These are people who don't just talk about democracy and ignore it, they live democracy. No flashy photos of inked fingers and no seats of honor at the State of the Union address. Just real people taking real initiative in the face of a violent dictator. Unlike Iraq where democracy is hardly of interest to anyone, the US included, the Zimbabwe opposition is standing firm in the face of a aggressive and often violent 'police' action. Can you imagine what we would see if the Chinese weapons had arrived?
Riot police in Zimbabwe yesterday raided the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as well as those of independent election observers, seizing computers and documents and arresting scores of people in the biggest crackdown since last month's disputed election.
Truckloads of officers surrounded the building in Harare during an operation that lasted several hours. MDC officials said police had taken away more than 100 people, including staff and party supporters who had fled to the capital to avoid a crackdown in the countryside.
Turned away from South Africa and Mozambique, the Chinese weapons ship stuffed with military equipment for Robert Mugabe, is heading towards Namibia or Angola. The US is reportedly asking countries to deny access or refuse unloading though the Bush administration has struggled with diplomacy, especially in Africa. Because the US does have a special trading status with Angola you would expect that might provide some leverage though when is the last time the US negotiated anything that threatened an oil business relationship? How often does the Bush administration stand up to China? Let's hope for the best.
South African dock workers refused to unload the delivery for the desperate Robert Mugabe and the South African courts backed up the dock workers. The Chinese ship has since left Durban, South Africa and rumored to be heading for Mozambique. The shipment may unload in Mozambique (if dock workers again refuse) though it's a poor government so they may end up allowing passage. The problem there is that after decades of war, roads in Mozambique are difficult and drop off quickly outside of the city. Will the Chinese weapons make it in time to be distributed to Mugabe's thugs before his government folds or will the Chinese weapons be used to kill even more people?
Oh the Olympic spirit! Nothing says 'Olympic spirit' quite like a massive new arsenal of guns and ammo for a dictator to repress a nation who just voted him out. All of the critics of communist China should just understand that Robert Mugabe has the full authority to kill and torture anyone and everyone because it's an internal matter and has nothing to do whatsoever with human rights or the world community. The world should ignore such violations and mind their own business. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Thabo Mbeki is also doing the right thing by allowing safe passage of weapons because after all, the papers are all in order. That's fair, right?
A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed yesterday. It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship's papers were in order.
The normal announcement that Robert Mugabe has won yet another election generally occurs about one hour after the polls are closed but here we are a week later and nothing but silence. Earlier in the week South Africa called for a unity government though it wasn't clear why the opposition would want to accept such an offer considering they won in a route.
There is simply no way Mugabe will walk away from power without a fight and the African Union is obviously an unbiased observer, with one AU leader even calling Mugabe "a patriot." If starving a country and ruining the former bread basket of Africa is how the AU defines "a patriot" then they are not up to the task. Without impartial international support, it's going to be nearly impossible for the people of Zimbabwe to see the government that they just elected.
Even in the face of electoral defeat, Robert Mugabe will not go down easily. Using violence again the opposition has been a mainstay of the Mugabe period. After all, his military force has been fed a steady diet of military equipment thanks to the Olympic hosts China so he has the tools to clamp down and maintain control of his collapsing nation.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed a landslide victory and declared its leader Morgan Tsvangirai an outright winner. Spokesman Tendai Biti warned the government against stealing the election, saying: "Zimbabwe is on the edge of a precipice."
He said the people would not accept a faked outcome and vowed "peaceful protests" if his party was denied the win. A cabal of Mr Mugabe's top aides, including six cabinet ministers, the Vice-President and a former intelligence chief, have lost their "safe" seats already.
Naturally, Mugabe's government has yet to release polling data. Vote rigging has increasingly been a complaint in recent Zimbabwe elections as the country has spiraled into runaway inflation and chaos. Will Mugabe step down if the results hold? That would be shocking.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) defied a government ban on pre-empting the official announcement of the election results and released the count from polling stations that showed Tsvangirai beating the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, even in the president's home territory of Mashonaland.
'We've won this election,' said Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary-general. 'The results coming in show that in our traditional strongholds we are massacring them. In Mugabe's traditional strongholds they are doing very badly. There is no way Mugabe can claim victory unless it is through fraud. He has lost this election.'
If only there were more like him who weren't afraid to speak out like this. On Zimbabwe:
"The stories we are hearing of the harassment of political opponents, detentions without trial, torture and the denial of medical attention are reminiscent of our experiences at the hands of apartheid police," said Tutu, who was a leader of the struggle against South Africa's whites-only rule.
The official Herald newspaper reported that Mugabe told a meeting of local council members that they should put more pressure on government ministers to improve services.
"Where money for projects has not been found, we will print it," Mugabe was quoted as saying.
The printing of money is generally regarded as a recipe for inflation -- which is officially at 4,500 percent in Zimbabwe, though private economists estimate it to be at least twice that high. The government last month ordered sweeping price cuts of about 50 percent, accusing store owners and businesses of fueling the inflation.
A few years ago it was Chirac and France who complained that the summit was critical and including Mugabe, the man who has led Zimbabwe from the breadbasket of Africa to a starving nation. As someone who has much less faith in grand summits and the dubious results, I'm offended at the decision to again cast aside the law and allow an exception, but unfortunately some EU powers are obsessed with being locked out of the next financial boom in Africa that will profit a few dozen locals, perhaps, and enrich some global corporate power.
Whether Ghana or the African Union or anyone else publicly demands Mugabe is allowed to participate, that is their problem and not the EU's problem. Why bother to even have a travel ban for the likes of Mugabe if it's going to be pushed aside every time a summit is announced? Creating an exception for a man who has turned the state against his own people with brutal and sometimes deadly results will only reward this kind of behavior.
"Enablers" is exactly on the money. To say nothing is to support Mugabe and his policies.
With Mugabe poised to rig five more catastrophic years in office, it is time for regional leaders to recognize that his campaigns of oppression make apartheid Rhodesia and South Africa look like amateurs. As Bishop Desmond Tutu has said, we as Africans must hang our heads in shame at our failure to make a difference to the suffering men, women and children of Zimbabwe.
When will Southern Africa's leaders decide they will no longer align themselves with tyranny? When will they abandon their failed strategy of "quiet diplomacy" and move to help the people of Zimbabwe?
African leaders and the international community must demand that the government of Zimbabwe stop its violence against political opponents; create a democratic environment through the repeal of repressive legislation; enact a democratic constitution; and hold free, fair elections that are supervised by the international community.
Eyewitnesses saw a group of armed men abduct Mr Chikombo last Thursday. His captors drove a silver pick-up truck of the same make used in numerous similar abductions during a sustained three-week terror campaign targeting government opponents.
The pattern of abductions and punishment beatings has become a terrifying nightly ritual in Zimbabwe, where scores of opposition activists and their relatives have been attacked by gangs using unmarked cars and police-issue weapons. The government has refused to confirm or deny its involvement in these "hit squads" but Mr Mugabe has spoken of the police's right to "bash" the opposition and of "terrorist acts" by opponents.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe state media (which is not independent and is controlled by Mugabe) is threatening British Embassy political officer Gillian Dare.
The state Herald, a government mouthpiece, called Dare "the purse holder and financier" of an alleged violence and terror campaign by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
"It will be a pity for her family to welcome her home at Heathrow Airport in a body bag just like some of her colleagues from Iraq and Afghanistan," wrote David Samuriwo in an article prominently displayed on the newspaper's leader page.
It said Dare, "labeled in some sections of the media as a British spy, could one day be caught in the crossfire as she plays night nurse to arrested MDC hooligans."
It doesn't exactly sound as though Mugabe is feeling much heat from his neighbors, does it?
Zimbabwe's influential Roman Catholic bishops have abandoned a long-standing reticence to criticise Robert Mugabe, damning his government as "racist, corrupt and lawless" and likening the struggle against it to the country's liberation war against white rule.
The pastoral letter, read out in churches yesterday, denounces "overtly corrupt" leaders for using "ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning orders, beatings and torture", days after Mr Mugabe said that his opponents deserved to be "bashed".
The Catholic bishops' conference letter warns that Zimbabwe is heading towards a "flashpoint" but appeals for "peace and restraint" in protests ahead of a two-day general strike called from tomorrow. The letter said young Zimbabweans "see their leaders habitually engaging in acts and words which are hateful, disrespectful, racist, corrupt, lawless, unjust, greedy, dishonest and violent in order to cling to the privileges of power and wealth".
The bishops say the seizure and redistribution of white-owned farms over recent years, the centrepiece of what Mr Mugabe portrays as his campaign to liberate Zimbabwe from the vestiges of colonialism, has enriched the elite but done little to help the poor. They conclude that the white settlers who once exploited what was Rhodesia have been supplanted by a black elite that is just as abusive.
At the same time, Mugabe's police have dragged opposition members out of the hospital (after alleged police beatings) to throw them into prison on new trumped up charges.
While it may sound like Pol Pot and his destructive regime thirty years ago, this is Zimbabwe today. The latest bad news for the suffering population is a massive shortage of corn/maize. Most people in Zimbabwe live on mealy-meal, which we would call cornmeal in the US. This is what people eat for the 2 or if they are fortunate 3 meals a day. Of the required 1.8 tons needed to feed the population, only one third of that amount is expected from this years harvest. Making matters worse is the governments insistence that they have enough food and will not ask for or accept outside assistance.
Mugabe received a free pass this week from his neighbors, at least in public, but the calls for change are growing and the rest of the region has to be fed up with his disregard for human rights as well as the continuing problem of feeding the people of Zimbabwe. How much more abuse can the good people of Zimbabwe endure and how much more of this treatment will they tolerate?
Mugabe has been actively sending goon squads out at night to beat up opposition members, who have been already been beaten and arrested countless times. Before leaving for a meeting in Tanzania with fellow southern African leaders, Mugabe's police systematically rounded up and arrested leading opposition members. At this point, Mugabe has nothing left to offer Zimbabwe besides excessive violence so it is no wonder that there are rumors circulating about a coup. People want to get back to eating, working and living a normal life, none of which are on Mugabe's agenda.
Sensing the end of the line for Mugabe and his disastrous policies, ZANU-PF (ruling party) politicians are building bridges with western countries who are keen to move into the post-Mugabe period. Both sides find advantages, as Mugabe has become unpredictable and vindictive with anyone who he thinks might challenge his authority and the western nations are able to plug into the ruling party without pushing for complete revolution. There are continuing doubts by the western nations that the main opposition party MDC can be effective in organizing or capitalizing on the momentum against Mugabe's rule.
Whether this campaign works is another question as the issue of who can best represent the people of Zimbabwe, but if nothing else this should help move Zimbabwe to free(er) elections in the near term without large the more typical rampant voter fraud in opposition areas. It just might also help avoid bloodshed in a country that is fed up and angry.
Now that the government has starved its population and beaten them up, they have re-started threats against foreign diplomats, demanding that they keep quiet and avoid all criticism. Not satisfied with the results, the government is now warning the international media or at least the media that is still allowed in the country.
The government warned representatives of foreign media organizations against "peddling false stories" on security issues, the state media reported Friday.
The government also threatened to clamp down on unlicensed foreign reporters making clandestine visits and said erring reporters should beware of authorities and should "stay away from the security forces" or face action.
State radio and television, Zimbabwe's sole broadcaster, and the daily Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, singled out the U.S. network CNN for what it called biased reports on political unrest and the alleged assault and torture of opposition leaders, including Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main Movement for Democratic Change.
Wow. Mugabe and his dictatorship is living on borrowed time.
Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the southern Bulawayo diocese, urged Zimbabweans to take to the streets in protest at the government's ongoing crackdown against dissenters opposed to the government, Reuters reported.
"The biggest problem with Zimbabweans is they are cowards, myself included, but as for me I am ready to stand in front, even of blazing guns," Ncube told a news conference.
"If only Zimbabweans are prepared to stand, so am I prepared to stand ... we are not going to be bullied."
Meanwhile Angola denied reports on Thursday claiming it had deployed members of a feared paramilitary police force to Zimbabwe in support of the government.
The rumors of Mugabe using thugs and hit squads to target opposition members sounds like more of the same to me, but Angola sending in 2000 police to help the government repression, that is beyond shocking. Angola is a country that suffered from years of war and is littered with mines even today making agriculture very dangerous and difficult.
The communist government of Angola has become rich to the tune of billions thanks to oil being discovered along with other natural resources though very little has ever made it back into the infrastructure of the country. The Bush administration recently gave preferred trading partner status to the oil-rich country despite its poor reputation for human rights, rampant corruption and inability to provide basic needs for its people. The communist government also sold off fishing rights to the EU, thus leaving few alternatives for feeding its own population.
Since the US does have a close relationship with Angola, I would expect to see some action taken to prevent or at least firmly protest this proposed move by the government to crush opposition to the brutal dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe and his band of thugs continue to step up pressure on the opposition, resorting to even more violence. Opposition MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa was held and beaten at the airport according to reports.
"He was badly beaten this morning whilst he was on his way to the airport by security agents," said Bango, a spokesman for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Chamisa was due to be attending an EU-ACP meeting in Brussels. The security agents have taken his passport, laptop and his luggage. One of his eyes has been badly injured.
"It's really bad. His head has been severely injured".
Elphus Mukonoweshuro, secretary for foreign affairs within the MDC, confirmed the incident.
"Chamisa has suffered serious head injuries after being attacked by security the agents in the morning," he said.
It sounds like Mugabe has run out of options and can only resort to more violence to maintain his grip.
