Zim GBC News | International Desk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HARARE \u2013 Newly declassified British government documents have revealed that UK officials, frustrated by Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis in 2004, formally considered the use of military force to remove the late President Robert Mugabe from power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The files, released from the UK’s National Archives and reported by the Financial Times, show high-level discussions within Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government as it grappled with hyperinflation, farm invasions, and political repression in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The option emerged in a policy paper sent to Downing Street after a farewell dispatch from the then UK High Commissioner to Harare, Brian Donnelly, in July 2004. Donnelly expressed deep concern about the country’s trajectory under a leader who showed no signs of stepping aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMugabe remains depressingly fit and focused on his own agenda,\u201d Donnelly wrote, highlighting a key obstacle to any hoped-for peaceful political transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High Commissioner’s memo urged a radical rethink if Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party was to win the upcoming 2005 parliamentary elections, stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf our best efforts fail and Mugabe wins again, then I think we should be ready to undertake some radical reappraisal if Zimbabwe is to be saved from another three years of turbulence and decline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This analysis led Foreign Secretary Jack Straw\u2019s private secretary, Kara Owen, to draft a paper outlining options. Under the heading \u201cRemoving Mugabe,\u201d she drew a direct parallel to the recent invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we really want to change the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe, we have to do to Mugabe what we have just done to Saddam,\u201d Owen wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the document quickly dismissed the idea, concluding that the cost in casualties and lack of international support made it unviable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not a serious option,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The paper also rejected stricter sanctions or severing diplomatic ties, warning they would likely \u201cgive Mugabe a stick with which to beat us.\u201d The recommended strategy was to continue isolating Mugabe internationally while discreetly supporting the opposition, a plan endorsed by Prime Minister Blair in a handwritten note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents underscore the profound policy dilemma Mugabe posed to London, as he consistently blamed Zimbabwe’s woes on the UK, the former colonial power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He remained in office until his removal in a November 2017 military-assisted transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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