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Mbeki, Blair & Guthrie on regime change in Zimbabwe
28 Nov 2013 at 17:03hrs | Views
"There is a retired chief of the British Armed Forces (Lord Charles Guthrie) who said he had to withstand pressure from then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair who was saying to the chief of the British Armed Forces you must work out a military plan so that we can physically remove Robert Mugabe.
"We knew that because we had come under the same pressure that we needed to cooperate in some scheme. It was a regime change scheme, even to the point of using military force and we were saying no.
"... we said no. You are coming from London you say you don't like Robert Mugabe for whatever reason, people in London don't like him we are going to remove him then you are going to put someone else in his place. Why does it become a British responsibility to decide who leads Zimbabwe?
"We were saying no. Let Zimbabweans sit down. Let them agree what they do with their country. Our task is to make sure we stay with them. We work with them. So, the GPA they signed in 2008 was negotiated by the Zimbabweans. We facilitated. We chaired the meeting and so on, but it was them who negotiated the agreement."
(Former President Thabo Mbeki in an interview with Al Jazeera, November 2013)
"Tony Blair has long believed that Zimbabwe would be much better off without Robert Mugabe and always argued for a tougher stance against him, but he never asked anyone to plan or take part in any such military intervention."
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesperson responding to former President Mbeki's Al Jazeera interview.)
"I think whoever has the possibility should topple Mugabe - the man has destroyed his country, many people have died unnecessarily because of him. My perception of foreign policy is: If you can, you should, but you obviously have to operate within careful limits."
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an interview with Stern Magazine, July 2009.)
"I would have loved to [topple President Robert Mugabe]; but it wasn't practical (since in his case, and for reasons I never quite understood, the surrounding African nations maintained a lingering support for him and would have opposed any action strenuously)".
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his book, 'A Journey,' September 2010.)
"We used to talk about things. I could say anything to him, because he knew I wasn't going to spill the beans." This included Zimbabwe, "which people were always trying to get me to look at. My advice was, 'Hold hard, you'll make it worse. You won't have a single African country on your side.'"
(Former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Charles Guthrie, London Independent, November 2007.)
"We knew that because we had come under the same pressure that we needed to cooperate in some scheme. It was a regime change scheme, even to the point of using military force and we were saying no.
"... we said no. You are coming from London you say you don't like Robert Mugabe for whatever reason, people in London don't like him we are going to remove him then you are going to put someone else in his place. Why does it become a British responsibility to decide who leads Zimbabwe?
"We were saying no. Let Zimbabweans sit down. Let them agree what they do with their country. Our task is to make sure we stay with them. We work with them. So, the GPA they signed in 2008 was negotiated by the Zimbabweans. We facilitated. We chaired the meeting and so on, but it was them who negotiated the agreement."
(Former President Thabo Mbeki in an interview with Al Jazeera, November 2013)
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesperson responding to former President Mbeki's Al Jazeera interview.)
"I think whoever has the possibility should topple Mugabe - the man has destroyed his country, many people have died unnecessarily because of him. My perception of foreign policy is: If you can, you should, but you obviously have to operate within careful limits."
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an interview with Stern Magazine, July 2009.)
"I would have loved to [topple President Robert Mugabe]; but it wasn't practical (since in his case, and for reasons I never quite understood, the surrounding African nations maintained a lingering support for him and would have opposed any action strenuously)".
(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his book, 'A Journey,' September 2010.)
"We used to talk about things. I could say anything to him, because he knew I wasn't going to spill the beans." This included Zimbabwe, "which people were always trying to get me to look at. My advice was, 'Hold hard, you'll make it worse. You won't have a single African country on your side.'"
(Former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Charles Guthrie, London Independent, November 2007.)
Source - Thabo Mbeki
