WE the leadership of the Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum (ZLVF) —— senior war veterans, former senior commanders of the national liberation war and members of Zipa High Command (Zimbabwe Peoples Army) —— wish to applaud and support the political settlement of September 15 2008 as a welcome relief to the long suffering people of Zimbabwe.  We call on all the signatories to the agreement and their respective political formations to abide by the letter and spirit of the provisions of the accord.To this end, we wish to acknowledge and compliment the intervention of the African Union in particular for providing the necessary leadership that made the settlement possible. We also wish to extend our gratitude to the Sadc heads of state in particular, the late president of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa and the President of Botswana Ian Khama for their principled and uncompromising stand in defence of the values, norms and ideals that Sadc stands for. By so doing, the two leaders stood by the people of Zimbabwe in their darkest hour. They filled the vacuum of moral and principled leadership in the region that can only earn international respect for the region. We would also like to commend the people of Zimbabwe for remaining calm and steadfast during these most trying moments.Zimbabwe’s sovereignty ultimately resides with them and not the leaders of political parties or government. They sacrificed for freedom and democracy that ended white minority rule and cannot now allow any room for black tyranny that deprives them of their hard won freedom and democracy. We would like to take this opportunity to call on all the service chiefs to swallow their pride and respect the provisions of the political settlement and refrain from pandering to narrow selfish and partisan interests. It was not only they who took up arms to liberate our country from racist white minority rule. They should therefore not monopolise the legacy of the struggle.We make a call to all genuine and self respecting war veterans to seize the moment and ensure that the ideals we together took up arms for come to fruition. Freedom, democracy and respect for the people and human dignity were central in our struggle.  It is our fervent hope that this transitional accord will usher in a new era of freedom and prosperity anchored in the respect for the rule of law and founded on a new people driven democratic constitution.It should, above all, put Zimbabwe on a solid and sustainable democratic foundation that respects the sovereign will of the people as expressed through free, transparent and fair elections. Never again should Zimbabwe experience violent and bloody election campaigns and be mired in electoral controversy. Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum
