We are terribly disappointed that a number of African leaders insisted that Mugabe be invited, and that the Portuguese did not see fit to take a moral stand against this pressure.
Do the Portuguese really believe that by inviting Mugabe to their conference they will help the people of Zimbabwe in any way?
As we understand it, the point of the conference is to explore ways of increasing cooperation between Europe and Africa. But the people of Zimbabwe, whose lives have been destroyed by the ruinous policies and oppression of the Mugabe regime, will not benefit from this in any way.
The only thing the conference will achieve will be a shopping spree for Grace Mugabe and yet another opportunity for her husband to cock a snook at the west and bring Africa into further disrepute.
We can predict his speech. It will be a savage attack against Gordon Brown and George Bush. He will fulminate against the war in Iraq and pat himself on the back for liberating Zimbabwe from colonial bondage and taking land from rich whites and giving it to poor blacks. He will accuse Britain of wanting to re-colonise Zimbabwe. He will attribute his country’s unprecedented economic collapse to western “sanctions”. He will deny widespread state-sponsored political violence and extra-judicial killings by his thugs against the opposition.
Hasn’t the world had enough of this rubbish? Why do they persist in giving him time and space at international forums? Don’t they understand that, no matter what their justification, they are giving one of the world’s worst dictators some form of credibility? They are handing him yet another opportunity to strut on the international stage, and utter what have been proved to be nothing but blatant untruths?
For months afterwards, his officials will boast about how their great leader brought the EU to its knees and succeeded in smashing its travel ban. The state media will have a field day.
Let Portugal take note of two key facts – in global terms, the inflation rate is the highest and the average life expectancy of Zimbabweans is the lowest. The summit will go ahead, good wines and good food will flow abundantly. The people of Zimbabwe will continue to starve, and to die way before their time.
Post published in: News