OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

All week long there have been truly dreadful images of the unfolding tragedy in the DRC. Heart-breaking stories of children separated from parents, women gang raped either by rebel or government soldiers and thousands of people on the roads fleeing from one or other of the armies. An appeal has been launched to raise millions of dollars to help with humanitarian crisis in the DRC but still the media says hardly a word about the tragedy that is unfolding daily in Zimbabwe. It is just not bad enough. The world will wait until there is outright war and hundreds of dead bodies lie rotting on the streets before they take any notice. What was is it the UN said after the genocide in Ruanda, that this must never be allowed to happen again; now ten years later the DRC descends yet again into total lawlessness and millions of people are made homeless. But the DRC is not a new crisis; like Zimbabwe, it has been going on for years and no amount of humanitarian aid will solve the problem. What is needed is a lasting political solution. Increasing the size of the peace-keeping forces in the country might give the people protection in the short term but it will not ensure a peaceful future. The DRC is blessed with abundant natural resources and vast mineral wealth but its people are among the poorest in the world while greedy men fight for control of the diamond mines.

And that is where Zimbabwe comes into the picture – again. Reports of Zimbabwean soldiers fighting in the DRC surfaced this week; whether they are the remnants of Mugabe's last Congo adventure or whether it is a fresh incursion we have no way of knowing with certainty. The Bright One declared, We have nothing to do with the DRC. We have enough problems of our own.' Was that an acknowledgement that the authorities in Zimbabwe are aware of the suffering of their own people?  If that is the case, then why can they not reveal the true extent of the cholera epidemic that is sweeping the country, an epidemic caused entirely by this government's total failure to maintain clean water supplies to the country's towns and cities. The main hospitals in Harare and other cities have closed down and as a consequence the only Medical School in the country is also forced to close. There will be no more doctors trained to treat future generations of Zimbabweans.  Physicians for Human Rights tell us there are no anti-biotics, no water, no food, no ARV's for Aids patients and all but the dying are turned out on the streets.  With hospitals closed, maternity units cease to exist and pregnant women needing ceasarian sections will die in childbirth or give birth to permanently brain damaged children.  If that is the situation in town, one can only imagine what it's like in the rural areas where for a long time now there have been no drugs, no rubber gloves, no syringes and even if the clinics and hospitals are still open the fees are astronomical and way beyond the means of rural people who have grown no crops to sell and have long since sold their cattle to pay school fees or other expenses. People are utterly desperate for food; children are seen poking around for mealie pips in cow pats, collecting seed from bird droppings or from the side of the road where laden grain lorries belonging to fat cat politicians have spilt their precious cargoes. Everywhere in the rural areas there are stories of people dropping dead where they stand from starvation

How many have died from hunger, from cholera, from Aids? There are no statistics; Zimbabwe is a country where everything has broken down. Government offices are not functioning, there is no one to collect figures, no one to register births and deaths because the system has collapsed. No wonder Mugabe wants to stop the Elders coming into the country to see the humanitarian disaster for themselves. So much for Mugabe's Africanist credentials when he shows so little respect for African culture that he can tell even these worthy Elders to Get lost' as the Herald so graphically described Zanu PF's reaction to the intended visit. Mugabe's arrogance knows no bounds; we shall see whether the Elders are frightened off by his bullying tactics. Will they even be allowed to get past the goons at Harare Airport I wonder? If they do get in they will see a country dying on its feet, not yet another DRC perhaps but getting perilously close to total collapse. Can we be surprised at the West's apparent indifference when Africa itself allows Zimbabwe to die rather than stand up to the man they still regard as a Liberation Hero? Zimbabweans may rightly ask what liberation is that? Liberation to die of  preventable diseases; liberation to die in childbirth, liberation to die of hunger in a country that was once a land of plenty; liberation to die at the hands of Mugabe's Youth Militia or police; is that the liberation they mean, these cowardly African leaders?  Does nothing disturb their consciences? I know that for me the most shocking sight of the week was doctors and nurses and ordinary hospital workers being beaten by baton-wielding policemen just for daring to attempt a peaceful protest march. Is that the liberation Zimbabweans fought for? 

Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH aka Pauline Henson author of Countdown a political detective story set in Zimbabwe and available at lulu.com