Diplomacy is a subtle art. Don’t publicize your behind the scenes efforts and you can get accused of doing nothing but doing the reverse can put those you are trying to help in danger of their liberty or even lives. The CIA know that, which is why the USA has laws about maintaining secrecy about covert agents. It’s not only their lives that are at risk but also those of their contacts.
Now for you and me that would seem to be blindingly obvious. Not for the US State Department though. A report, “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The US Record 2006” slipped out over the Easter/Passover weekend. While puffing up State’s efforts in Zimbabwe, it gives ammunition, both metaphorical and literal, to Robert Mugabe to attack his opponents.
(While I am focusing on Zimbabwe in this diary, no doubt others may wish to look at the reports on other countries to critique the State Department’s performance. The section on Lebanon for example includes the classic doublespeak “The United States continued to help Lebanon rebuild as a sovereign and independent country…”)
It has to be acknowledged that the report on Zimbabwe (bottom of page) does provide a good summary of the Human Rights abuses in Zimbabwe, even if in places “pots” and “kettles” spring to mind.
Zimbabwe is constitutionally a republic, but the government, dominated by President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) since independence, is now authoritarian. The 2002 presidential election and the 2005 parliamentary elections were neither free nor fair, and the government and its supporters intimidated voters, disqualified opposition candidates, constrained campaign activities of the opposition, and distributed food in a partisan manner. During the year the political opposition and civil society continued to operate in an environment of intimidation, violence, and repression. In December President Mugabe and his loyalists in the ruling party proposed extending his term for two years by deferring presidential elections to 2010, rather than holding them in 2008 as scheduled.
The government systematically violated human rights, and official corruption and impunity were widespread. Security forces selectively harassed, beat, and arbitrarily arrested opposition supporters and critics within human rights organizations, the media, and organized labor. The judiciary was subject to executive influence and intimidation. A government campaign of forced evictions, which left 700,000 people homeless during Operation Restore Order in 2005, continued, albeit on a lesser scale. The government regularly used repressive laws to restrict freedom of assembly, speech, and press. In an attack on the independent media, the government jammed broadcasts of the popular Voice of America Studio 7 program, one of the few sources of uncensored news throughout the country, and seized radios belonging to listening groups in rural areas. The economy continued to decline, with skyrocketing prices, widespread shortages, and rapidly deteriorating social services, primarily due to the government’s command and control economic policies.
For the moment I shall pass over the sheer arrogance of calling a VOA show “one of the few sources of uncensored news throughout the country” while failing to acknowledge the BBC, the South African equivalent and at least one station broadcasting from exile. You may also note the polite “Operation Restore Order” as a translation rather than the more usual “Operation Drive Out the Filth” used by human rights groups, including those in South Africa.
It is in the too detailed listing of the “support” that the US has given where we start to encounter problems. Mugabe uses the language of anti-colonialism to attack his opponents. As a good “Marxist”, he naturally includes the USA in his list of imperialist powers.
The list of US activities in various fields is pretty long but I will pick out this section as an example.
The United States continued to promote rule of law in the country. Although the ruling party maintained its monopoly on the executive branch, other institutions–including Parliament, the judiciary, and local government–were at times able to exercise some independence. The United States encouraged the capacity of these entities to govern and, in some cases, directly supported their efforts. For example, a U.S.-sponsored program to strengthen parliamentary committees resulted in increased debate in Parliament–both from opposition and reform-minded ZANU-PF parliamentarians–and encouraged greater transparency through public hearings on legislation. In an unprecedented development, several bills that contained particularly repressive or ill-defined sections were publicly debated and sent back to committee for redrafting. Support for the portfolio committees also served to provide a greater check on the executive branch, as ministers and other high-ranking officials were held more accountable for their policies through vigorous questioning by committee members. U.S. funding and support enabled local citizen groups and select local authorities to improve transparency, accountability, and municipal service delivery.
Now that seems innocuous enough, promoting an independent judiciary and so on. Indeed the Zim High Court did go against the dictats of ZANU-PF in permitting opposition rallies and ordering lawyers access to arrested MDC leaders only recently. The trouble is that Mugabe uses these “activist judges” as another example of white imperialism.
To show this we only have to look at a speech reported by Reuters in mid March.
Robert Mugabe accused officials in his own party of joining a Western- backed plot on Friday as the main opposition chief left hospital after treatment for what he said was an orgy of police beatings.
…
Mugabe, 83, warned against any “monkey games” by those he called the stooges of his Western critics, whom he accused of funding Tsvangirai’s MDC to replace him through “violent terrorist acts”.
He said imperialists were taking advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party succession to re-assert themselves.
“There has been an insidious dimension where ambitious leaders have been cutting deals with the British and Americans,” Mugabe told a meeting of ZANU-PF’s youth league in Harare.
“The whole succession debate has given imperialism hope for re-entry. Since when have the British, the Americans been friends of ZANU-PF? Have we forgotten that imperialism can never mean well for our people?” said Mugabe.
Now the “Hitler of Harare” can call on the State Department’s own report to further demonise and physically attack the opposition parties and purge the High Court of “imperialist traitors” to entrench his grasp on power. Nice one Condi.