The ManicaPost
Engineer Vladimir Nyikahairovi Mutongadzimwe Mukada
FOR us to understand why US, Britain and their allies imposed sanctions on us when we repossessed the land from the minority whites in Zimbabwe we need to know what is called NSSM39.
The US’s National Security Study Memorandum No39 (NSSM 39) of April 16, 1969 states that: “Whatever will be done in the five Southern African countries, namely Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), South Africa, Namibia (then South West Africa), Mozambique and Angola will be done only, and only in the interests of the white communities there.
Every new American president signs this law which was drafted by Zbigniev Brizezinski and Henry Kissinger and presented to the then President of the US, Mr Richard Nixon on April 16, 1969.
Up to today, this law exists in the US. What they are punishing us for is breaking a standing US law.
That is why they even had the guts of passing the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA).
This in itself was and still is a violation of the international law which does not permit a sovereign state to unilaterally debate in its parliament and impose sanctions against another sovereign state which is a member of the United Nations.
Our crime was embarking on the land reform programme.
Drawing parallels to the Guatemalan Situation in 1951, the Red Indians (indigenous people of Guatemala) took a brave stand, and repossessed their land which had been shared among a few white families and the US and Anglo-American conglomerates.
This move by the Red Indians did not go down well with the Americans and their allies.
They started demonising Cde Jacobo Arbenz, the revolutionary leader of that country as a dictator and communist.
Sanctions were later imposed, just the same as what is happening in our country.
After 10 long years of sanctions and suffering, the Guatemalan army ousted their president under the instigation of the US and their conglomerates.
The Guatemalan army thought that only their president was the problem, and after eliminating him, they believed that sanctions would be removed, but the US told them that the embargo could not be removed since the army was part and parcel of the old regime (the same old taxi with a new driver).
They were then told to hold so-called free and fair elections in which they could contest with an opposition party, which was being sponsored by the US.
This opposition party was recruited from the indigenous Red Indians, but directed by the CIA under Dulles and George Bush Senior.
The elections came and the opposition won them, but still the sanctions were not removed.
The reason given by the US was that this party was a Red Indian party, and it was the indigenous people who had robed the whites and the US conglomerates of their land.
So what they needed to do was to reverse the land ownership rights to what they were on December 31, 1950, meaning that they had to return their land to the whites before the sanctions could be removed.
They agreed to that, but still sanctions were not removed.
The next condition was given.
This stated that the US would give money to white farm owners so that they could revive their farms which had been vandalised by the Red Indians, but this money would be repaid back by the Red Indian government through taxation of their indigenous people.
They also agreed to that, but still sanctions were not removed.
The last, but most brutal and final condition was that the Guatemalan government had to cut the reserves where their indigenous people were congested by 75 percent, and give that land to the whites as compensation because the whites needed to cover up for the 10 years loss of production which had been caused by the land reform exercise.
Also all the communities whose land had been included in this 75 percent had to be automatically become compulsory farm labourers of the new white owners.
This was agreed upon, and up to today the indigenous people are living on 25 percent of their land, while a few white families and United Fruit Company and other European conglomerates occupy 75 percent of the land.
Guatemala today is the biggest producer of the so-called Euro-banana, the standard banana which is shipped to Europe at the cheapest price.
The money from these products goes to the US and Europe, leaving the Guatemalan indigenous people being one of the poorest communities on the planet.
Here in Zimbabwe, we have got the same situation as the one mentioned above.
The US and its allies made it clear that no sanctions will be removed as long as the land ownership rights in this country have not been (reversed) returned to what they were on December 31, 1999.
This means surrendering the land back to the whites before any removal of sanctions no matter which government is in power be it MDC or Zanu PF.
Loan Zimbabwe Document (Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe) states that the new Government after the late Cde Mugabe will be given US$3,5 billion over a period of 10 years.
Its disbursement will be subject to conditions pertaining to land ownership and the rule of law.
Sanctions will remain in place for that 10-year period.
They also say they will give title deeds to the new black farmers, but these black farmers will then have to give 99-year leases to white farmers who will then help them while they go back to stay in their former rural homes.
This came after Europe realised that the reason why Africans fought as a united front against them was because they had taken our land as a united group.
But if every individual family, signs away its portion of the African land, in future there will be no one who will be able to gather the whole nation together to defend the common land rights of the blacks since each and every family would have given away its potion of land as an individual family, but not as a group.
This is a tactic of trying to divide and rule us forever.
Aluta Continua!
