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Herald Reporter

THE group of "Elders" that wanted to visit Zimbabwe on a "humanitarian
mission" was, in fact, bent on rescuing MDC-T after Sadc resolved that
the inclusive Government should be formed as a matter of urgency, it has
emerged.

The "Elders" mission was part of a grand plan by Britain and the United
States to get the United Nations to intervene in Zimbabwe and reverse
the Sadc resolution.

At its recent meeting in Sandton, South Africa, Sadc resolved that
Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations should form the inclusive Government
with the ruling party and the MDC-T co-managing the Home Affairs
Ministry, which had stalled the establishment of the inclusive
Government.

The "Elders" — former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former US
president Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel — were supposed to produce a
damning report on the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe.

Such a report would have given the UN Security Council basis to invoke
the "responsibility to protect" clause paving the way for the aggression
and intervention in Zimbabwe by foreign countries.

The clause allows for foreign intervention or aggression supposedly to
save people whose government is deemed to have neglected its
responsibility to protect them.

"It is a clause for aggression or intervention using the cover of the
UN. The ‘Elders’ are legitimising instruments of the plot. The ‘Elders’
are a Trojan horse for the politics of regime change. The whole plot was
to reverse the setback suffered by the MDC in Sandton and sideline the
Sadc resolution," a political observer said.

The plot to involve the UN is confirmed by last Thursday’s briefing to
the Security Council by UN assistant secretary-general Haile Menkerios,
two days before the "Elders" visit to Harare.

In his damning briefing, Menkerios called for more involvement of the UN
in implementing the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe.

"The Secretary-General is ready to accompany Zimbabwe in this process,
and calls on the parties, regional organisations and other stakeholders
to start consultations with the United Nations with a view to agreeing
on a framework for the UN’s engagement in Zimbabwe in support of the
proper implementation of the September 15 agreement," said Menkerios.

He also called on the Zimbabwean Government to give full access to the
planned mission of the "Elders".

Secretary for Information and Publicity Cde George Charamba yesterday
said the "Elders" mission had nothing to do with the humanitarian
situation in Zimbabwe.

"The so-called ‘Elders’ are a creature of pro-Labour British corporate
interests. There is nothing elderly about them. But what is more, it is
a very condescenting title. If they are ‘Elders’ what do Zimbabweans
become, infants?" he said.

Cde Charamba said the "Elders" should not pretend to have Zimbabweans at
heart when, in fact, they were fronting a regime change agenda being
pushed by Britain and the US.

"Annan has been in South Africa several times, Graca lives in South
Africa and are beginning now to find a Methodist church where Zimbabwean
refugees live. People should not seek to make big names for themselves
using Zimbabwe.

"Annan has on no occasion denounced the illegal Western sanctions
against Zimbabwe despite repeated appeals by the Zimbabwean President.
Annan refused to his last day in office (as UN secretary-general) to
denounce the sanctions, but now pretends to be concerned about a
humanitarian crisis he knows can be traced to sanctions he condoned as
UN secretary-general. These (Elders) are glory seekers and we treat them
as such," he said.

Cde Charamba also dismissed the notion that former US leader Carter
supported Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, an argument being pushed to
give credence to his involvement with the "Elders" group in Zimbabwe.

"Carter never supported the Patriotic Front, no American president could
ever do that. What Carter did — and we commend him for that — was to
realise that the white settler community which the United States
supported was about to be overrun by the Patriotic Front forces and what
was needed was a rescue package for the embattled white community. That
is why the US stepped in to save the Lancaster House deal by offering
funds to support land reform in Zimbabwe," he said.

The US never supported the sanctions against the Rhodesian settler
regime and the Carter administration defended Rhodesia by ensuring the
exclusion of chrome from the sanctions so the US could continue
accessing the chrome.

Recent statements by US President George Bush, Kenyan Prime Minister
Raila Odinga and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai dovetailed into the
planned "Elders" mission and the predicted collapse of the Zanu-PF
Government in two months.

Bush, while on a visit to Peru at the weekend to deal with the global
financial crisis, spared a moment to issue a statement on Zimbabwe about
the stalled power-sharing deal.

Odinga called for the sending of an African Union force to Zimbabwe
while Tsvangirai eyed an inclusive Government would be in place in
Zimbabwe in "two months’ time".

"The government envisaged by Tsvangirai was not an inclusive Government,
but his government following the

expected collapse of the Zanu-PF government," a political analyst said.

The whole plot, according to observers, was to sideline the Sadc
resolution made in Sandton, South Africa.

But Sadc is pushing ahead with its mediator Cde Thabo Mbeki expected to
meet Zanu-PF and the MDC today to discuss Constitutional Amendment
Number 19 to give legal effect to the power-sharing agreement while a
Sadc investigating team is already in Zimbabwe to probe Harare’s claims
that the MDC-T was training bandits to destabilise the country.

The idea of an "Elders" group was mooted by British singer Peter Gabriel
and British businessman Richard Branson to "offer collective experience,
and above all their independent voices to support the resolution of
conflict, to seek new approaches to easing human suffering and to give
voice to those who struggle to be heard".

But analysts say the idea is basically a British plan to use corporates
to push their agendas where they have failed diplomatically and
politically.

The "Elders" are former SA president Nelson Mandela, Annan, Graca
Machel, Jimmy Carter, Ela Bhatt (the founder and general secretary of a
women trade union, the Self-Employed Women’s Association), Lakhdar
Brahimi (former UN envoy and advisor), Gro Harlem Brundtland (former
Norwegian prime minister), Fernando Henrique Cardoso (former Brazilian
president), Mary Robinson (former Ireland president and UN Human Rights
Commissioner), Desmond Tutu (activist) and Muhammad Yunus (Bangladeshi
banker). Aung San Suu Kyi — a human rights leader in Burma — is an
honorary elder.