Free Zim Youth present letter to Blair

former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa as a mediator between Britain and the UK. They said the cause of Zimbabwe’s problems was not a dispute between London and Harare but a problem between Mugabe and Zimbabweans. They explained their position in a letter published in The Times yesterday (see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2286975.html).
Some 80 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe Embassy before descending on Downing Street toy-toying and singing. “Exactly what we asked you not to do,” our Police escort said ruefully. We apologised, explaining, “It just happened”. (The truth.) Anyway, we didn’t knock over any tourists in our progress and, on a scorching day, we provided an alternative spectacle to the Horse Guards as we passed down Whitehall.
Ephraim Tapa, a Vigil leader, paid tribute to the youngster and joined them in expressing distress at the scandal unfolding this week of a Zimbabwean at the Home Office allegedly taking bribes to help illegal immigrants (see: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006340676,00.html). This individual has been lurking on the fringes of the Vigil, as indeed have many CIO people. Free-Zim Youth, with all their idealism, were distraught that the traditional honesty so central to Zimbabwean culture had been compromised.
The letter said they had “no faith in the so-called process of mediation between Zimbabwe and the UK recently announced at the African Union meeting in Banjul. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa have either conspired with Robert Mugabe or been hoodwinked into the appointment of Ben Mkapa the former President of Tanzania as mediator between our two countries.”
It continued: “We want to assure you that the people of Zimbabwe don’t have an argument with the people of the UK or with your government; our struggle is against the tyranny and corruption of Robert Mugabe’s regime … Ben Mkapa deliberately misleads the people of Africa by stating that there are sanctions against Zimbabwe. This is not true…We support the measures that you have taken against the men and women who are destroying Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe will never listen to the democratically expressed voice of the people of Zimbabwe. Through the ballot box we have tried to tell him that it is time for him to go but he tears up our messages and fills the boxes with love-letters to himself. Prime Minister, as young Zimbabweans we ask you to join us in exposing the appointment of Ben Mkapa as mediator by Robert Mugabe as yet another propaganda offensive designed to divert attention from his own failure. We ask you to challenge leaders of African nations to dismiss the Mkapa process of mediation as false. For the sake of our country and our continent the time has come for the leaders of the African Union to be honest, face up to reality and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Zimbabwe in our struggle for liberation from Mugabe’s regime. When you meet African leaders please add your voice to ours and tell them that we, the young people who are the future of Zimbabwe, demand that they isolate Robert Mugabe who has betrayed us and show their solidarity with us the people of Zimbabwe.” – For photos of the protest: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.