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Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe Lifestyle Editor
I FOR one am glad to see the back of Bruce Wharton and pray that his replacement will have a briefing that will make him or her less of a patronising and hypocritical pompous a**. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with you Ambassador Wharton as a man, but everything to do with your office and my hopes are not high. Permit me to let your words to illustrate these characteristics in his own words:
“We do recognise improvements in the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, thank goodness the elections of 2013 were peaceful, it’s a huge step forward and we are willing to give Zimbabwe credit on those improvements,” you, the outgoing ambassador of the United States to Zimbabwe magnanimously pronounced. Your institutional memory conveniently forgot that despite your president Barack Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo during the heady days of his campaign in 2008, the torture camp still has 154 detainees who have been cleared while 45 others are being held on an indefinite basis without charges or trial.
Lest the world take it that the US has actually started harbouring unequivocal good feelings concerning Zimbabwe’s leadership, Ambassador Wharton you were quick to make it clear that you are in no way deviating from the path that your country has been on ever since the land redistribution programme started:
“But then you get a case like Itai Dzamara which makes everybody remember again how tough things were during the elections of 2002 and 2008 and Murambatsvina in 2005,” you fired your poisoned barbs. Why would you want to so conveniently forget that your government came up with the term “collateral damage” to callously write off human lives obliterated brutally each day across the globe when Americans come calling?
It sounds like you, Mr Ambassador, have the answer that many people would like to hear, namely the fate of Itai Dzamara. Does your worldwide security apparatchik know exactly what happened on March 9, 2015 in Glenview? Please do let us know this definitive information that you hint at. In Shona we have a saying that one should not be so cowardly as to batter a dog using a hidden weapon. For by carefully failing to make an outright accusation you are doing that thing which your country is so well known; leading the gullible to believe the hype, never mind the facts.
Your words on the other hand, sir, also make me think of one Sami al-Haj, remember him? He is an Al Jazeera journalist who was held at Guantanamo Bay for six years. His biggest crime was that your government needed information on the network’s operations since they consider it hostile. But why bring him and others like him to the table when it is clear that your government looks at the world using two lenses; one for yourself and your friends and another one for the rest of us?
Neutral international human rights watchdogs are not impressed by your verbal equivocations and one wonders why you assume that any thinking Zimbabwean would accept them either. A United Nations Rights Committee released in March 2014 roundly condemned your government’s Big Brother tactics around the world pointing out that you apply “broad doctrines of legal privilege and immunity” to prevent torture victims from seeking compensation against their torturers. Your government defended the atrocities committed by its agents by stating that there are no “human rights obligations on American military and intelligence when they operate abroad.”
According to globalresearch.ca the report, compiled from the testimony of 18 independent experts, detailed rampant violations by the US government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR):
“The Committee notes with concern that all reported investigations into enforced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that had been committed in the context of the CIA secret rendition, interrogation and detention programmes were closed in 2012 leading only to a meagre number of criminal charges brought against low-level operatives.”
“The US insists it has no international legal obligations to respect the privacy rights of foreigners outside its borders,” observed Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch. I suppose that in the professional world of Ambassador Wharton this justifies the unleashing of “defence contractors” a.k.a American terrorists to kill, rape, maim and otherwise cause havoc in the world while he blissfully denigrates Zimbabwe for failing to reach the mythical lofty bar that the United States religiously believes in.
Once upon a time I also naively believed the myth that these US government sanctified mass murderers were only employed to provide “private security” in troubled areas like Iraq, where incidentally the American war machine has created the chaos. Until August this year when I had the dubious honour of conversing with one such gentleman and he indiscreetly revealed that he and a cohort of his brethren are currently domiciled in South Africa on “a mission”. Forgive me for now thinking that maybe that country’s series of turmoil may not all be the making of simple restive citizens. I now wonder how the definition of “foreigner” in that country has come about to mean black Africans. Does it not eerily echo the case of the United States itself where being born a black male means that you automatically make it to the top of targets for police practice shooting? If you are lucky you only get arrested.
The Human Rights Watch World Report 2015 does not mince words on why you, Ambassador Wharton, should be that last man to talk about human rights:
“The United States has a vibrant civil society and strong constitutional protections for many basic rights. Yet, particularly in the areas of criminal justice, immigration, and national security, US laws and practices routinely violate rights. Often, those least able to defend their rights in court or through the political process — racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, children, the poor, and prisoners — are the people most likely to suffer abuses.”
“Racial disparities have long plagued the US criminal justice system. African American men are incarcerated at six times the rate of white men, and three percent of all black males are currently incarcerated in a state or federal prison. There are many causes of racial disparities in incarceration, including drug law enforcement practices. For example, whites and African Americans engage in drug offenses at comparable rates, but are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for drug offenses at vastly different rates.”
I will state it right here that I am a strong believer in human rights for all and the fact that your country is a big violator does not justify abuse of Zimbabweans by Zimbabweans. But human rights are not about political activists only. For me they strongly entail access to food, shelter, education, health, justice and other basics for human dignity for everyone in this country. But I suppose you cannot walk down that road when you come from a country that criminalises being homeless, being a racial minority and being a refugee.
I know that your fans will immediately point out to how American millions have made a difference in the lives of many Zimbabweans through programmes like PEPFAR and other grants thereby addressing the core non-political human rights. Granted, but what is the cost of this generosity? A growing cadre of people who think that the US can do no wrong and feel no loyalty to their own country at all, people bought for the price of a bag of grain, a trip to the United States for a few weeks or just a handshake from you. But we cannot blame you for that. A man who lets his wife get clothed, fed and housed by another should not complain when she sleeps with that other man.
Is it too much to expect that you have put your bosses in the picture so that the new ambassador is one with a brief giving a different definition of “engagement” where that means genuine meeting of government and government? An ambassador briefed to understand that associating with a select group of anti-government Zimbabweans does not mean that he or she understands the people of this country and can define their dreams and reality. An ambassador allowed to hear the voices of all Zimbabweans without ignoring the voice of any who may question the US position as you were wont to do on your social media platforms. An ambassador who realises that talk is cheap and that “do as I say not as I do” is not good enough.
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