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Friends snub Zimbabwe
18/02/2007 08:08 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe, long regarded as a pariah by the United States and Britain, has found some its closest allies turning their backs in recent weeks as the country's political and economic crisis escalates.
While most of Africa's leaders spent the weekend in the French riviera at the invitation of President Jacques Chirac, Zimbabwe's veteran President Robert Mugabe was forced to kick his heels back home after being left off the Cannes invitation list.
The snub was in stark contrast to the pleasure Mugabe was able to derive four years ago when he was invited to the last France-Africa summit in spite of a European Union travel ban on him and his entourage.
Zimbabwe has bitten its lip in response to the diplomatic setback from Paris which came days after Chinese President Hu Jintao steered clear of a country which has made relations with Beijing a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
But it has served to highlight the isolation of a leader whose last state visit was back in November to Iran, another country in the diplomatic doghouse which was bracketed along with Zimbabwe as an "outpost of tyranny" by the US.
Even South Africa, while still reluctant to put the boot in, is becoming less circumspect with Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota referring to Zimbabwe last week as "a problem" that needs to be addressed by the whole of the region.
"Zimbabwe is not gaining friends and those friends it had are becoming lukewarm," said Eldred Masungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe.
"A typical example is South Africa ... They are very cautious to condemn but not forthcoming in offering support. Zim is increasingly isolated, and certainly not gaining mileage out of its rigid policy."
Mugabe first fell out with the US and former colonial power Britain after thousands of white farmers lost their property as part of a controversial land reform programme at the turn of the decade and was then accused of rigging elections.
Since then, the economy has been unable to break out of recession and annual inflation has reached a scarcely believable 1 593 percent.
China
After being shunned by the US and EU, Mugabe has been pursuing a 'Look East' policy aimed at forging close ties with the likes of China and India.
However, while Hu found time to pop in to both Namibia and Zambia as well as South Africa on a trip this month, Zimbabwe was kept off his destination list.
According to the Harare-based political commentator Chaumba Alois, Hu's decision to avoid Zimbabwe had highlighted the limits of the bilateral relationship despite the importance attached to it by Mugabe.
"If we say Chinese are our best friends and we have looked East, I think the first port of call should have been Zimbabwe, but we have discovered that our relations with China are at the periphery."
Other analysts however believe the government should not be unduly worried.
Godfrey Chikowore, director at the Institute of Development Studies, said Chirac's decision could be explained by "the influence of the British hegemony" and pointed out that many other countries missed out on Hu.
"What we have with China are permanent interests and they are permanent friends," said Chikowore.
Denunciations of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush have long been a regular theme of Mugabe speeches.
But he even began last year to snipe at South Africa, with comments referring to "reactionary elements outside our borders" interpreted as a swipe at Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour.
The veteran analyst Erich Bloch said Mugabe was paying the price for failing to understand that "friendship is a two-way process".
"Zimbabwe has very, very few friends left. It lost friends from the Western world when it was not prepared to interact constructively, but merely to throw insults at them," said Bloch.
"It tried to make new friends (through Look East) but Zimbabwe's sort of friendship is that it must get all what it needs, and not give them back in exchange and for that reason each one of them is losing interest in Zimbabwe."
- SAPA
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