there are several caucus meetings that are going on however i will wait about another few minutes and then we will start mid members will just have to get here when when they when they hearing of the subcommittee on africa global health will come to order and our topic today zimbabwe from crisis to or no good morning and let me welcome all of you here today in regard to this very important hearing entitled zimbabwe from crisis to renew this is the second hearing that i've held this year on zimbabwe so it is testimony to the fact that we feel that some bob way is a very very important  country and that we need to focus on it to see if we can move it from as its past and current situation to an improved one and we think that it's important we continue to debate over u s policy towards that country and i last hearing i gave a brief overview of zimbabwe's great history because in the midst of ongoing political and economic crisis that continues to plague past rich history is often forgotten as we will hear from our esteemed witnesses there is still hope for the renewal that so many seek in zimbabwe however serious challenges remain that's one of the purposes why we are still focusing on zimbabwe the purpose of this hearing is to explore those challenges and to discuss the ways that u s policy can have a positive impact it's very easy to to sanction and to isolate is very difficult to try to see how we can have a transformational policy to see if we can bring a country from drums into the new  and a coalition government was formed since then important progress has been made yet serious challenges remain and the people of zimbabwe continue to suffer due to the difficult economic and security conditions an estimated three million people fled zimbabwe for south africa and unemployment rates have reached over ninety percent civil society groups labor unions and other economic groups continue to face sudan whose own c p a comprehensive peace agreement is in danger of failure agreements do not of themselves bring peace the agreement is marilee the foundation upon which a peace and a process of change can be built it's a framework and we tend to want to hope that the framework will work but as we have seen it's difficult and many times u nattainable in the case of the g p a many see it as having already failed because zahn o p s still controls much of the power in the call of government however i believe that there are elements within the call the government not just in the opposition who want to see real change in zimbabwe and with whom we can work to improve the lives of everyday zimbabweans the new government has faced formidable challenges and responding to widespread humanitarian needs including addressing a serious scholar al break in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine that claimed more than four thousand lives and in implementing the reforms necessary to repair a badly damaged economy despite odds that seem stacked against progress and prove ments have been made in several sectors by the new government ministers from m d c particularly economic reforms finance minister tendai biti president what many zimbabweans and international communities myself included believe is an opportunity to push for political reform and economic recovery proof of the growing sense that some bob way is slowly moving in the right direction is a recent establishment of the enterprise and bob way founded by sir richard branson all my dear of humanity united and foundation which seeks to attract investments towards involved ways economic and social recovery although i remain concerned about their rassmann of opposition and civil society activists buys an o p s elements the human rights situation has improved modestly i had the opportunity to meet with president mugabe in the spring of two thousand and nine the first meeting of a us official in several years and it lasted for several hours and i shared with him my concern over the lack of implementation of th a and the continued harassment of human rights groups like women of zimbabwe arise and opposition activists and we had a very discussion about that where he was ready to deny that it was perpetrated by his government but that these were things that happened and we did see a downturn in the attack on the women immediately following  our meetings however we have seen problems arise again despite the economic turnabout begun by minister the majority of zimbabweans face enormous challenges and live on less than a dollar a day of the challenges that remain include the approval of a new constitution that reflects the will of the people and the security sector reform which is extremely important as i have previously stated the method of redistribution of land from white landowners to political allies a president mugabe was misguided and wrong however to the land issue is a real problem in region and i am  committed to seeing a just and equitable distribution of land throughout southern africa consistent with the rule of law we can't say that the problem does not exist however a solution that a problem has to be in an equitable way am also concerned about the impact that the indigenization law and acted earlier this year which requires all firms that have been our majority black shareholders will have on the ability to attract investment these are things which i would like to continue to engage president mugabe in a constructive way the injustices left behind with the legacy of colonialism must be seriously address they do not go away however it may be more constructive way to look at other models for redressing these wrongs such as the black economic empowerment program in south africa let me again state that this is a serious issue that must be addressed again i believe zimbabwe is at a critical juncture which requires real leadership from the us to engage other donors in the renewal of zimbabwe's political economic and social structure currently u s policy cannot take full advantage of the changing realities and zimbabwe because of restrictions assistance in certain key areas i believe a greater flexibility the administration would be able to do just that to that end earlier this year i introduced this in bob way of h r fifty one seventy one fifty nine seventy one which would provide the following freedom health care education clean water agriculture and youth employment support for land reform technical assistance to ministries maintain sanctions where need it and call for review and removal of certain sanctions if certain conditions are met to support the g p a and the economic social and democratic renewal of zimbabwe i hope that moving forward this bill will receive wider support of this committee towards working for a better chance for all people in zimbabwe we have an excellent panel of witnesses today although the panel is made up of all men we invited four different women  and do not foundation and surprise and bob way and zimbabwe peace project and unfortunately none of them could make it today the experts we have today though although they're not women that's clear i think that they will all do an excellent job with that i'll recognize our ranking member mr smith thank you very much mr chairman thank you for calling it is very important hearing and welcome to our witnesses we are all familiar with the said reports from zimbabwe recently known as the world's fastest shrinking economy before robert mugabe's mugabe zimbabwe dictator president agreed to a power sharing with the movement for democratic change you know nine prices were known to double every twenty four hours for two thousand and eight the i m f reported inflation it's five hundred billion percent economic growth negative fourteen percent the m d c reforms seem to have broken the hyperinflation the situation  lly difficult with massive unemployment immigration and broken systems of health care and education it is difficult to even grasp the tragedy live by millions of zimbabweans until ten or fifteen years ago they live in one of the most prosperous african countries perhaps the most human measure of the suffering caused by economic decline in life expectancy which fell from fifty six years in one thousand nine hundred forty four years in two thousand in the past two years it has risen slightly to forty seven point five these numbers reflect millions of families without moms and dads and probably even more mothers and fathers who have lost their children according to the heritage foundation the index of economic freedom in two thousand and nine one hundred seventy right behind cuba and right in front of last place north korea is violent harassment of the opposition human rights activists and journalists includes torture and death by mugabe and is an opiate party were not able to achieve the same control over zimbabwe as the kim family has over north korea zimbabwe civil society and human rights activists including the men and women of the movement for democratic change have her robotically organize themselves in opposition to mugabe for years they have understood that the only power to limit the m d c ministers real authority often by ignoring them and to frustrate the purposes of the agreement and so now we are back before questions of how us policy can encourage flake actually lived in zimbabwe between one hundred eighty two and eighty three and he actually wrote his master's thesis on robert mugabe so we have a man that was been following this for virtually all of his adult life and it's great to have him here thank you  economy a strong education sector and a dynamic population and the proud and strong people of zimbabwe deserve so much better so i'm looking forward to hearing from our witnesses and learning if and how our foreign aid assistance helping to elevate bob way back to its rightful place as a regional leader in southern africa so i thank you for this hearing thank you very much  flake thank you we will now move into our witness's testimony and let me introduce the four gentleman before us the  we have with us first will hear from mr steve mcdonnell mr mcdonnell is the consulting director of the africa program and the project leadership in building stay capacity at the woodrow wilson center for  international scholars in washington d c where he has worked since two thousand and two miss mcdonald helped to design initiate and now manages the center's leadership capacity building and post conflict resolution program in burundi the d r c and liberia this mcdonnell has a masters agree on african policies from the university of london school of oriental and african studies and has lived and worked with africa for over forty years during these years he served as support staff to the anglo american initiative on rhodesia that led to the lancaster house and his and bob wayne settlement and the five power negotiations on south west africa namibia nine hundred eighty mr mcdonnell served moved to the nonprofit sector where he is head of the u s south african leadership development program african institute southern africa policy forum and was one of those responsible for bringing mr de klerk together with mr mandela for their first face to face meeting under the aspen institute meeting i happened to have the privilege to be at the apartheid  conflict resolution work in northern ireland and brazil mr mcdonnell has published edited and written for numerous publications next we have missed the sydney is the most senior transition observatory provides information and analysis on political development in countries experiencing a transition or crisis most of those missed the most is a journalist by trade in addition to his work for mr sloan though has researched and written on zimbabwe for the past seven years with brussels based international crisis justice program manager at the open society initiative for southern africa prior to these appointments missed them which worked with us idea and the zimbabwe mission as democracy and governance advisor earlier in his career missed the most was the at the zimbabwe council of churches focusing on economic and social rights and the role of the church in promoting and protecting fundamental freedoms and civil liberties  have dr marion l two p dr two p as a policy analyst with the cato institute center for global liberty and prosperity specializing in the study of political economy of to be a an international relations and the classics from the university of went walked in johannesburg south africa and his ph d in international relations from the university of st andrews in great britain dr to be articles have been published in a number of outlets both in the united states and overseas he has appeared on various television programs in the united states and throughout the world we welcome this to change the way in which things were unfolding there but at the same time needed to protect the people needed to work in a positive way to ensure a democratic future and i think that's the challenge that lies before us today i want to begin my oral testimony e as a u s diplomat and i worked in subsequent years with that country or various other capacities but i haven't visited zimbabwe in ten years and while i stay in close touch with with the colleagues who do visit c holds the prime minister's office and other significant ministries mostly focused on the economy and development has given up outside observers some some room for optimism signs of recovery in the economy now continuing promises of cooperation among the parties among the parties to the coalition government to push through the actions called for by the and a new government in south africa and dynamics within indicate the in the of a tolerance for the mugabe regime legislation has now been offered in both the house and the senate that would seek to continue to apply pressure to this wayward regime and to the individuals who have not governance i would caution policymakers as a look at possible policy options to be certain there are some sticks along with the carrots that monitoring and performance on democracy and recovery be strict and comprehensive and that they do not allow the government to use any lifting of sanctions however targeted and whatever cabinets are applied as a propaganda victory i know my colleagues here will offer some concrete suggestions in their testimony on how u s policy engage and be shaped in the coming years legislation offered by this body and your colleagues in the senate offer a number of possible avenues for possible positively impacting the transition let me add only one thing one further thought on one specific aspect  of the renewal that has to come and i believe is coming based on my own experience in another conflict and post conflict countries in africa as well as conversations i've had with zimbabweans currently engaged in pushing for recovery  there i would like to underline an important and often overlooked element in dealing with conflicted societies any country emerging from conflict has several common imperatives they are intuitive but almost always ignored  trust has been broken and the antagonists to the conflict do not have a sense of inner dependence or shared interests relationships are torn asunder communications are characterized by posturing and accusations stakeholders do not listen to each other and  course is confrontational finally there is no agreement on how power is to be shared and decisions made in short that there is no common vision and sense of common identity there are tried and tested ways in which and taken us be brought together to address these issues rebuild the trust and form collaborative relations that allow them to solve problems together and move forward while still taking into account the interests of all sometimes its approaches listed as reconciliation or conflict resolution but is conflict transformation changing the way in which people compete how they think about interact with each other at a level where insidious and self serving interests seem dominant where the outside world sees no political will from the opposing parties to reach out to each other this job of course can be very very difficult but my program at the woodrow wilson center as the chairman has mentioned has been pioneering this much methodology for over eight years in burundi and the d r c in liberia with increasing levels of success best we might be able to use in the transition as the renewal of zimbabwe begins to take place the points of entry will differ from programs we've done elsewhere and one might have to start at the local or community level civil society along with political power brokers must be involved but it must be a part of any renewal effort in tandem with or even preceding the setting in place of institutional frameworks and processes such as elections without trust without a shared vision without a sense of interdependence and a willingness on the agendas of democratic governance development reconciliation recovery cannot go forward i'm pleased to see that bill is now under consideration addressed this element by providing support for reconciliation reconciliation efforts strengthening local government and encouraging peace building process i hope this remains central to any role that the united states decides to play thank you very much mr chairman will you take any questions thank you very much tha role played by the military which behind the scenes is the one which is playing a key role of driving the limits of power in zimbabwe so if we move forward i think the immediate objective in the next six months before we even percent of that budget is going to go towards financing the care and expenditure and only eighteen percent is going to be for capital investment that represents a precarious position on the part of zimbabwe and if we meet at that again is a national debt of six point seven billion then you can see that zimbabwe needs to pass a similar budget for the next three years to finance that debt and it has become the all but reason i want to zimbabwe's nick so limited political movement into the forms is beginning to undermine global political agreement of two thousand and eight was meant to return zimbabwe on a pass to democracy and economic prosperity it was how a very flawed document that ignored the expressed  it left the military and other pardon of justice in the hands of the zanu p f crucially as it turned out over the past two years it left the zanu p f also the control of the ministry of mines the mining ministry is essentially an offshoot of the zimbabwean military over the past two months two years it has been awarding mining concessions for exploration of zimbabwe's natural resources including diamonds and gold so a number of south african chinese and russian state controlled or government link operations parts of the proceeds from those mining operations are then channeled back to the zimbabwean military and the zanu p f reports indicated labor is from mines include chinese and zimbabwean prisoners the sharing of the proceeds from mining exploration with the military but not with the rest of the population suggests that mugabe and zanu p f are trying to buy the loyalty of the armed forces the military and the police force it is my belief that the uneasy truce between the two parties will unravel as soon as i know p f the sides of the benefits of eliminating the m d c outweigh the costs of  terminated the remnants of the g p a so where do we go from here first of all the responsibility of the zimbabwean people to chart their own course the clear limits to what the united states government and well meaning americans can do here are some of the measures that i believe the united states government can do the continuation of targeted sanctions against person and companies responsible perpetuation of violence and economic mismanagement usin spearheading of international effort to further isolate mugabe and zanu p f which could include intensive pressure on governments in the region to resolve the issue of zimbabwe in favor of democracy and economic growth ban of the exports of blood diamonds from zimbabwe after zimbabwe embarked on its road to ruin the below broadcasts that short having grown up behind the iron curtain i can personally attest to the power of truthful information in undermining tyrannical regimes the role of the radio free europe radio liberty  to access truthful information on a more frequent basis whether people make up their minds about the course of action they want to take to improve their lot i believe that the following actions should be avoided probably foreign aid to the government o monk that is the legalisation of position and trade in foreign currencies and partial liberalization of the business environment these positive reforms have been offset by the threat of renewal political violence uncertainty surrounding property rights and indigenization policy that was already discussed far from stimulating development in africa aid has retarded i see no indication whatsoever that foreign aid to zimbabwe would unleash economic growth quite the contrary it would likely slow it in the past aid to africa has been by and large stolen or wasted there is no surer way to corrupt a few remaining honest politicians and civil servants in zimbabwe than to entice them into despondent behavior with large sums of foreign money impulse the argument goes western aid could help the m d c accomplish concrete goals and improve the welfare of this involving people that's showing the difference between self interested zanu p f and the m d c i believe that this point would be much more serious if there was a likelihood of a democratic transfer of power that i do not see as a very likely still should the united states decide to increase age to education health departments in zimbabwe such age should be accompanied by his degree of scrutiny in my view it should be many other previously poor countries to rise from poverty to riches in the space of one or two generations i believe that liberalize straight and domestic a business environment with a reform judiciary that puts emphasis on the sanctity of persons and property the same bob can prosper as many countries have done in the past thank you thank you very much let me  nationalist movement and impose these on wheels and looking at zimbabwe through the lens of domestic political affairs in south africa so what he did most was to ensure that no progress would call forward that would else than within the african union itself which is meeting as you know in february next year and putting the met on the agenda of the african union so that he did receive that report as it got on top of the global political agreement would enable movement in zimbabwe prison and government is not afraid of everyone of anyone in the world except feel for losing african support and i think that is exactly what happened when the shah moshe good solution was made he discovered that he was no standing alone in the went back and started to talk to opposition groups it is time for the african union to support the initiative of the sadat process by appointing a special envoy themselves who is going to with members of the parties but also with other people who are influencing the g p a such as the military and we've seen that the event is if that is done the is that reasonable prospect that the united states and other excess can now supports that process which is make mistakes as we approach elections and democratic processes in africa that we in the western world by assuming if we if we support institutional structures and and  give resources that give training towards that that that will solve the problem it's important to to to work as we can with a bubbly electoral commission to work with local monitoring army has played a very ominous role in the current situation in zimbabwe that they have been the power behind the throne so to speak and may have been prevented gobby at one point time in two thousand of a to making certain compromises  opposition that he might have wanted to make because their own interests were not being served by that without some work with the military in advance and by this i mean addressing the kinds of fears that they  have pointed out that's something we never think about why are elements within a society like a military totally intractable we dealt with this with the late army in burundi why are they so intractable to change it's because they are fearful of change the work that needs to be done in the true sense of conflict resolution and transformation with all of these elements it's a big thing to try to do in a short amount of time when elections are on the horizon and we find ourselves repeatedly in this position where preparations for elections should have started years before and we're now a few months before them and we're beginning to think about it but i think we need think about that that people factor working not just with the parties or with the military as well with the zimbabwe electoral commission obviously putting in training and funds for training and working with local observers and monitors and bringing in as we can and be helpful with the bringing of credible outside monitors much you know as you concluded your remarks about the waste and corruption and greedy politicians and bureaucrats you mention in africa i just therefore are opposed to foreign aid what your opinion on afghanistan and iran are you opposed to iraq iraq and afghanistan hundreds of millions probably billions of dollars that we are sending over there and planes and cash is your position that you are opposed to criminal leaders in all countries no we just asked you about bob wayne but what is your view to what  the us government has been doing for the last ten years and in iraq and afghanistan thank you yes sir my position is consistent do not believe that the united states should provide foreign aid economic development aid  o countries abroad not simply because it is often stolen and wasted in the way that we see on daily basis in afghanistan iraq and elsewhere but fundamentally because this incentive to reform probably would have taken another thirty or forty years before it recovered it was an enormous amount of u s taxpayers money that went into the development of and how do you see that being different than assisting countries today yes sir that is an excellent question and to make it quick so my colleagues can go i'm sorry i don't know that we're going to i don't know what's going on but go ahead four fundamental differences one years we have now been given foreign aid to africa and many other countries around the world for forty s thirdly in europe marshall plan was reconstructing economies not developing economies europe was already a developed continent issue that i so many others deeply care about zimbabwe is a tier three countries in the region violator when it comes to the government not meeting minimum standards and that is issued just as recently as last june by the office of trafficking persons within the administration and in reading the report it is it is a scathing indictment that for example orphans without birth certificates are particularly vulnerable to exploitation of forced labor and prostitution points out that young men and boys are forced by zimbabwean government security forces that work in the diamond mines it points out that women and girls from towns bordering south africa and zambia forced into prostitution in brothels that cater to long distance truck drivers and it goes on t get it how severely exploited these women are often contracting hiv aids and other s t d's and then the point is officials made no apparent efforts to proactively identify victims of trafficking there have been no reports according to the tip report of prosecutions or convictions for forced labor or forced prostitution and even in zero nine seven zimbabwean men who were recruited in zimbabwe by a chinese national for jobs once they got to their destination their passports were confiscated and they were subjected to forced labor and again the trip report reads like an indictment your views on what needs to be done yes we want to obviously create better institutions of government but here is a mirror that has been held up with our minimum standards in our law the trafficking victims protection act and so bog ways people especially as women and children are being exploited cruelly secondly on the issue of religious freedom on the seventeenth the new religious freedom report came out and pointed out to the government harassed religious leaders who are critical of government policies who spoke out against human rights abuses committed by the government and who provided humanitarian assistance to citizens it seems to me like in every other government or that we hope will matriculate from dictatorship to a true thriving democracy the church churches the accounts to have any sense as to how that money is tracked as the colonels in the general's rip off their own people who don't benefit from the diamond mines for example because it goes into their bank account under the kimberly process of which the united states is a part and perhaps could wield some influence and obviously the companies to do so are very tightly connected to either the russian or the south african governments we all know about the interaction between the south african government the a n c government and the zanu p f so it is not difficult to imagine that there is a deal whereby some of the proceeds find themselves flowing back into the country specifically to this embassy in military and the top echelon we explore in terms of existing legislation and how we move into the future you're going to take that into account we all know i've worked in conflict with countries throughout africa we all know that that human trafficking and  denial of religious free are often result of failed societies of of the law the normal sanctions of society the destruction of family the undercutting of the  and awful thing that's happening in other countries throughout africa and throughout the world something that i'm very glad you mentioned i think needs to be focused on in terms of the recovery of the society we talk about think of the answer to her with mr flake and he would also ask his questions before the answer the members they might have the right to leave when they feel it's appropriate we only have four minutes left however there are over control and seemingly funded back through but i mean if we're i think that the budget that was introduced last week two point seven million it was indicated by the finance minister that that represented all domestic revenue sources not aid from the outside how true is that is and is mine and you mentioned it could be as high as two billion dollars that's an annual figure that it could be and we're only capturing forty million or so is that is it assumed that that amount is being plowed back into the military or that kind of infrastructure and if so how in the world can you go into an election season satisfy the strictures that have been laid out in terms of of ensuring that it's free or fair when you have that kind of money ploughed back into the  security structure that's controlled by the gobby or anyway those are the kind of answers or the questions that i was going to ask i'd be satisfied with that  and also by political violence once hyperinflation was subdued and they were able to deal in a normal currency such as the us dollar and the south african rand and once political violence subsided people returned to what they do best which is to improve their lot and so we are increasing we are seeing gradual increases in welfare in zimbabwe and i would expect those to continue until the political situation doesn't become unbearable again chairman i would i would start by setting congresswoman was questions i think that there's been a lot of improvement i think that's what we started by saying that there's been dramatic improved immense in the  with leading indices up until two thousand and the country started to dry my to kind of collapse but in the last year alone all schools that had been closed in two thousand and seven two thousand and eight which was good we also had the health sector terms of the economy the mining sector the total contribution of the mining sector the budget was forty four percent and that not only includes diamonds it also includes called platinum and so on and this is out of finance conduct including ensuring that the government of the central bank is quite intelligent to a more central government as their role than what has been doing in the last couple of years thank you the onset of the of the inclusive government and i believe this is what actually when people look at it the next election coming defeat is for a relapse to the plea march two thousand and eight where the sho o congresswoman woolsey's question first when you asked it you said is there really any improvements in the last ten years and last eighteen months very very important to keep as time frames in mind because in the last ten years absolutely not in the a year and that has been very targeted not through government very targeted in health education water sanitation so so it really has an assistant has been a great assistance i believe and created the situation of  dr to be said is very important that people are resilient and i think what you're seeing here also reflected in their hope for the future not just their resilience and relying on themselves and getting by and getting through but because they see hope for the future that things may come right well let me thank the panel unfortunately we are going to have to leave in a minute but i also agree that i think zimbabwe has a great future if we can get over this hurdle the next six months are important if we can move to a new zimbabwe let me ask for unanimous consent that members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks out of jackson so watered once again i mean thank the witnesses for being here it is my hope that h r five nine seven one will be seriously considered and that the u s policy will take full advantage of the window of opportunity in zimbabwe thank you all again for your testimony