The use of force and political arrogance in world affairs is the single most greatest threat to humanity in the 21st century. This is brought about by a combination of factors, amongst them: unilateralism and warmongering by the most powerful countries, particularly the US and its bully boys in NATO who resort to any means to secure their geo-strategic and economic interests anywhere.

The way the US in dealing with the Iraqi question explains a lot about how the world is run. Iraq is said to be a threat to world security, but Israel is not due to its deference to the US. According to the US, the cleansing and mass annihilation of innocent Palestinians in the Middle East is not a threat to world peace, neither is the fact that Israel is the most armed state in the Middle East. The mass proliferation of weapons taking place in the Middle East at an unprecedented rate indicates the extent to which the US has gone in arming Israel as the guarantor of its interests in that part of the world.

Israel refused to grant the UN permission to inspect the situation in Jenin, yet nothing was done. The mass murder, torture, rape and maiming of ordinary Palestinians in that refugee camp and everywhere was not enough evidence to convince the US about the terrible plight of the Palestinian people. Israel is a terrorist state, yet we continue to allow the diversion of attention by its patron - the US, which continues to flex its muscle over Iraq in an attempt to conceal the reality of the Middle East question and protect its crony - Israel - from world public attention.

The series of arrogant displays by the US in many international forums, such as the World Conference on Racism, World Summit on Sustainable development and World Trade Organisation, reflect the intentions to rule the world by the sword. This brings into question the world system of governance, such that the democratisation of the UN is a central element of the process. Even before that, the US is refusing to use the very structures that the UN system provides, as the Security Council is being overlooked by the US in its adventure to rule the world. The credibility of the UN as a world governing body is at stake if it continues to be seen as the foreign policy instrument of the US, just like the US crony - Britain - which has literally become the foreign policy department of the US.

With regard to the Zimbabwean question, we have always maintained that human rights, democracy and economic freedom are inextricably bound. Therefore, we support any struggle for human rights and democracy, because we believe it is at the same time a struggle for economic emancipation. When the people of Zimbabwe fought the struggle for independence, nothing was more central than land and democracy. It is in this light that we say so long as land and power are in the hands of a few, black or white, then freedom is a fantasy. Any struggle finds meaning in the concrete transfer of power to the suffering majority and its attendants: land ownership and the right to determine their own destiny.

In Swaziland we are confronted by the same puzzle: democracy and land. The land of our country is controlled by a few white commercial farmers and their cohorts in the royal family. The majority is literally landless in Swaziland, yet they are expected to make a living. This is where the puzzle of power becomes crystalised.

As we continue to wage a struggle for democracy and freedom, we are as much waging a struggle for land and economic freedom, because our people cannot eat human rights and false imaginations of freedom. They certainly need fundamental change in their material conditions and situation of life.

We therefore, call upon all peace-loving people of the world to recognise Israel as a terrorist state and the US as an accomplice to the murder of innocent Palestinians. We also call upon Britain to understand that democracy and freedom should not only be for the rich and white only, but the land question must be addressed seriously, while tackling at the same speed, the issue of democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe. In Swaziland we are suffering from the same double standards of imperialist Britain of championing the struggle for democracy only when rich whites are under attack, but when the same puzzle face poor blacks nothing comes out of it.

Unless land is a central component of any liberation, that liberation is not worth the noble name of freedom, but a mere fantasy for a few and continuation of suffering for the poor majority.

Bongani Masuku
General Secretary
Swaziland Solidarity Network