http://www.ajc.com
By JIMMY
CARTER
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
As president, I worked actively with
African leaders and the British to change the apartheid regime of Rhodesia
into a democratic Zimbabwe in 1980.
Eight years later, The Carter Center
established one of our first agriculture projects in Zimbabwe, at that time
known as a breadbasket for the region and setting an example in economic
stability, education and health care.
Now, after almost three decades
of governmental corruption, mismanagement and oppression, Zimbabwe has become
a basket case and an international embarrassment. A group of leaders known as
the Elders, to which I belong, have monitored this crisis, while realizing
that its resolution must come from within Africa. Time for action is now
running out, a reality forcefully conveyed to me on a recent five-day
fact-finding trip to the region.
There is great aversion among even the
most enlightened African leaders to "interference" from former colonial
powers and their allies, including the United States. However, these same
leaders have been reluctant to assume responsibility for resolving the
political stalemate and the escalating humanitarian catastrophe.
I
joined former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Graça Machel,
women's activist and wife of Nelson Mandela, in South Africa on Nov. 21 with
the intention of traveling on to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. However,
when we met with former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the
facilitator designated by other African leaders to mediate the political
dispute in Zimbabwe, he delivered a message from Harare that our visas were
denied and we could not proceed.
We had anticipated this possibility
and held a series of comprehensive discussions in Johannesburg with
delegations that came from Zimbabwe to meet us, including executives of
international nonprofit and governmental agencies and a wide range of other
stakeholders including leaders of Zimbabwe's civil society. What we learned
of the situation was even worse than our expectations. We also met with
Botswana President Ian Khama, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC
Party President (and prospective South African President) Jacob Zuma, and
Zimbabwe's opposition party leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara.
The current political and humanitarian crisis originated with
a fraudulent presidential election in March 2008, with Tsvangirai probably
winning an actual majority against President Robert Mugabe. Orchestrated
violence and brutal persecution of Tsvangirai and his supporters forced him
to withdraw from the forced runoff and leave the country. Mugabe then
declared himself president. African political leaders largely ignored reports
of fraud by
their own election observers, and eventually negotiated a
power-sharing agreement that Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed on Sept. 15.
Unfortunately, Mugabe has not ceded any real power to his opponent and the
trend toward a national tragedy has accelerated.
The official
inflation rate is now 231 million percent, and actually 2,000 times greater.
Thousands of people stand in line daily to receive a tiny allowance from
their own bank accounts - approximately 2 cents - an amount
that is
insufficient to buy even half a loaf of bread. Meanwhile, top government
officials and other privileged people can exchange Zimbabwe money at a
favorable rate and profit greatly from these transactions. They shop
in special stores.
Schoolteachers receive only one U.S. dollar a
month, and cannot afford transportation to work. Attendance has dropped from
85 to 20 percent, with attending students mostly wanting to obtain a morsel
of food. All universities are closed.
A planting shortage of seed and
fertilizer will result in a failed harvest, and the World Food Program
estimates that 50 percent of the population will need food assistance before
April 2009. Relief agencies report that available food supplies are channeled
to ruling party loyalists, deliberately starving opposition party
leaders.
All major hospitals and most emergency clinics no longer
operate, and police have clashed with doctors and nurses who insist on
treating their patients.
Uncontrolled sewage and lack of clean water has
resulted in cholera outbreaks in all 10 provinces.
Zimbabwe is
battling a nationwide cholera epidemic that has killed 425 people since late
August and infected more than 11,000, according to government
statistics.
As many as 4 million people have left Zimbabwe, seeking food,
medical care and freedom from abuse, and the cholera outbreak has made
neighboring nations increasingly wary of accepting immigrants. There are
courageous people in Johannesburg who with limited means are helping
alleviate the immense suffering. We visited Central Methodist church, where
Bishop Paul Verryn feeds and houses 2,000 refugees in the church's rooms and
corridors each night.
Without a political solution, the economic and
social fabric of society will continue its free-fall. When Mugabe cannot pay
his army and enormous civil service, the result may be a resort to
internecine violence and a failed
state, similar to Somalia.
African
leaders, especially in the neighboring Southern African
Development Community, must confront Mugabe and force him to comply with
negotiated political agreements and share real governing authority with
Tsvangirai and the opposition party. If action by these leaders continues to
be ineffective, the African Union and the United Nations must take action.
A first step, short of intercession, could be to send independent
fact-finding teams to Zimbabwe to obtain information directly from major
donors, international relief agencies, medical doctors, teachers, farmers and
other citizens who have described their experiences to us.
In the
meantime, there is a desperate need for food, medicine and cash contributions
to established humanitarian agencies including CARE, World Vision and Save
the Children - or to Bishop Verryn. It is counterproductive to contribute
money that can be confiscated by the Zimbabwe government.
*Jimmy Carter,
the 39th president of the United States, leads The
Carter Center.
