Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UK, Zimbabwe and Human Rights hypocrisy

Brian | 22.03.2007 02:00

The UK claims to be defending human rights when it attacks president Robert Mugabe...but it is?



The Independent has published another sensationalised article against legitimate president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. We read:

'"Such threats will not deter the UK from speaking out against the continued misgovernance and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe," a Foreign Office official said.'
 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2377705.ece

Well, that would be nice if in the case of Uzbekistan, the UK behaved VERY differently!

'In October 2002 (Craig) Murray made a controversial speech at a human rights conference hosted by Freedom House in Tashkent, in which he claimed that "Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy" and that the boiling to death of two members of Hizb ut-Tahrir "is not an isolated incident."Later, United Nations head Kofi Annan confronted Uzbek President Islam Karimov with Murray's claims.

Murray was summoned to London and, on March 8, 2003, was reprimanded for writing, in a letter to his employers, in response to a speech by George W. Bush, "when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in the international fora ... I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the U.S., at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan."

In July 2003, some of his embassy staff were sacked while he was away on holiday...
...
Murray was removed from his post in October 2004, shortly after a leaked report in the Financial Times quoted him as claiming that MI6 used intelligence provided by Uzbek authorities through torture.[9] The Foreign Office denied there was any direct connection and stated that Murray had been removed for "operational" reasons. '
etc

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray#Removal_from_post

So is the UK REALLY concerned about human rights? When it defends a real monsters' rights to torture?! Dont you believe it.

Brian

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

opposing abuses of power whoever the leader is and aware of CIOs on Indymedia

22.03.2007 09:56

Most of us are aware of the hypocrisy of the UK government's 'defending of human rights' but we continue to support the ordinary people of any country who are being used by their governments, including this country. We fight this government for the rights of refugees to remain here, actively oppose the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as the resource wars in DRC, where British companies are literally making a killing and also oppose Robert Mugabe's beating up of women and men on the streets of Zimbabwe. I do not see any point in taking the side of any leader just because they spew rhetoric against colonialism. Know them by their actions. Beware CIOs on Indymedia

mouse


Problem with white liberals/radicals

22.03.2007 13:34

White supremacy reigns among white liberals and radicals. It is bizarre given the obvious propaganda against Zimbabwe that whites adopt the position of the Western media. It is obvious that African dictators are usually backed by a world power and usually the West.

Who is backing Mugabe? Since when did Mugabe become the worst African dictator? How is it that after he ‘massacred’ 20,000 of his own people in the early 1980s, and in 1994 was honoured by the Queen, he now is a monstrous dictator when no one is claiming he has massacred thousands? (And I've never seen any evidence to support this 20,000 figure.) Even the 'campaigning journalist' Andrew Meldrum claims he supported Mugabe knowing that he'd 'massacred 20,000' but now claims the same person is a 'brutal dictator'. Can you, so called white radicals explain this? Can you explain why in 1994 the readers of New African voted Mugabe the third most important African leader ever?

I've been to two public meeting in London organised by black people about Zimbabwe. Yes, attended by black people who regard themselves as politically aware. Both meetings supported Zanu-PF.

African monitors at the last two elections in Zimbabwe were clear: the elections that Zanu-PF won "reflected the will of the people". Japan, China, Iran and other countries agreed with that assessment. Yet, Mugabe is a dictator.

Most white betray themselves. When black people of Zimbabwe demanded that they get their land back, what did white radicals do? They joined up with white capitalists and colonialists to attack them. They, no doubt, support the racist slurs about how useless black Zimbabweans are about managing the land which, of course, suggests that the land should go back to white racists.

The Zimbabwean issue is the most important facing Africa. After going along with the IMF in the 1990s and seeing the destruction of the economy, in 1998, Zanu-PF rejected the IMF. The Zimbawean army alongside other African countries intervened in the Congo. Until then, the West had engineered the death of 30,000 people. This upset Western elites who now want to reimpose a colonialism on Zimbabwe and yes they have a whole load of brainwashed black traitors supporting them. Many black Zimbabweans are of course fed up with the hardship they face - a hardship engineered by the West.

This rubbish about not supporting leaders is just another white supremacist con-trick. If not Mugabe and Zanu-PF, who the hell else do you support? Fairies in the back of the garden? The idea that black people have to wait for some saint to rescue them is absurd.

I'm pleased to say that not all white people support white supremacy. But black people are waking up to what's happening in Zimbabwe. As long as you so-called white radicals carry on with your hypocrisy, the more black people will see through you.

insidejob


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech