Zimbabwe: US and Europe's Disinformation Campaign
brian | 30.03.2007 06:53
Zimbabwe: US and Europe's Disinformation Campaign
More of the same...
By Ayinde
rastafaritimes@yahoo.com
March 29, 2007
If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out ...
Invasions, bombings, overthrowing governments, suppressing movements for social change, assassinating political leaders, perverting elections, manipulating labor unions, manufacturing "news", death squads, torture, biological warfare, depleted uranium, drug trafficking, mercenaries ...
It's not a pretty picture. It is enough to give imperialism a bad name.
-- William Blum
What is the moral authority of the West based on?
The hypocrisy of these Western leaders, all of whom have the blood of hundreds of thousands on their hands, makes hollow their outrage over Zimbabwe. Having already demonstrated the disregard they have for the lives of ordinary people, they cannot now be the moral authority for anyone.
Even if African nations wanted to make statements opposing President Mugabe's governing, the US, UK and Australia are making it difficult for them to do so with their constant demands and interferences. The leaders in these Western countries are demanding that leaders of African nations react harshly to President Robert Mugabe, as if the African leaders cannot see the tactics they are using in their attempts to remotely control them. Which African leader really wants to appear as US and Europe's lacquey?
All the anti-Mugabe reports in the mainstream are suspect as being part of a disinformation campaign to the point that any person who takes them seriously is either foolish, dishonest or both.
Here is how the the mainstream media is reporting on the detention of members of the opposition for questioning following a spate of petrol bombings at Zanu-PF district offices. The article 'Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Nabbed' states:
The country's main opposition party leader has been nabbed by police along with other political opponents of President Robert Mugabe. Party head Morgan Tsvangirai had been scheduled to talk to media about the government's recent political violence against the opposition.
Without ever mentioning the reasons these opposition members were held for questioning, they are making it appear as if peaceful opposition members were being detained because of their views or intention to speak to the media.
This is a typical US and European disinformation campaign. The US and Europe are encouraging the opposition to violently destabilize Zimbabwe and are supporting them with their disinformation campaign to make it appear that the government and police are being brutal when attempting to stop the violence. I know this because this is also typical US 'regime change' conduct.
Here is the government website's version of the arrests in Zimbabwe:
Police yesterday arrested 35 MDC activists and seized explosives and arms after the recent spate of terror bombings, hours after the ninth bombing, this time of two petrol tankers in Mutare yesterday morning.
(Police nab 35 MDC activists, confiscate arms, explosives )
Why must we summarily dismiss the police's reason for detaining persons and only believe the opposition together with US and Europe's version of events in Zimbabwe? Are they neutral parties who come to us with clean hands?
So that people won't forget the Zimbabwe government's version of the events that precipitated this latest opposition onslaught (which coincided with the opening of the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council) the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Canada, Florence Zano Chideya, stated:
...these MDC supporters masquerading as church-goers were breaking a section of a law passed by the Zimbabwean parliament, the Public Order and Safety Act that had been invoked to temporarily ban political gatherings after the MDC thugs had caused violence the previous week resulting in the serious injury of four police officers.
(Zimbabwe's Ambassador Takes Issue with Arrogant Editorial')
This information can be easily verified. Zimbabweans including the opposition leaders knew the law that temporarily banned political gatherings and if they wanted they could have challenged the ban in the courts. Mugabe does not control the courts in Zimbabwe, contrary to what the West would like the world to believe. The court routinely rules against the Zimbabwe government.
It should again be noted that the opposition is attempting to gain political power through the use of violence with support from the US and European countries, and not from gaining popular support in Zimbabwe through articulating policies to improve the country.
In the article 'Opposition warning to Mugabe' on BBC's website in 2000, Morgan Tsvangirai is reported to have told a crowd of about 20,000: "What we would like to tell Mugabe is please go peacefully. If you don't want to go peacefully, we will remove you violently."
The opposition does not command the support of the majority and their cry of unfair elections rings hollow. Elections seem only to be considered "free and fair" as long as they serve the interest of the West. The South African Development Community and the African Union certified Zimbabwe's elections in 2005 as "free and fair" and this was rejected by the Western governments (US rejects Southern African verdict on Zim vote 2005). Although some in the Western mainstream press blamed the Zimbabwe opposition and their leader, Tsvangirai, for the MDC's poor showing at the polls, they are now resuming the unfair election diatribe. Blatant Racism is the reason these Western governments along with their white-controlled media feel the nations in Africa cannot monitor their internal affairs to determine, without US and European interference, what is "free and fair".
etc
http://www.rastafaritimes.com/commentaries/29032007.htm
More of the same...
By Ayinde
rastafaritimes@yahoo.com March 29, 2007
If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out ...
Invasions, bombings, overthrowing governments, suppressing movements for social change, assassinating political leaders, perverting elections, manipulating labor unions, manufacturing "news", death squads, torture, biological warfare, depleted uranium, drug trafficking, mercenaries ...
It's not a pretty picture. It is enough to give imperialism a bad name.
-- William Blum
What is the moral authority of the West based on?
The hypocrisy of these Western leaders, all of whom have the blood of hundreds of thousands on their hands, makes hollow their outrage over Zimbabwe. Having already demonstrated the disregard they have for the lives of ordinary people, they cannot now be the moral authority for anyone.
Even if African nations wanted to make statements opposing President Mugabe's governing, the US, UK and Australia are making it difficult for them to do so with their constant demands and interferences. The leaders in these Western countries are demanding that leaders of African nations react harshly to President Robert Mugabe, as if the African leaders cannot see the tactics they are using in their attempts to remotely control them. Which African leader really wants to appear as US and Europe's lacquey?
All the anti-Mugabe reports in the mainstream are suspect as being part of a disinformation campaign to the point that any person who takes them seriously is either foolish, dishonest or both.
Here is how the the mainstream media is reporting on the detention of members of the opposition for questioning following a spate of petrol bombings at Zanu-PF district offices. The article 'Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Nabbed' states:
The country's main opposition party leader has been nabbed by police along with other political opponents of President Robert Mugabe. Party head Morgan Tsvangirai had been scheduled to talk to media about the government's recent political violence against the opposition.
Without ever mentioning the reasons these opposition members were held for questioning, they are making it appear as if peaceful opposition members were being detained because of their views or intention to speak to the media.
This is a typical US and European disinformation campaign. The US and Europe are encouraging the opposition to violently destabilize Zimbabwe and are supporting them with their disinformation campaign to make it appear that the government and police are being brutal when attempting to stop the violence. I know this because this is also typical US 'regime change' conduct.
Here is the government website's version of the arrests in Zimbabwe:
Police yesterday arrested 35 MDC activists and seized explosives and arms after the recent spate of terror bombings, hours after the ninth bombing, this time of two petrol tankers in Mutare yesterday morning.
(Police nab 35 MDC activists, confiscate arms, explosives )
Why must we summarily dismiss the police's reason for detaining persons and only believe the opposition together with US and Europe's version of events in Zimbabwe? Are they neutral parties who come to us with clean hands?
So that people won't forget the Zimbabwe government's version of the events that precipitated this latest opposition onslaught (which coincided with the opening of the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council) the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Canada, Florence Zano Chideya, stated:
...these MDC supporters masquerading as church-goers were breaking a section of a law passed by the Zimbabwean parliament, the Public Order and Safety Act that had been invoked to temporarily ban political gatherings after the MDC thugs had caused violence the previous week resulting in the serious injury of four police officers.
(Zimbabwe's Ambassador Takes Issue with Arrogant Editorial')
This information can be easily verified. Zimbabweans including the opposition leaders knew the law that temporarily banned political gatherings and if they wanted they could have challenged the ban in the courts. Mugabe does not control the courts in Zimbabwe, contrary to what the West would like the world to believe. The court routinely rules against the Zimbabwe government.
It should again be noted that the opposition is attempting to gain political power through the use of violence with support from the US and European countries, and not from gaining popular support in Zimbabwe through articulating policies to improve the country.
In the article 'Opposition warning to Mugabe' on BBC's website in 2000, Morgan Tsvangirai is reported to have told a crowd of about 20,000: "What we would like to tell Mugabe is please go peacefully. If you don't want to go peacefully, we will remove you violently."
The opposition does not command the support of the majority and their cry of unfair elections rings hollow. Elections seem only to be considered "free and fair" as long as they serve the interest of the West. The South African Development Community and the African Union certified Zimbabwe's elections in 2005 as "free and fair" and this was rejected by the Western governments (US rejects Southern African verdict on Zim vote 2005). Although some in the Western mainstream press blamed the Zimbabwe opposition and their leader, Tsvangirai, for the MDC's poor showing at the polls, they are now resuming the unfair election diatribe. Blatant Racism is the reason these Western governments along with their white-controlled media feel the nations in Africa cannot monitor their internal affairs to determine, without US and European interference, what is "free and fair".
etc
http://www.rastafaritimes.com/commentaries/29032007.htm
brian
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
So..
30.03.2007 08:23
Mugabe is just really a misrepresented lovable pacifist?
A few fish people
For your education
30.03.2007 23:20
Mugabe is just really a misrepresented lovable pacifist?
==========================================
That 'knackered economy' is like the knackered economy of Iraq in the 1990s, under economic attack by the 'free world'. The same nations that brought you 'Iraq: the disaster', is seeking to bring you Zimbabwe: the knackered economy.
Property seizures? You mean the WHITE cash croppers, whose best land was stolen from the natives zimbabweans. You can increase you miserable understanding by Greg Elichs great article:
So:
' It soon became apparent to the British South Africa Company that little gold was to be had and the company's outpost in Mashonaland found itself in financial straits. Land seemed a more promising venture, and in October 1893 British troops and volunteers crossed into King Lobengula's core territory of Matabeleland. The entire region rapidly fell into their hands as they inflicted heavy casualties on the Ndebele. Under terms of the resulting Victoria Agreement, each volunteer was entitled to 6,000 acres of land. Rather than an organized division of land, there was instead a mad race to grab the best land, and within a year 10,000 square miles of the most fertile land had been seized from its inhabitants. White settlers confiscated most of the Ndebele's cattle in the process, a devastating loss to a cattle-ranching society such as the Ndebele. The large tracts of land now run by relatively few white settlers required workers, and the Ndebele became forced laborers on the land they once owned, essentially treated as slaves. The Shona also saw their cattle confiscated by white settlers, and were driven into poverty through the imposition of onerous taxes by the new British rulers. (2) The inevitable uprising by the dispossessed Ndebele and Shona in 1896 was finally crushed over one year later by the British at the cost of 8,000 African lives. The region was established as a new colony in the British realm and named Rhodesia in honor of Cecil Rhodes.
Passage of the Native Reserves Order in 1899 created reserves on the most arid land, on which the indigenous inhabitants were to be herded. By 1905, nearly half of the indigenous population was confined to reserves. From 1930 onwards, Africans were not allowed to own land outside of the barren reserves. During the twenty-year period beginning in 1935, the Rhodesian regime forced an additional 67,000 African families from their homes and transported them to the reserves. As the Africans were beaten and herded into trucks at gunpoint, their homes were levelled by bulldozers. The reserves soon became overcrowded with people and cattle, and the colonial government decreed in 1944 that 49 of the reserves were overstocked. During the next thirty-some years, well over one million cattle in the reserves were either killed or confiscated for use by white settlers. As the long liberation struggle grew, Rhodesian Security Forces became increasingly repressive, executing civilians, burning villages and crops and shooting cattle. (3)
etc
brian
It's our freind again
31.03.2007 14:53
Jo Bloggs
African PR
31.03.2007 19:00
As I said, many black people support Mugabe. Many black people in South Africa would live to have his land reform programme in their country. But when black people adopt a position - as a black person, I know who's side I'm on. The white left should make clear who's side they're on.
insidejob
Its the whiet people who really hate Mugabe
01.04.2007 00:49
brian
Greg Elich interviewed on Zimbabwe
01.04.2007 00:53
For the 'we hate Mugabe' brigade. Elich is one of the best informed jurnalists on Zimbabwe
brian
Zimbabwe = scapegoat
01.04.2007 22:00
They then destroyed Zimbabwe's economy.
Timing and detail is important!
There is a lot worse going on like Nigeria, but Nigeria does as it's told so nobody cares.
Look at US involvement in Somalia, look at how things got worse for the people.
There should be a ban on EU and US involvement in Africa, China should be let to roam there for a while.
Give them a break, I never beleived anything the papers said on Mugabe..that is why South Africa supports him.
When you hear about appaling things going on but no real coverage, then all of a sudden a lot of coverage on one particular country, you should smell a rat...
They must lift sanctions on Zimbabwe which were only there to punish Zimbabwe for land redistribution.
Blair is a colonialist arse hole.
I trust the Zimbabwean leadership more than I trust the UK's or the US's.
Sorry but there is far worse to be preoccupied with than zimbabwe and if they see a puppet opposition paid for by the colonizers then I agree they deserve being beaten up after all the suffering Africa has gone through!
Some people have no brains, of all countries an African country after everything they have gone through...
sarah