[Talk, talk, talk… by the USA… and the South African Govt… ignores America! Nothing will come of all this “diplomacy”. What a waste of words… and a waste of time… Only Military Weapons… can fix things in Zimbabwe… Until people one day wake up and realise what I have been saying since DAY ONE… Nothing except Armed Force… will fix the situation in Zimbabwe. The USA and UK should have armed Mugabe’s opposition… and started a war. The USA and UK forced us Whites, against our will, to hand over to this piece of rubbish called Mugabe. They should now go about fixing the problem that they helped create. Jan]

The US stood its ground yesterday over its criticism of Zimbabwe, urging SA to exert more pressure on Harare to ensure that it adheres to the region™s electoral guidelines. The implicit criticism of President Thabo Mbeki™s “quiet diplomacy” approach to Zimbabwe follows a stinging attack by the South African president on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labelling Zimbabwe as one of the world™s six “outposts of tyranny”. The US statement follows a meeting yesterday between US ambassador to SA, Jendayi Frazer, and Mbeki yesterday, although the embassy said the meeting had been scheduled well before Mbeki™s remarks, made in an interview with the Financial Times. “As a regional leader and as a democratic nation, SA can play a key role in putting pressure on the Mugabe regime to adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the electoral principles established unanimously last August by the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” an embassy official said last night. US embassy spokeswoman Judy Moon said that the Financial Times interview had been discussed briefly, however. Mbeki had said in the interview that putting Zimbabwe alongside Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Belarus as an “outpost of tyranny” was “an exaggeration”, and that SA™s government would continue with its current strategy.

The US statement indicated a degree of frustration over SA™s policy of restraint towards Zimbabwe and the lack of progress towards resolving the crisis in that country. It also amounts to a warning of strong expectations that the region uphold the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections. “We welcome SA™s engagement on Zimbabwe and we believe that President Mbeki shares our hope to see Zimbabwe restore democratic principles and practice,” said Moon. The statement comes after signs that SA played a major role in persuading a legal SADC task team not to visit Zimbabwe ahead of the March 31 polls to examine whether SADC™s guidelines were in fact being followed. Following that move, SADC™s intentions in respect of Zimbabwe should become clearer towards the end of the week when a number of SADC foreign ministers meet in Mauritius. Further clarification of how SADC intends to uphold its guidelines is expected at the weekend when electoral experts from the region meet to discuss the guidelines in Maseru, Lesotho.

From Business Day (SA), 23 February
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com