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Eyewitness report from Zimbabwe

Published Apr 2, 2008 11:26 PM

The Brooklyn-based December 12 Movement issued the following statement titled “West launches preemptive propaganda strike to depose presidency of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe” on March 30 from Harare, Zimbabwe.

D 12’s International Secretariat sent an official observer team to Zimbabwe for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The 8-year Western-led campaign to overthrow the leadership of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF Party is quickly escalating. Western media, in particular CNN and the BBC, are banned from reporting in Zimbabwe, but have nevertheless acted as conduits for disinformation reports circulated by Western intelligence sources (i.e. CIA, MI5) on the inability to hold a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.

Before the voting for president took place on March 29, the Western press had reported that the only way President Mugabe and ZANUPF would win was by “electoral violence” or “rigging the voting.”

This “vote rigging” accusation was a pre-emptive strike against the anticipated victory of President Mugabe and ZANU-PF. It was intended to create the false perception in the minds of the Western public that ZANU-PF lacks popular support from the masses of the Zimbabwean people and that any victory could only come from cheating.

The December 12th Movement delegation is in Zimbabwe as one of a large contingent of international observers to the voting. We went to several sites and spoke with polling officials as well as agents from all of the parties running for office.

All found the election peaceful with no problems in people being able to cast their votes freely. By the close of voting yesterday, the West, realizing that it could not play the “electoral violence” card, immediately moved to its next tactic, “vote rigging.”

Prior to the March 29 voting, all parties agreed that there should be no premature claims of victory until all the votes were counted. Nevertheless, the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) declared victory only a few minutes after the polls closed when it was both physically and factually impossible to have actually known the results.

By doing so the MDC laid another brick in the false “pre-emptive strike accusations.” The logic being that when all the votes did finally come in, if MDC lost, it could only happen because the votes had been rigged.

Be clear, the United States and Britain’s real contradiction with President Mugabe and ZANU-PF has everything to do with African people reclaiming their stolen land and nothing to do with a concern for democracy. They have unsuccessfully tried to overthrow President Mugabe and ZANU-PF, through vicious economic sanctions (like the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2002), media demonization and the establishment and funding of opposition parties like the MDC.

The West believes that by “making the economy scream” they can create enough popular discontent in Zimbabwe to remove President Mugabe and ZANU-PF. This election was their last best shot. We urge those in the West to critically analyze Western media reports and to not believe the “vote rigging” hype.