Stumped by Zimbabwe

At last I have found a decent, in-depth piece of journalism on the vexed subject of the tour to Zimbabwe. David Beatson, in the Independent (the New Zealand business paper, not the British broad-sheet), has actually done some reading and he makes some very valid arguments. His primary achievement is to actually have read the UN report on Zimbabwe and to see past the sound-bites.

Beatson tells us that the UN concluded that a) Zimbabwe had been warning the world about its housing crisis and requesting international support to help it meet its obligations for 10 years to no avail, b) the "clean-up" policy was developed without government input (or even awareness), c) the policy was then taken up by overzealous officials who twisted it to fit their own agendas, d) that despite this a process was still put in place to give local authorities and affected communities appropriate notice and that e) overzealous Police ignored this process, pushed ahead with demolitions without notice and then extended them well beyond the borders specified in the programme design. The UN concluded that what happened was a humanitarian disaster, but that trying to bring the Zimbabwe government before the International Criminal Court for committing a "crime against humanity" would not achieve anything helpful and would probably fail anyway. The UN report instead suggests that the Zimbabwe government pay compensation to the victims, open the country so humanitarian aid can be delivered and start an independent inquiry or inquest "to hold the operation's architects to account for giving improper advice that caused the deaths, injury and destruction".

In my opinion, none of this exonerates Robert Mugabe. He was clearly the only one with the power to have bought the policy into being without his government's knowledge or approval, he failed to put decent mechanisms in place and he has publically defended the results. But it seems that Zimbabwe still has some remnant of democratic process and the lack of governmental approval means that, to some moderate degree, Mugabe is being held to account. The UN report notes that there is now a clear division in Zimbabwe's political leadership, that one member of government has subsequently resigned from both parliament and the central committee and that others in government have clearly expressed concerns and objections.

Beatson's article might not make you feel any better about the situation in Zimbabwe, but it might make watching cricket there a little more bearable. Even better, if anyone in the New Zealand government reads Beatson's article and hears the UN's call for a pragmatic response then we might actually see something constructive being done for the people of Zimbabwe.