News / National
Western support for Mugabe in the 1980s is understandable: Bennett
12 Sep 2011 at 20:41hrs | Views
Western support for Mugabe and ZANU in the 1960s and 1980s during the Gukurahundi era, Bennett said, can be understood in the context of the Cold War. This was revealed ina leaked cable released on 30 August 2011.
The slaughter of Ndebeles in Matabeleland was viewed as an internal incident less important than the chess game between the USSR and the West, and the killing and dispossessing of ZAPU went unremarked because ZAPU was supported by the USSR, the West's main enemy at the time.
In the same vein, revulsion at Zanu-PF for events since the late 1990s, particularly the violence associated with farm invasions and the election-related killings, is understandable.
This should not, however, blind the West to the fact that Zanu-PF will not go away. There are in Zanu-PF, people who want to see progress, but they have no power to influence events.
We need to do a better job of identifying them, and finding ways, without compromising or endangering them, to empower them with a view to a future multi-party country and a need to recognize that wishing for a future Zimbabwe without Zanu-PF is counterproductive.
The slaughter of Ndebeles in Matabeleland was viewed as an internal incident less important than the chess game between the USSR and the West, and the killing and dispossessing of ZAPU went unremarked because ZAPU was supported by the USSR, the West's main enemy at the time.
This should not, however, blind the West to the fact that Zanu-PF will not go away. There are in Zanu-PF, people who want to see progress, but they have no power to influence events.
We need to do a better job of identifying them, and finding ways, without compromising or endangering them, to empower them with a view to a future multi-party country and a need to recognize that wishing for a future Zimbabwe without Zanu-PF is counterproductive.
Source - Byo24News
