It is easy to cast Robert Gabriel Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, as the villain of the piece - and that is what many people in the West are doing. Certainly there is enough ammunition with which to shoot Mugabe down, but before any guns are fired, it is as well to check that the powder is dry. The temptation is to blame Mugabe for all the present ills of the nation but there are other historical reasons that also contribute to the suffering.
Initially, under Mugabe there was success in human resource and smallholder development. According to statistics available at that time, from 1980 to 1990 infant mortality decreased and immunisation against disease increased. Child malnutrition fell while life expectancy increased. Zimbabwe had a higher adult literacy and higher school enrolment rate than average even for developing countries.
From around 1990 onwards, the Zimbabwean government ran short of hard currency, possibly due to non-production of cash crops for export and the consequent reduction in foreign exchange reserves. International pressure persuaded Mugabe to embark on an austerity programme. A 1995 World Bank report explained that reforms were required because Zimbabwe could not employ the many graduates from its impressive education system. Yet the reforms disadvantaged the poor majority.
The report noted "large segments of the population, including most smallholder farmers and small scale enterprises, find themselves in a vulnerable position with limited capacity to respond to evolving market opportunities. This is due to their limited access to natural, technical and financial resources, to the contraction of many public services for smallholder agriculture, and to their still nascent links with larger scale enterprises".
On November 6, 1997, Claire Short, Britain's Overseas Development Minister, wrote to Kumbirai Kangai, Zimbabwe's Minister of Agriculture, stating: "We do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe." She went on: "We are a new government from diverse backgrounds, without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers."
In the same letter she did, however, offer qualified support for land reform: "We do recognise the very real issues you face over land reform ... we would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy, but not on any other basis." This letter caused a rift with the Zimbabwean government, which asserted that the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 had contained a continuing pledge from the United Kingdom government to assist in land reform.
It was shortly after then that the British government's support of "willing buyer, willing seller" land reform programme was withdrawn. The initial £44 million(Dh321.80million) allocated under the Thatcher government was allegedly used to purchase land for members of the Zanu-PF party elite rather than landless peasants and members of the so-called Veterans Army. Thereafter, Mugabe supported the concept of confiscation of white-owned farmland - around 6,000 white farmers owned over 45 per cent of the land, which was the majority of fertile land - and also gave his backing to thugs, rampaging and destroying property.
A consequence of these actions was Mugabe retained his hero image among black Africans -spurs he had hard-won during the war in Mozambique - and could be seen to do no wrong in the eyes of the majority of Zimbabweans. A fact that to this day is demonstrated by the active and aggressive support he gets from Zanu-PF members, the police and the army.
However, many small holders were unfamiliar with modern farming methods and resorted to the original, primitive forms of farming - providing only sufficient for the family: a cow or goat, a few chickens and some vegetables. Gone were the vast white-owned farms that helped create a nation known as the "breadbasket" of Africa through producing crops for self-sufficiency at home, and export of crops like tobacco, cotton and agriculture, thereby supplementing its foreign exchange reserves. Additional foreign currency was gained through the export of gold and minerals.
Rampant inflation
Shortly after the dramatic change in the agricultural sector came successive droughts. The dry lands could not be relieved from the reservoirs built by white farmers, as they had run dry due to inadequate maintenance. The rapidly rising cost of living, prevented Zimbabwean farmers from buying seed for new crops.
Estimates claim inflation in Zimbabwe this month is around 4 million per cent. Questions are now being asked why western nations, or other African nations, have not been more involved in ending the crisis in Zimbabwe, especially when lesser global problems cause so much angst and gain so much publicity.
Fellow African nations have always been reluctant to interfere, as Mugabe is seen as the black peoples' hero, having driven the white people - the British - out of the country. It is that success train Mugabe continues to ride.
But the West has been reluctant to do more than issue financial and travel restrictions upon Mugabe and his cronies for a number of reasons. First, there is not much more they could do as Zimbabwe is a landlocked nation. Without the help of neighbouring countries (which is unlikely) it would be very difficult to "send in the troops" to sort out the problem. Even Mugabe's critics in the West would be against such an initiative.
Second, additional sanctions would more than likely affect ordinary Zimbabweans, who already suffering enough. Third: oil; Zimbabwe doesn't have any, so it is not in the West's wider interests to commit troops to the region. What is hoped for is Zimbabwe's self-implosion as it saves a lot of western lives.
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