By Tinomudaishe Chinyoka
On Tuesday 12 February 2019, the United States of America issued this statement:
The United States remains seriously concerned about the excessive use of force by Government of Zimbabwe security forces since January 14, which has resulted in at least 13 deaths, 600 victims of violence, torture or rape, and more than 1,000 arrests.
We extend our condolences to the families and friends of those killed or injured. The Government of Zimbabwe’s use of violence against civil society and imposition of undue internet restrictions betray promises to create a new Zimbabwe.
The United States calls on all sides to come together immediately in national dialogue. The dialogue process must be credible, inclusive, and mediated by a neutral third party.
In order for such a dialogue to succeed, the Government of Zimbabwe should end its excessive violence and intimidation, immediately release the civil society activists who have been arbitrarily detained, and hold security force members responsible for human rights violations and abuses accountable. We also reiterate our call for the Government of Zimbabwe to enact promised political and economic reforms.
The United States of America has of course taken this step because of the unprecedented nature of the Zimbabwe situation. It is not in the nature of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Never.
In a statement that reads almost word for word like the communiques from the Zimbabwean NGO sector and the MDC Alliance, the United States extends its condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured.
This of course includes the family of Tinashe Kaitano, who was shot and killed by security forces in Kadoma while minding his own business, and was buried at Rimuka Cemetery. Being an innocent man, Tinashe Kaitano then showed up in court to answer charges of public violence on the same date that the United States was extending its condolences to his family on his untimely demise.
The United States calls on the Zimbabwe government to end all prosecutions of these innocent people, so when Tinashe Kaitano was found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction, this was a travesty of justice and total disregard of the rule of law: how a court could convict a dead person without noticing that it was in fact his ghost that was in the courtroom is beyond boggling.
Tinashe Kaitano was remanded in custody for sentencing. Amnesty International should be mobilised to issue an urgent alert. Having informed the International community that he was dead only last week, it seems only logical that Amnesty International must fight to have his ghost released: a ghost must not be made to pay for the crimes of its former self.
The United States calls for a national dialogue in Zimbabwe under the lead of a neutral convenor. Of course, we are Africans, so we are ignorant. So our initial reaction is to react to this with revulsion, but really this is par for the course in the United States.
There are two political parties in the United States’ legislature, Republicans and Democrats. Barring an independent and someone from a fluke victory, there are two large political parties in the Zimbabwean legislature, Zanu PF and the MDC Alliance.
In the United States, there are serious challenges about security on the border with Mexico. Armed drug dealers and rapists of a particular race ready to defile American women and girls come in droves, with children and women carrying cocaine on tow routinely besiege the United States’ southern border.
The American President, whose government has issued this urgent call on Zimbabwe, has not tried to address this problem on his own. He has not threatened to declare an emergency so that he might mobilise the National Guard (an army) to the border in order that funds can be found to build a rapist-proof wall. The two political parties do not agree on how the problem must be solved. But there is no crisis, no government shut-down.
Instead, the United States has arranged for a neutral convenor to bring Republicans and Democrats to ‘come together immediately in national dialogue’. This dialogue process is credible, inclusive and mediated by a neutral third party.
In order for that dialogue to succeed, the United States government has ended its excessive use of violence and intimidation against these rapists caravans, immediately released immigrants and their children who were arbitrarily detained, and is holding ICE members responsible for human rights violations and abuses accountable.”
The irony of it would be laughable if this was not a serious matter. ZIDERA hampers our government’s efforts to fix the economy and bring a better livelihood to our people. A whole nation held ransom by a foreign power because one person’s prosecution must be stopped. Not because he did not do what he is accused of mind you, but because he is ‘a friend of the foreign relations committee.’
And now a statement that quotes verbatim the statement of the opposition. I guess instead of calling for talks convened by ‘a neutral third party’ they might as well have said by “Dr Kenneth Mtata”, which is what the MDC Alliance has been calling for all along. But I guess that despite their patrimonialism, even the United States thought that would be pushing things just a tad too far.
But, spare a thought for Tinashe Kaitano. The young man was killed by the security services while going about his business. Was mourned. And buried. Urgent alerts were issued.
Money was mobilised from the international community. Condolences were sent from the government of the United States itself. Only for him to show up in Court on charges on looting and public violence. Now he is convicted. Who will serve the sentence? His ghost?
I don’t think there are Urgent Alerts for ghosts, do you?
Tinomudaishe Chinyoka is a Harare based lawyer and member of the ruling Zanu PF party. He was one of the leading candidates interviewed for the position of Prosecutor General in Zimbabwe.
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