via UN ‘hypocrisy’ slammed ahead of Zim tourism meeting | SW Radio Africa by Alex Bell
The United Nations (UN) continues to face serious criticism for ‘legitimising’ the Robert Mugabe regime, by allowing a UN tourism conference to go ahead as planned in Victoria Falls this weekend.
Preparations for the high level World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly are almost complete, and more than 140 delegates have so far registered to be part of the conference that begins Saturday.
The meeting is being co hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia, and Zimbabwe’s tourism ministry has been busy using the event as an opportunity to re-launch the country as a desirable tourism destination.
But the meeting comes as the fallout of the July 31st elections continues, with incidents of intimidation, violence, political reprisals and targeted political harassment on the rise. The election itself remains highly disputed, with evidence being gathered proving that the vote was manipulated to secure a ZANU PF victory.
UN Watch, an international group that monitors of the performance of the UN, has called for a boycott of the meeting. The group’s Executive Director Hillel Neuer told SW Radio Africa last week that the UN risked discrediting itself and what it stands for, by allowing the meeting to go ahead.
“We cannot understand how a major UN body would decide to legitimise that government. The government is also using this (the meeting) for propaganda reasons and we think this is the wrong place and the wrong time,” Neuer said.
Human rights activist Ephraim Tapa told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the UN’s decision to allow Zimbabwe to host the meeting is “hypocrisy at its worst.”
“We would have thought this was a good opportunity for the UN to remain true to its values of freedom, of human rights, the rule of law and democracy, which in Zimbabwe were sold short,” Tapa said.
He added: “So we are surprised, we are concerned. If this is the stance of the United Nations, then where else can Zimbabweans turn to (for human rights protection)?”
The UN meeting comes as Mugabe has been endorsed by the regional SADC bloc as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe, disregarding reports of vote rigging that marred the electoral process last month.
SADC has also taken a further step in bringing Mugabe back into the fold, by appointing him to the Deputy Chairmanship of the grouping, a move that puts him next in line for the Chairmanship next year. This decision is being highly criticised, because of Mugabe’s legacy of human rights abuses.
“SADC has ditched us. So the people of Zimbabwe must realise that it is none other than ourselves who must confront this dictatorship and all those who acquiesce with his (Mugabe’s) actions,” Tapa said.
COMMENTS
None but ourselves
your stooge was defeated by the forces against imperialism no rigging but people are against imperialism agendas such as yours
I don’t think the country will benefit from inviting sanctions and sabotage. who really benefit or who is going suffer? I tend to subscribe to the notion that the opposition contributed hugely in the suffering of poor Zimbabweans. Who is a sellout?
Since when has united nations been of any major use anyway? Nothing should surprise us after all this time. I first started believing how hopeless the UN was from the time they didnt intervene properly with rwandan massacres….its a posturing toothless dog all bark and no bite!!!
Why do we zimbabweans wish the worst to happeni our country?is it to force regime change?we r the ones to suffer at the end coz mugabe and his allies will never go for a night without food.there myt be claims of rigging but if sadc endorsed the election results then wats left for us is concerntrate on gettinng better by looking at the positives and try to work together.failure is not an option
Guys really, lets make Zim work….nothing is going to change Zim except the people on the ground regardless of political affiliation…
Hard work , dedication by ourselves only , not a magic wand from the UN!
im with you Shumba Boy.
Why not invite travel agents and commercial enterprise, to showcase what we can do, and eventually profit from the show? Instead we invite freebooters from the UN who are only here to posture, eat and drink for free, make empty speeches and promises, and give back nothing to our country.
No more politics please!
Let’s accept reality as it is, and make the world sit up and realise that Zimbabwe can manage tourism as well as any other western, eastern or African Country, without paying to be “legalized” by unqualified charlatans and imposters who only ever holiday in 5* hotels in new York anyway.