Matabeleland is not a country in Zimbabwe, EU must be told

After a rout in a war, the victorious army pursues its vanquished far deep into the latter's territory on a mopping-up operation to snuff out any pockets of resistance. Now, is not a European Union (EU) delegation in the country to be viewed in that light by concerned Zimbabweans since it is part of a Western "army" that declared sanctions on this country to try to effect regime change and reverse our land reform programme.

But Zimbabwe is not down to her knees and the war mongers have not raised their flag to celebrate any conquest, yet we see a team of snakes barging into our country clutching plastic olive twigs to haemorrhage Zimbabwe of the unity of her people and then slam the door on their way out.

Zimbabwe is not Europe or America's Other and so what manner of cheek is this, whereby the EU hyenas in sheep skin think Zimbabweans are too daft not to see through the EU delegates pretences.

What no doubt looms large in the eyes of Zimbabwe badly hurt by the illegal sanctions is a secret plan by the EU to mobilise more support for the West's regime initiative by making Zimbabwe's economy scream as a sign that the sanctions are taking a telling toll on the country.

Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia said in a statement that during its five-day visit to Matabeleland that was expected to end yesterday, the delegation that he heads would be aiming to understand specific issues affecting Matabeleland by meeting with economics, social and political representatives to seek insight on future prospects of engagement in Matabeleland.

The statement added: "The EU delegation will especially aim at a significant qualitative improvement of its linkages and its understanding of the specific issues of Matabeleland. It will not go there to deliver miracle solutions or exceptional aid packages but to engage with local actors, listen to them, to better understand needs and challenges and establish a lasting life of dialogue and communication."

Honestly, what comes through one's mind after reading Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia's statement would make saints swain.

Does the EU delegation treat Matabeleland as a fief with a slender attachment to "greater" Zimbabwe and which may be severed using a pair of scissors?

If that is so - and the honourable Ambassador's remark would appear to betray that thinking - then, Europe is in collusion with a bunch of local congenital secessionists who have been heard advocating right for a Matabeleland tribal fiefdom and supported by like-minded Zimbabweans in self rustication in a neighbouring country.

If to those Europeans visiting our country this pen's suggestions are invalid, then let them give a plausible explanation for bulldozing their way into our country and treating Zimbabweans in as condescending a manner as Gulliver did Lilliputians in his travels - and this after the EU refuse to rescind the sanctions under which Zimbabweans are reeling.

For instance where were they when their economic embargo, which sealed credit lines, shutdown many factories in Bulawayo, hitherto Zimbabwe's manufacturing hub, offloading thousands of workers onto the streets and to be stared into their forlorn eyes by starving children at home, if these European "goodwill" Ambassadors ever harboured any feeling for the people of Matabeleland where they now say they want to have a "significant qualitative improvement of its linkages and its understanding of the specific issues of the region."

And anyway, why treat Matabeleland as a special case when all other people in the rest of Zimbabwe are suffering terrible effects of the sanctions Europe and America imposed?

In the circumstances, the decision by Bulawayo Metropolitan Governor Cain Mathema not to meet the EU delegation should be applauded by all Zimbabweans suffering the brunt of the West's sanctions. Entertaining the EU team by such a high ranking government representative would have been tantamount to legitimising what appears as a hidden agenda to tighten up the screws in Europe's unflinching determination to destroy Zimbabwe.

And these so-called social, economic and political representatives whom the delegation would engage to seek insight on future prospects was to engage in Matabeleland - whom or which organisation did they represent and are solely concerned with the development of Matabeleland as if it was a country within a country that did not suffer social and economic hardships.

Or what genuine reasons are there for the representatives who entertained the EU team not to be discredited as running dogs of Western imperialism by supping with the enemy while the economic war rages on unabated?

It is an open secret that some Zimbabweans who tout themselves as national leaders invited the sanctions upon this country to try to gain political mileage for themselves against political rivals.

It is no secret that those same leaders surreptitiously continue to work in cahoots with imperialists whom they believe will one day help them rise to power in this country however much the rest of Zimbabweans suffer at the hands of those same imperialists.

But quislings of imperialists anywhere in the developing world should know by now that something for nothing does not exist in the master's lexicon. What does exist is "cat's paws" which is what the sellouts are used for to get what their masters really want in a foreign country - get total political control and economic exploitation.

For instance, they put you in power, but if you fail to deliver on their terms you can be sure of being banished into political obscurity if you are lucky but worse is often the reward for not fulfilling your part of the bargain.

Salutary lessons on this may be drawn from three Arab countries - Iraq in 1991; Egypt and Libya last year. In the first example the United States supported Iraq in a war against Iran which remains an enemy of the West.

But when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein provoked Americans ire by dipping his foot in that country's oil swimming pool, Kuwait, Washington reacted predictably. Saddam was stripped of America's support and accused of having so-called weapons of mass destruction.

An invasion of that Middle Eastern country by America and her Western allies followed soon after. However on finding no such weapons the West accused Saddam of crimes against humanity instead, citing his repression of political opponents.

Then the invasion forces hunted down Saddam to a hole in the ground in a house and had him tried and hanged.

After using another Arab leader, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to protect Israel from her other Arab neighbours and then deciding they had had enough of him, the West stirred up uprisings in that most populous Arab nation which resulted in Mubarak's ouster and his current trial, allegedly for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the political upheavals there.

Then Libya came into the sights of the Western guns.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who had for decades strongly isolated his country and its rich oil resources from the West made a fatal blunder when he softened his stance then unlocked and threw away his heart's padlock and the enemy infiltrated that country, brewed trouble for him in the same way as it did for Mubarak and was finally shot dead for lowering his guard.

There it is, any misguided political leader who thinks the West is inhabited by good political Samaritans had better think twice before turning themselves over to Zimbabwe's enemies as Trojan horses.

And by the way, God is most unlikely to spare his wrath against such merchants of his people's freedom.

On the other hand if the West now seriously wants to do business with Zimbabwe, it must openly demonstrate contrition over its hostility towards this country and then proceed to free our people from the economic stockade in which they are languishing.