Media Conference Tanzania

Media Conference: Tanzania
Media Centre Conference Room
Speakers: Mr Mkapa
Tuesday, 5 March 2002

MR MKAPA: I thought I was coming to an interview with the BBC, but I can see the forum has been enlarged. I am at your disposal. I am ready to take any questions you may have.

QUESTION: Overnight, Tony Blair described the CHOGM statement on Zimbabwe as a statement that he would not have issued and described it as the lowest common denominator. What is your response to that?

MR MKAPA: The statements emanating from CHOGM are always a consensus. They are a decision or position. That is what the statement on Zimbabwe is. If a consensus is the lowest common denominator, then I agree it is. As to my own attitude or assessment of it, I can live with it.

QUESTION: President, the other day you said to the media, 'What business is it of the Commonwealth, what business is Zimbabwe elections for the Commonwealth?', or words to that effect. Do you feel that the Commonwealth has any role to monitor and act following Zimbabwe's elections? Would you support suspension at all at this point, no matter what the observers report?

MR MKAPA: The role of the Commonwealth in this matter is one of assisting the people of Zimbabwe to choose in a free and fair election the presidency of their choice. You can help them materially by assisting them to receive election materials. You can help them in their requests in many ways. That is a role that the Commonwealth, just as the United Nations or the European Union or the African union can adopt to assist the people of Zimbabwe to create conditions where they can make a free and independent choice. But that is not what was being posited here. What was being posited here was that such a fair and independent choice could not be made unless it was ascertained that Mugabe would intervene. Clearly, that is not the Commonwealth's purpose.

QUESTION: The way this issue has been dealt with by Commonwealth leaders has, of course, exposed a clear divide between the majority African bloc and the minority others group, including so-called white Commonwealth. You have managed to use your numbers to get a resolution on this matter, which is, as Mr Blair said, representative of the lowest common denominator. What does this tell us about the operations of the Commonwealth and the convention that decisions or contentious issues should be resolved by consensus, when one big group, the African bloc, can in effect swamp the smaller group within the Commonwealth?

MR MKAPA: We are not counting heads. We were listening to an analysis of the situation and weighing conclusions arising therefrom. So it is not a question of numbers at all; that is not my view. What I think is that the weight of analysis and conclusion is what produced the common denominator. It is a position which I am prepared to live with.

I invite you to look at this common denominator very closely. I said that our role was to try to assist and support the emergence of a situation in Zimbabwe which would enable the people there to make a free and independent choice. It was not to influence directly their choice. The communique has very clearly communicated that there has been violence and intimidation. Violence and intimidation cannot be said to be undertaken by the government side only. Opposition parties are quite as capable of being intimidating and extremely violent. So the communique clearly appeals to all sides to desist from violence and intimidation. That is the kind of even-handedness which in my view promotes an atmosphere for a free and independent choice in Zimbabwe.

Secondly, it recognises the land issue is a major factor in the creation of circumstances that can conduce to a free and independent choice. It says very clearly that the land question is at the core of the crisis. So the crisis is not only violence and intimidation; the crisis, and the core of it, is the land question. To pretend otherwise is to bury our heads in the sand. So, whatever happens at the end of this week - whatever emerges - if you do not deal with the core crisis, the Zimbabwe issue continues to be very much on the table of the Commonwealth and the international community as a whole.

Thirdly, in recognition of that, we undertake in this lowest common denominator that we will be ready to assist Zimbabwe to address the land issue and to help in its economic recovery. That is an admission that we have done precious little to assist in the resolution of this core crisis. It may, therefore, by that neglect be instrumental in the exacerbation of the crisis that is faced in Zimbabwe now. I hope we have laid enough ground to play a more practical role in diminishing the causes of this core crisis as part of the resolution will emerge or as part of the role that will emerge at the end of this week.

Finally, we say also that we have taken note of the interim report of the United Nations development program. I invite you to look at that program. If we do not know what that program is, and it does not address the very core of the crisis, it is just an empty taking-note-of. Finally, I say, please remember that we have not only a Commonwealth observer group; we have also national observer groups. So whatever the Commonwealth observer group says at the end of this electoral process must be taken side by side with what other national observer groups are saying. Certainly that is what I shall do on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania. I have a team of 25 observers in all the regions of Zimbabwe observing this electoral process.

QUESTION: Are you saying by that that it should not be just up to the Commonwealth observers to determine or to provide the report to the panel of three to decide what the Commonwealth does next?

MR MKAPA: The observer group is required to present their report to the Secretary-General and the troika. They will determine the appropriate Commonwealth action. I am saying that I have a national observer team. In the light of what the observer group says, if I am asked for my opinion, clearly I shall take into account what my national observer group says. I should think so. It is a very reasonable proposition. So I shall do that. I will revert to your question. Are we now being divided on a racial basis? One of my greatest regrets is that in the analysis of this crisis we have taken a race angle. It is very sad indeed. I do not think the so-called ABCN countries are analysing the crisis from a racial basis. This ABCN is Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. I do not think we are analysing it from a racial angle. It would be very sad if that is happening. I assure you that I am not analysing it from a racial basis, from an African basis. Certainly my advice, if sought, would be to contribute to the creation of better circumstances for Zimbabwe in which its citizens of all the colours of the rainbow live in trust, in confidence, in cooperation, in peace and in stability.

QUESTION: You said several times that you might be asked for your opinion. Would you expect the three-member group - the leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Australia - to canvass other leaders for their views, or has CHOGM not handed over to these three men the responsibility of analysing the report and making a decision?

MR MKAPA: I will leave it to their wisdom. I make decisions on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania. If they think that my thoughts or advice on the report from my national observer team will help them to reach a good conclusion, I will be ready to give it. If they feel that it is unnecessary and that they are a holy trinity, who am I to stand in their way?

QUESTION: If the observers group does come back with a report that says the election has not been free and fair and the three leaders do go ahead and suspend Zimbabwe, how do you think that is going to affect Zimbabwe and its place in the world?

MR MKAPA: If they find that it has not been free and fair?

QUESTION: And Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth, how will that affect Zimbabwe?

MR MKAPA: I do not know how to react to it, frankly. It is a form of sanction. I do not know whether they have their own sanctions against the Commonwealth or any one of the individual members. That is up to them to determine. May I also say that the communique is very clear that the range of actions ranges from one of collective disapproval to suspicion. That is a very wide range. It is not automatic suspicion. The range of sanctions is from collective disapproval to suspension.

QUESTION: Do you believe that these three Commonwealth leaders will move to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth after the election? What are your thoughts?

MR MKAPA: Do I believe that they are capable of recommending or determining that Zimbabwe should be suspended? They are very capable indeed. But it depends on their ability to review and praise these very complex factors that conduce to a condition as serious as that. But it is very much in their power. We have given them a mandate. How much power there is within the Commonwealth is a different matter. But the power is theirs.

QUESTION: You say that you will send 25 representatives of your government to Zimbabwe. Do you really think that is going to be enough?

MR MKAPA: I am also party to the Commonwealth's decision to have an observer team.

QUESTION: Would your team be working with the Commonwealth team, or will they be independent?

MR MKAPA: They are all independent. I am sure they are consulting. They are consulting the SADCT team - the South African Development Community Team. I am sure they would be consulting with the Commonwealth and other national teams. There will be teams from Norway, the United States and so on.

QUESTION: If the Commonwealth observers say that the election result is unacceptable and your group of observers say that it is acceptable, whose group of observers will you believe?

MR MKAPA: Let us wait for their conclusions first. You are posing likelihoods which may not materialise. These are very difficult and important decisions. We must get concrete findings first.

QUESTION: Do you think suspension is an appropriate sanction if the elections were not free and fair?

MR MKAPA: It has been done before. If the elections are not free and fair, I have listed to you a great many complex factors to determine to what extent these elections will be fair and free. If those factors have been taken into account, I will stand by the decision of suspension.

QUESTION: On a broader issue, how do you see how this CHOGM has gone? Do you see this as a successful outcome for CHOGM and a strong voice for African nations standing up to other parts of the world? Do you see the meeting as a success, or do you think it has been overly dominated by one issue?

MR MKAPA: I think it has been extremely successful. I commend the Australian governments. The arrangements have been excellent. This is my third CHOGM. They have all been very good, but this has been the best organised that I can think of. It is very good indeed. Of all the exchanges, it has been one of the most in-depth for exchanges, certainly on the Zimbabwe question. There is no doubt about that. Whether it will strengthen the Commonwealth, I think it will.

You know, frankness, probity and integrity are key to successful cooperation. They characterised our exchanges here: probity and integrity. We all came with different ideas. We had different perspectives. We had different information about what was going on. One of my regrets is that you have been extremely instrumental in making leaders rush to judgment. If their draconian laws tell us what is the draconian element in those electoral laws, I have not read anything or heard anything of these draconian laws. You are asking people to decide whether they are draconian with no evidence.

It is about investigation, integrity and probity. We have had a great deal of that in the retreat. That is what has produced this lowest common denominator, which I believe is a great measure of understanding and togetherness. I am very satisfied. My greater satisfaction is that in the face of these bombardments for an alliance against Mugabe allegedly on racial grounds we have been able to promote bombardment. We emerge really as a united Commonwealth, not divided on the base of race. There was a moment when I began to think that we were going back to 1960, when my country really said we are bringing to the Commonwealth a choice between blacks and whites. I was very fearful because of this bombardment. I am glad that that has been averted. On the contrary, we have been very much united across continents and race and even across political systems.

QUESTION: Do you expect the observer teams - the Commonwealth teams, maybe your own national team, perhaps the others - to be able to produce unanimous reports? What position will the troika be in if they receive non-unanimous reports, perhaps even a majority and a minority report? How will they be able to make a judgment about what should be done in respect of Zimbabwe?

MR MKAPA: What is the likelihood of all these people producing a unanimous report? I do not know. Your guess is as good as mine. All it does is emphasise the great burden that we have left on the shoulders of the troika.

QUESTION: You are critical of the international press. As a former journalist, I have to observe that you are critical of the international press coverage of this issue. How much more evidence do we need about the deprivations of the Mugabe regime against people in South Africa, including white farmers, before making an informed judgment?

MR MKAPA: How much evidence have you produced of the degradation of the Commonwealth's role in dealing with the core crisis as defined in the communique? When you produce that evidence, I shall put the deprivations of their position and the government in perspective.

QUESTION: I have a different topic. There has been some talk at this conference about the Nepad process for African development. In that process, the African development group and the Canadian Prime Minister will sit on the table of the G8 that will be chaired in Canada later this year. Do you put much hope and stock in that process to actually help the African situation?

MR MKAPA: First, I am hoping that the African situation will better be defined as a consequence of the work of the steering committee, which meets in Abuja on the 25th and 26th of this month. Secondly, I hope that it will be so well put that it will be well-received by the G8 when they meet in June. We have had to consult here among the African countries to improve the input of the Nepad to the G8. To that extent, it is helpful. I am quite certain it will be helpful.

I want to emphasise my response to this gentlemen here, who is a former journalist. Look at that core crisis. We have come to this place because there has been no Commonwealth initiative in dealing with the core crisis. It has failed because there has been no funding for land reform in Zimbabwe. If the Commonwealth has a role, it must address this question. If we live here with a statement that does not tell you how any land reform process is going to be funded, we have not made any progress.

Whose fault is it? How has it come about? Then we will know why we have the kind of terrorists and antipathies and acrimony that prevails in Zimbabwe now. So I am saying first things first. I accept responsibility as a Commonwealth member. We should have addressed it. I know there are those who say that the British will be the ones who find it. Then talk of the British role. If you are talking of a Commonwealth role, where is the Commonwealth funding for the solution of this core crisis of Zimbabwe? I thank you very much. Good morning.

ENDS