adminObi Egbuna Jr Simunye
When medical doctors and nurses evaluate the nutritional intake of their patients, it is done from the premise that each and every one of them are bi-products of the food they choose to consume on a daily basis. While there are certainly particular factors to consider, such as one’s economic means and adequate health education that provides quality exposure for the purpose of overcoming disparities in information, resulting in different in patients making informed or uninformed decisions about their overall health. This logic and approach without question, factors into how the US Imperialist think tank Apparatus is choosing to manipulate all discussion debate and analysis concerning their policy on Zimbabwe, past and present.
On September 8 2016, the US Institute of Peace will be sponsoring a forum entitled “Zimbabwe: Opportunities For and Challenges To Peaceful Transition”.
The panellists are as follows: Dr Alex Vines, Head of Africa Programme of Chatham House; Dr Witney Schneidman, Snr International Advisor for Africa Covington & Burling LLP and Nicole Wilett-Jensen VP Albright, Stonebridge Group.
The moderator will be none other than Ambassador Johnnie Carson, former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe under former US President Bill Clinton’s second term and former Assistant Secretary for African Affairs during President Obama’s first term. Ambassador Carson is the current senior advisor for both the US Institute of Peace and the Albright Stonebridge Group. The opening remarks will be made by Ambassador Princeton Lyman, who served as US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs from 1981 to 1986 during the Reagan Administration.
From a US Imperialist point of view, having Ambassadors Carson and Lyman oversee the affairs of USIP represents a degree of balance between Democrats and Republicans, where Ambassador Carson serves on the board of directors of the National Democratic Institute and Ambassador Lyman serves on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy, which are supposed to propagate the notions and aspirations of Democrats and Republicans on the world stage respectively.
The discussion that is to take place is concerning the most recent study and position paper of the Chatham House written by Dr Vines. However, Ambassador Carson and USIP, through their website, saw the need to do damage control, by mentioning the 2016 Fragile State Index, which lists six African nations on their list of most fragile nations.
This definition highlights the following countries, who in their opinion have weak, ineffective and illegitimate governments that exacerbate corruption and poverty and violence.
The next point is concerning how the #ThisFlag campaign may signal an opportunity for personal transition from a fragile to a democratic state.
This premature manoeuvre by Ambassador Carson and USIP stems from the fact that Mr Vines and Chatham House don’t share US Imperialism’s seek-and-destroy approach when it comes to Zimbabwe, diplomatically speaking.
Chatham House’s previous report entitled “Zimbabwe’s International Re-engagement: The Long Haul to Recovery”, written by Dr Knox Chitiyo, then the Associate Fellow to the Africa Programme and Mr Steve Kibble, made the following recommendations:
1) The reality is zanu-pf, which is the senior partner in the GNU, is the dominant force in politics and will be for some time to come.
2) The opposition and civil society business sector and other voices are important but engagement with the Zimbabwe Government is pivotal.
3) Although Zimbabwe faces an economic crisis, the picture is not one of total disaster.
4) With the economic stakes so high and with growing economic interdependence, constructive engagement between Zimbabwe and the West should entail a process to end all sanctions and targeted measures as well as pragmatic dialogue that recognises mutual interests and responsibilities.
Since this report was written in 2014, a concern for President Mugabe and zanu-pf is present in the recent article written by Dr Vines entitled “Are Southern Liberation Movements in Crisis”, showing an analytical departure, from the language of Dr Chitiyo in which he infers there is a vicious power struggle in zanu-pf and a lack of a secure national mandate that led to the manipulation of election victories which Dr Vines referred to as a phenomenon that is still playing out today. He went on to write that the near loss of the 2000 Parliamentary elections and 2002 Presidential Elections prompted zanu-pf to ensure it will not lose by fair or foul means. He then makes the assertion that national liberation movements in the sadc region portray themselves as a political aristocracy that have earned their legitimacy through armed struggle in perpetuity. But they have reinvented history with particular emphasis on armed struggle to provide legitimacy and solidarity in order to combat internal and external threats to their national democratic revolutions.
Those sentiments by Dr Vines, although tongue-in-cheek, do not negate the fact that Chatham House is unequivocally opposed to US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe, which presents a problem for Ambassador Carson, Ambassador Lyman and the USIP board members who have been given the green light to pull out all the stops concerning Zimbabwe regime change propaganda.
Zimbabweans in particular, and Africans in general, must look at the board of USIP, that includes the daughter of Robert Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, who is the chair of the Amnesty Leadership Council, who authored a book entitled “Speaking Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Around the World”, which highlighted Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who stated a military option should not be ruled out when it comes to Zimbabwe.
There is also Stephen Hadley, former NSA advisor to President George W Bush and Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defence for policy, who was a top advisor to the 2012 Milt Romney campaign.
The ex-offcio board members are US Secretary of State John Kerry, Major General Gregory S Martin, President of the National Defence University and current US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.
The USIP has five main centres: The Academy for International Conflict Management and Peace Building, Centre for Governance Law and Society, Centre for Middle East and Africa, Centre for South and Central Asia, Center for Applied Research on Conflict.
Some of USIP’s country specific research includes Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History, How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process, Negotiating of the Edge: North Korean negotiating behaviour, Chinese Negotiating Behaviour: Pursuing Interests Through Old Friends, and Russian Negotiating Behaviour.
Because of President Mugabe and zanu-pf’s nationalist and Pan-Africanist makeup, with a very strong self- determining ideological foundation, it makes all the sense in the world why Ambassador Carson and USIP are on the attack without boundaries or parameters.
Since Ambassador Carson’s relationship with former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright is a matter of public record, it would be an error in judgment to gloss over the history of the Albright-Stonebridge Group’s co-chair, former US Secretary of Commerce Mr Carlos Guiterrez. Mr Guiterrez was born in Havana, Cuba and is the son of a pineapple plantation owner, who after the Cuban Revolution, went to work for the HJ Heinz Company in Mexico.
Mr Guiterrez was the co-chair of the US Commission of Assistance to Free Cuba, the other co-chair was none other than former NSA advisor Condoleeza Rice, who declared both Cuba and Zimbabwe outposts of tyranny.
When Zimbabwe’s history is studied, it will be a tragedy if we ignore that US Imperialism, courtesy of Mr Guiterrez and late pro-Zionist Senator Tom Lantos, declared President Mugabe public enemy No. 1 in Africa, not exclusively because of the Third Chimurenga, but for solidarity with Cuba and Palestine.
We must also expose Ambassador Lyman’s racist disposition when he opposed using the US Alien tort statute in federal court, which showed that workers in South Africa were eligible for reparations from corporations that operated in South Africa during the Apartheid era.
It will take a great deal of tolerance and integrity to sit through the circus put together by Ambassador Carson and USIP on September 8.
Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent to The Herald and external relations officer to ZICUFA (Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association) his email is [email protected]
Online Reporter