Former Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo has described President Robert Mugabe as a tool of the Chinese government to fight Western powers.
BY NQOBILE BHEBHE
Moyo told a forum to debate the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) following last week’s attempts to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in South Africa that China was behind Mugabe’s calls for Africa to pull out of the court based at The Hague.
Mugabe, who chairs the African Union (AU), was at the forefront defending South Africa’s failure to arrest al-Bashir during the continental body’s summit.
Al Bashir, wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity linked to the genocide in the Darfur region, sneaked out of South Africa as the courts sanctioned his arrest.
Moyo, the chairperson of MDC Renewal Team’s international relations committee, said China was arm-twisting African leaders to protect al-Bashir.
“China is to blame and apart from the fact that China is a member of the P5 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council), it participated in the decision to prosecute al-Bashir, but because they have huge investments in Sudan, China cannot allow a change of government in Sudan, which they do not control,” the former minister told the forum on Tuesday.
“They want al-Bashir to protect their economic interests and that is why they have bribed most of these African leaders with Chinese money, save for Botswana and Malawi, who I respect.
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“They (Botswana and Malawi) have said you cannot allow tormentors and killers to go scot free.”
Moyo said in Zimbabwe, China invested in Gushungo Estates, the First Family’s factories and constructed Mugabe’s private residence.
“It’s all about controlling the head of the State as they believe in the army that when you control the commander you control everything,” he said.
“So China believes that when they control Mugabe they have controlled the wealth of Zimbabwe.
“Those who think the Chinese are no imperialists are wrong. The new imperialists now in Africa are the Chinese.
“There is no difference between the Western imperialist and the Eastern imperialist.
“If the ICC is imperial, then Mugabe is the stooge of the Eastern imperialist just as he calls others stooges of the imperial West.” Mugabe accuses opposition parties of being puppets of the West, but critics point out that the 91-year-old leader was once a darling of the same foreign powers.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director Irene Petras said the same African leaders calling for ICC pullout and advocating for an African court were reluctant to sign a protocol to widen the scope of the court’s jurisdiction.
The court was established through a protocol of the AU in Burkina Faso in 1998 and only came into force in 2004.
So far 28 out of 54 AU member States have ratified the protocol, paving the way for the court’s jurisdiction in civil matters, but Mugabe has reportedly refused to budge despite years of attempts to get him to sign.
Mugabe was instrumental in the dismantling of the Sadc Tribunal after it ruled against his government in cases involving dispossessed farmers.
