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We take great exception to foreigners interfering in our internal affairs like what France Ambassador to Zimbabwe Laurent Delahousse did on Tuesday.
On the occasion of the French National Day in Harare, Delahousse drew unhelpful attention to himself when he made provocative remarks on ex-journalist turned MDC-T activist, Itai Dzamara who went missing on March 9. The Frenchman also summoned Dzamara’s wife, her child and Itai’s brother to appear before the congregation and proposed a toast to the missing man.
Apparently taking Zimbabweans for ignorant people who do not know the unspeakable atrocities that France has committed in Africa, the most recent being their connivance in the Nato invasion of Libya in 2011 and before it, Paris’ 1994 involvement in the Rwandan genocide that claimed 800,000 people in 100 days, Delahousse made a statement to the effect that his government has been working to thwart assassinations and other evils against humanity all over the world.
“Here in Zimbabwe,” he said, “a mother, a wife and her two kids are mourning a husband and father who has not returned home because one afternoon he was abducted by unidentified people. I do not know that man; all I know is that he was peaceful and fighting with his words to express his ideas. Some people took him for that and he has not been found. This man has become a symbol; I will not let him down.”
This is always France’s meddlesome, in fact incendiary, conduct particularly in West Africa where they are still in effective charge. It is reflective of the general conduct of Europe and America on African affairs. They get away with it all elsewhere in Africa where weak governments tremble in fear at the mere sight of the French or British flag. In Zimbabwe, the government registers its disgust at such actions like what it did when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Delahousse on Thursday. Stronger action has been taken before in circumstances of similar nature. It can still be taken if the mischief continues.
Delahousse must be told in unambiguous language that Zimbabweans are an intensely proud people who do not tolerate such paternalism. The French can do this with no consequences in other parts of the world, not here. The same message goes to the British and Americans who are trying to whip up emotions on the Dzamara issue.
Police are doing their work, investigating Dzamara’s disappearance. They must be allowed to continue their investigations without undue pressure and sinister imputations from anyone, least of all the French whose hands drip with innocent blood. In the Dzamara case, police, on Wednesday took an extraordinary step of releasing details and progress of their investigations. We actually argue that police should have ignored the patently political pressure on the government from the likes of Delahousse by not publicising the extent of their work on the matter for this can jeopardise their investigations.
By the way Dzamara is not the only missing person in this country. Recently, we reported that at least five people have gone missing in two Bulawayo suburbs since February.
Elsewhere, a child goes missing every five hours in South Africa. In Britain, more than 200,000 people are reported missing yearly while in the US about 2,000 children are reported missing daily. More than 700,000 people are reported missing yearly in the US. Australia and New Zealand report approximately 35,000 and 12,000 missing persons respectively each year.
In all these countries, no head of state has ever been challenged to pronounce themselves on any of the missing persons, yet the provocative West and their local opposition instruments and activists have attempted to get President Robert Mugabe to speak on Dzamara.
Why do they single out the former journalist, and none of the five who have been unaccounted for in Nkulumane and Emganwini? Why pretending to pray for only one person when the country has a bigger challenge of possibly hundreds of missing persons? The answer to these questions is that the opposition, France, Britain, America have seen a chance to make political capital; to make MDC-T more relevant. Such negative campaigns don’t win.
We absolutely have no reason to believe that Dzamara became a national security threat when he sought cheap publicity and surely, some donor funds for his personal upkeep from countries like France with his so-called Occupy Africa Unity Square protest early this year. Most people ignored him when he tried, through that solo stunt, to mobilise the public to stage bigger demonstrations against the government. We strongly feel that there was no reason for anyone to punish Dzamara well after his protest had collapsed; kidnapping him from a barber shop near his home, and not at Africa Unity Square when he was protesting.
Whereas Delahousse suspects that Dzamara was abducted by government agents, many Zimbabweans suspect that the choreography around his disappearance suggests that the West, known for crude methods, may actually be involved in a bid to create conditions for anti-government protests.
We regret Dzamara’s disappearance and are with his family in prayer, but not with foreign envoys and politicians attempting to gain lost relevance from it.
Let police do their work unhindered.
Online Reporter