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Sunday
05Apr

Reintegrating Zimbabwe

The BBC reports today that the new Zimbabwean government is about to embark on an ambitious 100-day plan aimed at re-engaging itself with the west.  This is interesting and suggests an about-face from the days of Mugabe's total dictatorship.  "The West" has long been his bugaboo, the root of all evil in Zimbabwe.  Mugabe even went so far as to quit the Commonwealth back in 2003.  In retaliation, the UK imposed travel bans on Mugabe and his posse.  

So now, the new government has spent the weekend at a retreat, laying out plans are creating a new constitution, and lifting many of the more despotic aspects of Mugabe's rule.  To this end, we can hope to see a restoration of human rights, a re-organisation of security concerns (whatever that means), a stabilisation of the economy, a re-building of the country's sad infrastructure (like in terms of the highways and health care system), as well as this re-engagement with the international community.  Included in all of this is a freedom of the press, both indigenous and international.

Most encouraging, I think is what the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, a member of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, had to say: "We have committed ourselves to normalising relations between Zimbabwe and those countries which disengaged their relationship and this is primarily the EU, the United Kingdom, the United States and the white Commonwealth countries.  So we have now said that we are going to re-engage them. A core team of ministers has been set up to expiate the re-engagement."

On another note, you really have to feel for Zimbabwean PM Morgan Tsvingarai.  Last month, his wife died in a car accident.  This weekend, his two-year old grandson drowned in a pool on his property in Harare.  

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