The Mess in Zimbabwe
A good article about the mess in Zimbabwe: ‘It’s a shame that the Iraq war has made it impossible to advocate regime change, because Zimbabwe’s strongman, President Robert Mugabe, is such a deserving candidate. While the CIA has been dutifully keeping its powder dry, Mugabe, a despot who lacks oil or nuclear weapons, has become an increasingly lethal menace to his own people.’
Zimbabweans voted for peaceful regime change in March. Despite intimidation, they voted in such numbers that Mugabe was unable to steal the election outright and has been forced into a June 27 runoff with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe’s response has been to unleash a reign of terror: death squads, mass beatings of political opponents, crackdowns on themedia and on aid groups that have been feeding the desperate populace. This week, he gate-crashed an international agricultural meeting in Rome, where, as usual, he blamed Western colonialists for his failures. Meanwhile, his police detained Tsvangirai for nine hours on the pretext that the rival presidential candidate drew too large a crowd. And his goons stopped a convoy of American and British diplomats who were attempting to investigate the political violence, slashed their tires and threatened to burn them to death in their cars.
Mugabe is beyond hope, but it’s worth attempting an international pressure campaign against his chief enabler, South African President Thabo Mbeki.
The unfortunate thing is that Zimbabweans cannot have their voice heard by outsiders since there is no free press, TV, Radio or any other form of medium.
We all do not want the current leader, black and white, coloured and indian alike!
For the record, I am a black Zimbabwean