Zimbabwe
ROBERT MUGABE’S campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe is succeeding. On Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader who defeated him in the March 29 presidential election, withdrew from a runoff election that had been scheduled for Friday, citing the murder of 86 of his supporters and the torture, beating or displacement of tens of thousands of others. Yesterday, Mr. Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare; he has been repeatedly detained by police while attempting to campaign, and his deputy has been imprisoned on treason charges. As a host of world leaders affirmed, Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision was justified. But it also opened the way for Mr. Mugabe to hold a rigged vote and then award himself another mandate as president.
There is simply no avoiding the fact that as long as Mugabe is willing to resort to violence (and he most certainly is) there is no prospect for internal reform in Zimbabwe and no chance that things will get any better for the people of Zimbabwe either.
It is also quite clear the the African continent cannot or will not handle this problem on it own. Africa’s greatest regional power, South Africa, has been a powerful ally for the Mugabe regime, defending it from international action. The U.N. has been about as effective as usual.
While Britain and the U.S. have expressed condemnation and tried to inspire some internal action, at the end of the day it must be faced that those efforts have been futile and people in Zibabwe are dying.
