“I love life,” says the European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Aldo Dell'Ariccia.
For any Western diplomat thrust into the rough and tumble of Zimbabwean politics, that appears to be an optimistic statement indeed.
Imagine a situation where everything you do in life is related to what you do at election time. The predominant emotion in such a system is fear and that is the situation Dell'Ariccia found when he came to Zimbabwe towards the end of 2010.
There are usually two choices for all foreign envoys working in Zimbabwe: either you toe the line of the discredited regime of President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF), ignoring daily human rights violations, theft of public funds and mismanagement, or you choose to do a professional job, pointing out wrongs.
Dell'Ariccia, it seems, chose to do a thorough job of his assignment to Harare, currently a minefield because of the politics of division prevailing.
Highly visible
Taking over from Xavier Marchal, Dell'Ariccia has been highly visible, directing help to poor communities around the country during the final days of a deadly cholera outbreak and participating in high-profile public debates in defence of EU policies.
For Dell'Ariccia, who has worked in other post-conflict regions of the world, this is not entirely surprising. What is amazing, he says, is the resolve by many Zimbabweans to carry on with life despite very difficult challenges they face.
"I admire the capacity for human resilience and courage of the Zimbabweans. There is fear, one can perceive it, but, at the same time, there is courage and resilience.” Dell'Ariccia told The Zimbabwean in a recent exclusive, wide-ranging interview at his offices in Mt Pleasant.
Dell'Ariccia started his diplomatic career in India in 1988. He was then posted to Costa Rica in Central America, where he spent five and a half years working in a region that was recovering from the deep wounds of civil war. Although countries like El Salvador and Guatemala were on a definite path to peace, the Ambassador discovered that many of the people were still haunted by their violent past.
Build peace
“There had been half a million victims in Guatemala, most executed by death squads,” Dell'Ariccia said. Helping to build peace became his major priority.
The Ambassador's last post was in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific. Prior to that, he worked in Thailand and Cambodia in South-East Asia, the latter being another country wrecked by conflict and fear.
Dell'Ariccia says when people are scared, they are full of anguish and they become very sensitive, something that he has seen in Zimbabwe.
Born in Italy 58 years ago, the career diplomat moved as a child with his parents to Germany. Later, he went to Switzerland where he studied political science, economics and international relations before embarking on his diplomatic career.
Of his Zimbabwe posting, Dell'Ariccia feels the assignment is straight-forward if one can separate the confusing rhetoric from Harare's politicians from the reality on the ground.
Good friend
“The presence of the EU is manifold. We've been a good friend of Zimbabwe since 1980. But since 2002, the situation deteriorated,” he says.
In 2002, the EU slapped Mugabe and a handful of his associates with a travel ban to Europe and ordered their assets frozen.
Dell'Ariccia says this was a logical step as the Zimbabwean leadership had violated the terms of the EU-ACP agreement, based on the respect of human rights and the rule of law.
The ambassador is quick to point out – as he has done on numerous occasions since he arrived in Harare – that restrictions on a few top officials should not be seen as punishment on the whole of Zimbabwe.
“Support to the people of Zimbabwe continues,” Dell'Ariccia said. “What drives our aid is solidarity and support to the people of Zimbabwe.”
He said the EU, which is one of Zimbabwe's largest support partners, did not stop aid programmes completely as that would mean people are punished twice – once by the prevalent situation in the country and then by the international community. Instead, he said, the EU had adopted a new mechanism where aid funds for Zimbabwe are channelled through UN agencies and non-governmental organisations
Elections
Dell'Ariccia said the advent of the Global Political Agreement power-sharing deal between Mugabe and leaders of the MDC parties opened a new chapter for EU-Zimbabwe relations. He cited the visit to the EU headquarters in Brussels by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009 which, he said, raised the prospect of re-engagement between Zimbabwe and the EU.
More importantly, Dell'Ariccia said, the GPA had been a first step in Zimbabwe's return to normality, where the will of the people should be respected through elections and human rights observed.
Dell'Ariccia said it would be a good sign if the EU was invited to observe the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe.
He said the presence of international observers generally made people feel safer and more motivated to participate in elections. The presence of observers also usually reduces the risk of fraud. However, he emphasized that the EU would only send observers if invited to do so.
“If we're not invited we'd hope that regional organisations (SADC and the AU) carry out the observation,” Dell'Ariccia said.
He said Zimbabwe was a sovereign state and it's rights should be respected. “It's not for people from outside to decide what they (Zimbabweans) want,” he said.
The envoy said Zimbabweans had a right to support whoever they wanted to lead them.
“The next election should demonstrate the will of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Fragile
The Ambassador highlighted principles already adopted by the AU and SADC, which could make the elections credible. These include free access to the polls by all eligible voters, freedom from violence, transparency, freedom of the media and respect for the results.
Dell'Ariccia noted that the GPA had done a lot to halt the damage to Zimbabwe's image and “resurrect” the economy but challenges remained. “The GPA is a fragile agreement,” he said.
Dell'Ariccia said Zimbabwe was a country blessed with raw materials but it faced the classical challenge of turning these into wealth to benefit all it's people.
The Ambassador has worked previously as a journalist in Central America. He was Chief Editor of Infor Press Central Americana before the peace process began. He says this was a sensitive task because of the political environment.
“We had to be absolutely accurate,” he says. Dell'Ariccia is not married and has no children but says this is not a setback to his demanding job or outgoing lifestyle.
He is a stickler for accuracy and is not shy to point out the mistakes others make during public debates. This has made him a formidable opponent in debates in Zimbabwe, where some officials have been known to spread blatant lies just in order to win arguments.
For instance, he got the audience laughing last year during a debate with historian Tafataona Mahoso at the Book Cafe. Mahoso had described him as 'Anglo-Saxon' and started blaming his ancestors for British colonialism when Dell'Ariccia quickly pointed out, “No, I'm not Anglo-Saxon, I'm Roman.”
He has also proved to be a challenge for propagandists at the state-run media by quickly responding to errors in stories and setting the record straight, always without emotion or the usual threats that a man in such a position could use.
Post published in: News