This Commentary by UK MP Kate Hoey in the UK newspaper The Telegraph brings up some very good points. That the US and the UK are inadvertently propping up the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe by giving food aid to Zimbabwe; which on the face of it seems like the only humanitarian thing to do. That is if one does not take into account how Mugabe is using that food aid to cement his power by starving those against him into submission or death and rewarding his supporters.
To quote Didymus Mutasa, one of Mugabe’s cronies, which chillingly sums up the thinking behind this strategy:
“We would be better off with only 6 million people [out of a total of 12 million], with our own people who support the liberation struggle (ZANU-PF)."
- Foreign Secretary of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party Didymus Mutasa
Hoey is absolutely right to demand that the UK, as well as the US, government look into how they spend their development aid money in Southern Africa when, judging from the great reception that Mugabe received from them at the last Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting, most SADC members openly support Mugabe.
This indicates that most of the government in SADC either don’t care about human rights and/or they are just so corrupt, both morally and economically, that all they care about is a leaders ‘struggle credentials’ no matter how bad they are. Either way, governments should not be giving development aid to such countries or at lease as much aid as they are currently giving them.
To give you an idea of how much aid a country like the US, for example, gives to a Southern African country in development aid here are some examples from USAID (the US government organisation that gives out international development aid).
South Africa, Africa’s wealthiest country will receive US$128 million this year (2007). Zambia, Zimbabwe’s northern neighbour, will receive US$113 million this year from USAID. Even the small nation of Namibia (population: 2 million), one of Mugabe’s closest allies in the region, will receive US$31 million this year.
These are large amounts of money, all of which the US taxpayer is providing and much of which the US government is giving to governments that are openly supporting Mugabe.
Sources:
The Telegraph: 'Cut aid to Robert Mugabe's apologists'
News at iafrica.com: SADC welcomes Mugabe like a hero
USAID South Africa: http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2007/afr/za.html
USAID Namibia: http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2007/afr/nm.html
USAID Zambia: http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2007/afr/zm.html
