ainst colonialism, out of
the suffering inflicted upon people of Zimbabwe by the brutal grinding hand
of the Zimbabwe government and ZANU PF. The people of Zimbabwe ask that
you assist them to complete the realization of the goals and ideals that
underpinned your support during the struggle against colonialism. It is
only the MDC that can take the people of Zimbabwe to this realization.
We live in a country where the ZANU PF government is in perpetual
combat with the citizens of Zimbabwe. It is regime that is behaving like a
foreign occupying force, which knows fully well that its legitimacy is highly
justifiably contested.
The level of state sanctioned violence has increased over the past few
months. More than 600 of our members were subjected to state violence
in the last two months. While more than 200 grass root MDC leadership has been
forced to flee the country into South Africa and Zambia over the last
month. It is violence that is designed to decapacitate and incapacitate the
MDC as we approach the elections in March 2008. Consistent with ZANU PF
history, the MDC knows that this state sanctioned violence against our members
and the general people of Zimbabwe will increase as we near the elections.
In short, the country has become a brutal military state.
The elections in March 2008 can not happen in an environment of
intimidation. The MDC will not participate in elections whose results
are predetermined. We therefore demand a level political field. We demand
that state sanctioned violence against the people of Zimbabwe must stop. We
demand the repeal of repressive and draconian legislation such as the
Public Order and Securities Act (POSA) and the AIPPA. We demand that the
elections be supervised by SADC and or the African Union. Election observers from
SADC and or the African Union and other parts of the world must be in
Zimbabwe and on the ground at least four months before the election. Anything to
that falls short of these demands for a free and fair election will be a
kiss of death for the country.
We wish to state clearly that it is only when the necessary conditions
for free and fair elections are in place that the MDC will participate in
the elections in March 2008.
We have expressed over and over again that it is only a legitimate
government that can bring to an end the suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe.
The crisis in Zimbabwe is born of the contested legitimacy of the ZANU
PF government owing to fraudulent elections. Because the crisis in
Zimbabwe is a political crisis, its solution is a political one. The return to
political legitimacy remains the solution to the crisis.
Cognisant of the fact that the Zimbabwe crisis is an African problem
whose solution can only be found in Africa through African political
institutions, we wish to restate our full confidence in SADC in facilitating a
solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe. We welcome the efforts of SADC through
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in finding a lasting solution.
We hope that the SADC initiative produces the solution within the
shortest time possible and way before the elections in March 2008. The necessary
mechanisms be in place to ensure that ZANU PF does not, consistent with
its history, derail and or delay the conclusion of the mediation effort
headed by President Mbeki.
The MDC is the only political home of the people of Zimbabwe which can
respond to the national question, which is the creation of a government
that cares and responds to the needs and aspirations of all the people of
Zimbabwe, unleashing them to their full potential for the benefit of
the nation as a whole. – Prof. Elliphas Mukonoweshuro (Secretary for
International Affairs)