Robert Mugabe snubbed Kofi Annan
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| Whatever Kofi Annan's diplomacy was worth, it failed to convince Robert Mugabe to step down |
Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary General has a reputation as a five-star diplomat. Chief among his quality is his patience.
That patience is exactly what helped him to go through the ranks of the UN, and waited for the absolutely right moment to present himself as a candidate for the office of Secretary General.
Annan has the knack to choose words so carefully and skilfully that it is almost impossible to ignore him when he speaks – in his deliberately low but clear voice.
Most of the things he says though are off record, behind closed doors, and often aimed at helping politicians and megalomaniacs recognise slightly better ways of doing things.
In these days of Wikileaks, not all of Kofi Annan’s secret diplomatic overtures would remain unknown.
So Wikileaks has just revealed that Annan offered Zimbabwean President Mugabe a deal to step down and live in a safe haven.
But the veteran boss of Zimbabwe rejected the offer.
The confidential document dated sometime in September 2000 suggest that a source from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party told U.S. officials that Annan made the offer to Mugabe during a UN summit in New York.
“Kofi Annan, in the recent meeting in New York during the Millennium summit, offered Mugabe a deal to step down,” said the document.
It adds, “the opposition party heard that Mugabe turned down the offer the following day after discussing it with the first lady.”
The translation of all these is that Robert Mugabe snubbed Kofi Annan.
Snubbed, not as in snub, but snub as in Mugabe thinking aloud and saying “I know better than you, Kofi, and I am older than you as well. Just because you are UN Secretary General doesn’t mean you can stop me from being President for life. Besides, my wife can’t bear shedding off her title as First Lady.”
So Robert Mugabe is still president, ten years after Kofi Annan tried to persuade him to step down honourably.
The icing on the cake is that the old man has declared his readiness to stand for another presidential election – making him 92 years old by the end of his next term.
Two years ago, Mugabe was (almost?) at the verge of leaving office, when he reportedly lost the presidential election to Morgan Tsvangirai.
But being a politically astute in keeping himself in office, he forced the opposition MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai into a power-sharing administration.
Mugabe clinched the deal through what the former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe describes in another Wikileaks material as brilliance, for he says of Mugabe, “To give the devil his due, he is a brilliant tactician.”
The Mugabe-Tsvangirai alliance is now so cracked that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai are convinced it won’t survive beyond the next few months.
Morgan Tsvangirai blames Mugabe, and Mugabe blames Morgan Tsvangirai.
“We agreed to work together… as a compromise to enable us to sort things out, establish peace, political stability, now some are dragging their feet, (the power-sharing arrangement) can’t be allowed to continue ” the veteran leader said.
Those who wish to see a post-Mugabe era have some waiting game to play, and that includes Kofi Annan, who tried in secret to persuade the old man to back down.
For the record, Kofi Annan and his office have declined to comment on the Wikileaks revelation of having offered Mugabe a deal to step down.
For a five star-diplomat, declining to comment and keeping quiete at this time is the most diplomatically wise thing to do.



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