Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Fremantle and Cook for their remarks—particularly the member for Fremantle for introducing to the House this desperately sad and tragic motion on Zimbabwe. I am reminded by the member for Pearce that this House has discussed Zimbabwe and the tragic situation there five times previously. This afternoon I received from the Catholic aid agency Caritas their usual glossy publication, and it has a few paragraphs that are worth reading:

POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE AND disruption has taken a heavy toll. Brutal images of people burnt, beaten and abused by Mugabe’s goons have spread around the world—many too shocking to make it into the mainstream media. With the future stability of what was once one of the most prosperous countries in Africa just decades ago, no result tatters the hopes and futures of the people of Zimbabwe.

Prior to the political stalemate—

of the 29 March elections—

the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe had been deteriorating for over 20 years under the maniacal rule of Robert Mugabe. Average life expectancy has crashed in the last decade—

and the House should hear this statistic—

from 63 years to 34 years.

In one decade, in a whole country, their life expectancy has decreased from 63 years to 34 years.

Over four million people are presently dependent on food aid and inflation is at over 160,000% putting basic foods out of the reach of many Zimbabweans. It is now estimated that … 80% of the country’s population live in extreme poverty, while an additional three million have … left the country in search of work.

Of course, there is also the situation with HIV-AIDS in Zimbabwe as a result of the neglect of the government: 2,200 people are dying every week; 240 children aged below 15 are dying of HIV-AIDS per week in Zimbabwe; and 1,265,000 children are currently orphans in Zimbabwe—over 10 per cent of the total population. The great writer Christopher Hitchens, in the Weekend Australian, had this to say:

THE scale of state-sponsored crime and terror in Zimbabwe has escalated to the point where we are compelled to watch not just the systematic demolition of democracy and human rights in that country but also something not very far removed from slow-motion mass murder a la Burma.

The order from the Mugabe regime that closes down all international aid groups is significant, given the situation I have just described, Mr Hitchens argues, because:

It expresses the ambition for total control by the state and it represents a direct threat—“vote for us or starve”—to the already desperate civilian population—

of that country. He writes:

The organisation CARE … for example, which reaches 500,000 impoverished Zimbabweans, has been ordered to suspend operations.

And there is a little paragraph Mr Hitchens points out, almost buried in the larger report of the atrocities of that regime, that speaks volumes:

“The UN Children’s Fund said Monday that 10,000 children had been displaced by the violence, scores had been beaten and some schools had been taken over by pro-government forces and turned into centres of torture.”

What more can we add to words like that? Mr Hitchens makes the point that, in this desperate situation, perhaps two leaders of world moral authority and integrity—His Holiness the Pope and the great leader of South Africa’s liberation, Nelson Mandela—have an important role. His Holiness the Pope, because Robert Mugabe is a Catholic, should add his voice to the international demands for a free election for the liberation of the people of Zimbabwe from Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical rule. But I want to conclude with Mr Hitchens’s painful appeal to the great Nelson Mandela:

It is the silence of Mandela, much more than anything else, that bruises the soul. It appears to make a mockery of all the brave talk about international standards for human rights, about the need for internationalist solidarity and the brotherhood of man, and all that.

There is perhaps only one person in the world who symbolises that spirit and he has chosen to betray it. Or is it possible, before the grisly travesty of the run-off of June 27—

the election in Zimbabwe—

that the old lion will summon one last powerful growl?

Let us hope, for the tortured people of Zimbabwe, that he does. Nelson Mandela, the world needs you to lead the campaign to liberate the people of Zimbabwe as you liberated your own people.

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