Russ Feingold: “I rise today to draw the Senate's attention to the continuing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. This summer…”

“I rise today to draw the Senate's attention to the continuing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. This summer, the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on this crisis. The overwhelming consensus of the witnesses at that hearing, witnesses from the administration, from NGOs, and from academia, was that Zimbabwe would continue in a downward spiral, with potentially disastrous results for the entire Southern African region, unless the rule of law is sufficiently restored to create conditions for a fair Presidential election next year. I regret that recent events suggest that the Government of Zimbabwe is intent on taking the opposite approach. Zimbabwean authorities have expelled representatives of the widely-respected International Foundation for Electoral Systems, better known to many in this body as IFES. An IFES team had traveled to Zimbabwe to monitor pre-election conditions, which are critically important to a free and fair election. If the only information available to voters is state-controlled propaganda, if opposition party leaders and supporters are intimidated, and if the administrative structure established to prepare for and govern elections is biased, the deck is stacked against democracy before voting even begins. Without international monitors in place, the international community cannot adequately assess these important issues.”