. Within hours, thousands of middle class Zimbabwean supporters of
the MDC opposition were left homeless and destitute. 
>   Papa Mugabe has definitely overstayed his usefulness to Zimbabweans, he
should therefore retire and stop feigning that without him Zimbabwe would be
over-runned by a marauding tribe of White Barbarians with Gordon Brown and
George Killer Bush leading them.
>    
>   Ramadan mubarak!
>    
>   Bailo
>    
>   . 
>    
>   OMAR DRAMMEH <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>   Folks,
> 
> Hear it from the man himself. It can't be more explicit than this. Enjoy.
> 
> regards
> Omar
> 
> Your Excellency, President of the 62ndSession of the United Nations
General Assembly, 
> Mr. Srgjan Kerim, 
> Your Majesties,
> Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
> Your Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban
Ki-Moon,
> Distinguished Delegates,
> Ladies and Gentlemen. 
> 
> Mr. President,
> Allow me to congratulate you on your election to preside over this august
assembly. We are confident that through your stewardship, issues on this
62nd Session agenda be dealt with in a balanced manner and to the
satisfaction of all.
> Let me also pay tribute to your predecessor, Madame Sheikha Haya Rashed Al
Khalifa, who steered the work of the 61st Session in a very competent and
impartial manner.
> Her ability to identify the crucial issues facing the world today will be
remembered as the hallmark of her presidency.
> 
> Mr. President,
> We extend our hearty welcome to the new Secretary-General, Mr. Ban
Ki-Moon, who has taken up this challenging job requiting dynamism in
confronting the global challenges of the 21st Century. Balancing global
interests and steering the United Nations in a direction that gives hope to
the multitudes of the poor, the sick, the hungry and the marginalized, is
indeed a mammoth task. We would like to assure him that Zimbabwe will
continue to support an open, transparent and all-inclusive multilateral
approach in dealing with these global challenges.
> 
> Mr. President,
> Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. Its
negative impact is greatest in developing countries, particularly those on
the African continent. We believe that if the international community is
going to seriously address the challenges of climate change, then we need to
get our priorities right. In Zimbabwe, the effects of climate change have
become more evident in the past decade as we have witnessed increased and
recurrent droughts as well as occasional floods, leading to enormous
humanitarian challenges.
> 
> Mr. President,
> We are for a United Nations that recognises the equality of sovereign
nations and peoples whether big or small. We are averse to a body in which
the economically and militarily powerful behave like bullies, trampling on
the rights of weak and smaller states as sadly happened in Iraq. In the
light of these inauspicious developments, this Organisation must surely
examine the essence of its authority and the extent of its power when
challenged in this manner. 
> Such challenges to the authority of the UN and its Charter underpin our
repeated call for the revitalisation of the United Nations General Assembly,
itself the most representative organ of the UN. The General Assembly should
be more active in all areas including those of peace and security. The
encroachment of some U.N. organs upon the work of the General Assembly is of
great concern to us. Thus any process of revitalizing or strengthening of
the General Assembly should necessarily avoid eroding the principle of the
accountability of all principal and subsidiary organs to the General
Assembly.
> 
> Mr. President,
> Once again we reiterate our position that the Security Council as
presently constituted is not democratic. In its present configuration, the
Council has shown that it is not in a position to protect the weaker states
who find themselves at loggerheads with a marauding super-power. Most
importantly, justice demands that any Security Council reform redresses the
fact that Africa is the only continent without a permanent seat and veto
power in the Security Council. Africa's demands are known and enunciated in
the Ezulwini consensus.
> 
> Mr. President,
> We further call for the U.N. system to refrain from interfering in matters
that are clearly the domain of member states and are not a threat to
international peace and security. Development at country level should
continue to be country-led, and not subject to the whims of powerful donor
states.
> 
> Mr President,
> Zimbabwe won its independence on 18th April, 1980, after a protracted war
against British colonial imperialism which denied us human rights and
democracy. That colonial system which suppressed and oppressed us enjoyed
the support of many countries of the West who were signatories to the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
> Even after 1945, it would appear that the Berlin Conference of 1884,
through which Africa was parcelled to colonial European powers, remained
stronger than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is therefore
clear that for the West, vested economic interests, racial and ethnocentric
considerations proved stronger than their adherence to principles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
> The West still negates our sovereignties by way of control of our
resources, in the process making us mere chattels in out own lands, mere
minders of its trans-national interests. In my own country and other sister
states in Southern Africa, the most visible form of this control has been
over land despoiled from us at the onset of British colonialism.
> That control largely persists, although it stands firmly challenged in
Zimbabwe, thereby triggering the current stand-off between us and Britain,
supported by her cousin states, most notably the United States and
Australia. Mr Bush, Mr. Blair and now Mr Brown's sense of human rights
precludes our people's right to their God-given resources, which in their
view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because
I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists.
> 
> Mr President,
> Clearly the history of the struggle for out own national and people's
rights is unknown to the president of the United States of America. He
thinks the Declaration of Human Rights starts with his last term in office!
He thinks she can introduce to us, who bore the brunt of fighting for the
freedoms of our peoples, the virtues of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. What rank hypocrisy! 
> 
> Mr President,
> I lost eleven precious years of my life in the jail of a white man whose
freedom and well- being I have assured from the first day of Zimbabwe's
Independence. I lost a further fifteen years fighting white injustice in my
country. 
> Ian Smith is responsible for the death of well over 50 000 of my people. I
bear scars of his tyranny which Britain and America condoned. I meet his
victims everyday. Yet he walks free. He farms free. He talks freely,
associates freely under a black Government. We taught him democracy. We gave
him back his humanity.
> He would have faced a different fate here and in Europe if the 50 000 he
killed were Europeans. Africa has not called for a Nuremberg trial against
the white world which committed heinous crimes against its own humanity. It
has not hunted perpetrators of this genocide, many of whom live to this day,
nor has it got reparations from those who offended against it. Instead it is
Africa which is in the dock, facing trial from the same world that
persecuted it for centuries.
> Let Mr. Bush read history correctly. Let him realise that both personally
and in his representative capacity as the current President of the United
States, he stands for this "civilisation" which occupied, which colonised,
which incarcerated, which killed. He has much to atone for and very little
to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip
with innocent blood of many nationalities.
> He still kills.
> He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be out
master on human rights?
> He imprisons.
> He imprisons and tortures at Guantanamo. He imprisoned and tortured at Abu
Ghraib. He has secret torture chambers in Europe. Yes, he imprisons even
here in the United States, with his jails carrying more blacks than his
universities can ever enroll. He even suspends the provisions of the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Take Guantanamo for example; at that
concentration camp international law does not apply. The national laws of
the people there do not apply. Laws of the United States of America do not
apply. Only Bush's law applies. Can the international community accept being
lectured by this man on the provisions of the universal declaration of human
rights? Definitely not!
> Mr President, We are alarmed that under his leadership, basic rights of
his own people and those of the rest of the world have summarily been rolled
back. America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We seem all guilty for 9/11. Mr. Bush
thinks he stands above all structures of governance, whether national or
international.
> At home, he apparently does not need the Congress. Abroad, he does not
need the UN, international law and opinion. This forum did not sanction
Blair and Bush's misadventures in Iraq. The two rode roughshod over the UN
and international opinion. Almighty Bush is now corning back to the UN for a
rescue package because his nose is bloodied! Yet he dares lecture us on
tyranny. Indeed, he wants us to pray him! We say No to him and encourage him
to get out of Iraq. Indeed he should mend his ways before he clambers up the
pulpit to deliver pieties of democracy.
> 
> Mr President,
> The British and the Americans have gone on a relentless campaign of
destabilising and vilifying my country. They have sponsored surrogate forces
to challenge lawful authority in my country. They seek regime change,
placing themselves in the role of the Zimbabwean people in whose collective
will democracy places the right to define and change regimes.
> Let these sinister governments be told here and now that Zimbabwe will not
allow a regime change authored by outsiders. We do not interfere with their
own systems in America and Britain. Mr Bush and Mr Brown have no role to
play in our national affairs. They are outsiders and mischievous outsiders
and should therefore keep out! The colonial sun set a long time ago; in
1980in the case of Zimbabwe, and hence Zimbabwe will never be a colony
again. Never!
> We do not deserve sanctions. We are Zimbabweans and we know how to deal
with our problems. We have done so in the past, well before Bush and Brown
were known politically. We have our own regional and continental
organizations and communities.
> In that vein, I wish to express my country's gratitude to President Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa who, on behalf of SADC, successfully facilitated the
dialogue between the Ruling Party and the Opposition Parties, which yielded
the agreement that has now resulted in the constitutional provisions being
finally adopted. Consequently, we will be holding multiple democratic
elections in March 2008. Indeed we have always had timeous general and
presidential elections since our independence.
> 
> Mr. President,
> In conclusion, let me stress once more that the strength of the United
Nations lies in its universality and impartiality as it implements its
mandate to promote peace and security, economic and social development,
human rights and international law as outlined in the Charter. Zimbabwe
stands ready to play its part in all efforts and programmes aimed at
achieving these noble goals.
> I thank you. 
> 
> 
> 
> > From: Kabir Njaay [[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: 2007-09-27 13:40:48 CEST
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Fwd: 'We Sink Or Swim Together'
> > 
> > 'We Sink Or Swim Together' 
> > 
> > 
> > The Herald (Harare)
> > 
> > 
> > OPINION
> > 27 September 2007 
> > Posted to the web 27 September 2007 
> > 
> > By Mabasa Sasa
> > Harare 
> > 
> > IT seems the whole of Africa has been rallying around Zimbabwe of late,
never mind UK Premier Gordon Brown petulantly pouting: "If President Robert
Mugabe is at the EU-Africa Summit I will not go!" 
> > 
> > Zambian Information Minister Mike Mulongoti has said: "It would be
pointless for President (Levy) Mwanawasa and others (African leaders) to go
there because then there is no need if people are not willing to dialogue
with others." 
> > 
> > 
> > It must be noted that President Mwanawasa is the current chair of the
regional grouping, Sadc. Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei
Adjei, has warned that Zimbabwe should be in attendance, to hell with what
Gordon Brown thinks. In his own words: "I believe we are coming with all the
members of the African Union, the heads of state of the African Union. So,
definitely the invitation will be issued (to President Mugabe)." It must
also be noted, significantly, that Ghana's President John Kuffour is
presently heading the African Union. 
> > 
> > Mozambique's Foreign Affairs Minister, Alcide Abreu, has said Maputo
will go by Sadc's and the AU's position. Former Mozambican head of state
Joaquim Chissano expressed the view that: "Any government is free to take a
stance which it deems fit to defend its interests. In this case, it's
necessary to find out if it is in the interest of the larger group to which
she (Britain) belongs, which is the EU." 
> > 
> > Leefa Martin, Sadc's spokeswoman, has put it thus: "Attempting to
isolate His Excellency President Robert Mugabe would be contrary to the
letter and spirit of that initiative and, thus, the Sadc position is that of
non-participation if one of the region's leaders, namely President Robert
Mugabe, is not invited." 
> > 
> > Even "strange characters with strange ideas" like Don McKinnon have
jumped onto the bandwagon. 
> > 
> > McKinnon, who engineered Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth
leading to Harare pulling out of the grouping of former British colonies,
has "advised" the EU that President Mugabe is a hero and Zimbabwe should be
invited to the December Summit being hosted by Portugal. 
> > 
> > While McKinnon's utterances come as something of a surprise, the
position of the African continent at large and that of Sadc in particular on
Zimbabwe's participation at the summit is, though some in the West may find
it hard to believe, only to be expected. 
> > 
> > The latest stand by Sadc to stare down British intimidation points to a
resurrection of the spirit that gelled the region in years gone by and has
echoes of the unity that characterised the Frontline States. If understood
in the context of the Frontline States, the region's support of Zimbabwe in
the face of brute intimidation from those opposed to the Government in
Harare becomes easy to understand. 
> > 
> > Between 1975 and 1980, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and Botswana
teamed up to aid Zimbabwe and South Africa's liberation from colonial and
apartheid regimes and the price they paid for this solidarity was quite dear
indeed. There were acts of aggression, sabotage and destabilisation aimed at
these five countries by the South African racist regime. 
> > 
> > Rebel movements were funded to fan civil wars and there were military
raids by the forces of regression into the Frontline States. Mozambique, and
indeed the entire region, suffered a major blow, when apartheid South Africa
saw to the assassination of Samora Machel in 1986. 
> > 
> > The apartheid regime slapped sanctions on the Frontline States,
resulting in huge economic losses as trade routes became distorted. 
> > 
> > Furthermore, billions of dollars had to be spent on defence rather than
on much-needed social services, health and education as the Frontline States
had to protect themselves from an apartheid regime intent on reversing the
gains of the liberation struggle in the region. According to some estimates,
over two million people died while another seven million were displaced in
the Frontline States because of South Africa's opposition to democracy. A
1989 Commonwealth report says the Frontline States lost around US$45 billion
in 10 years - "almost three times their combined foreign debt at the time".
A former Zambian home affairs minister, Aaron Milner, is on record as saying
his country's economic under-performance could be directly linked to the
anti-apartheid struggle. 
> > 
> > "We had to divert our resources to finance the different liberation
movements including the ANC," he said, adding: "The sacrifice was worth it."

> > 
> > In the 21st century, Tanzania, alongside Zimbabwe, has largely been at
the forefront of the revival and perpetuation of the spirit of resistance
that has made Southern Africa what it is today. This is hardly surprising
considering the role Mwalimu Julius Nyerere played in the liberation of not
only the region, but in Africa as a whole. A Tanzanian who was pivotal in
the fight against racist minority rule is Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, a
man many Zimbabweans will remember as the charismatic ambassador to this
country not so long ago. 
> > 
> > His major contribution to African independence came when he was
executive secretary of the Liberation Committee of the Organisation of
African Unity (now AU) from 1974 up to the time South Africa became free in
1994. 
> > 
> > Brig-Gen Mbita outlined the history of the Frontline States in three
stages: "First as victims, second as defiant people and third as victors.
The stages that this process went through covered agitation, political
organisation and eventually physical confrontation. "The birth of the
Frontline States as a dependable rear base and victory which saw the
establishment of Sadc as an organ for economic transformation and
consolidation of the regional security, peace and defence must be carefully
examined." 
> > 
> > If Sadc today is a child of the Frontline States it becomes obvious that
the regional organisation is bound to stand by Zimbabwe against the
machinations of the same people responsible for the colonisation and
underdevelopment of Africa. 
> > 
> > Speaking at the 2005 Sadc Summit, former Tanzanian president Benjamin
Mkapa rallied the region around the spirit that inspired the successes of
the Frontline States. "Together we shared, together we endured and together
we brought to triumph to the liberation struggle. The spirit of the
Frontline States should invigorate us into action - action that would see
Sadc emerge as the most purposeful, most powerful and most regional economic
grouping in our lifetime," he said. "The solidarity forged in the heat of
struggle can, today, if properly harnessed, help us forge regional
integration at a greater pace . . . let the Sadc Summit be the fire around
which people in this region sit - in unity, solidarity and enthusiasm - to
chart a path of survival and prosperity through the jungle of a globalising
world." 
> > 
> > South African President Thabo Mbeki answered this call thus: "The
'spirit of the Frontline States' to which President Mkapa referred means
that as members of Sadc we must be ready and willing to work closely
together, understanding that we share a common destiny. 
> > 
> > "It means that all of us must understand that what we do in any one of
our countries has an impact on the rest. It means that as countries, we will
sink or swim together." 
> > 
> > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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