Posted on 05/09/2008 10:03:58 PM PDT by Clive
Violence has been the hallmark of Robert Mugabe's career. The former school teacher, who is inordinately proud of an academic record that includes seven graduate and postgraduate degrees, has often publicly boasted he also "has a degree in violence."
Now, as he clings to office despite a March 29 election defeat, he is once again resorting to violence and intimidation on a grand scale.
More than 30 opposition figures have been murdered, critical journalists have been jailed and 40,000 farm workers who dared to vote against the man who has ruled Zimbabwe since its creation 28 years ago have been beaten, terrorized and driven from their homes.
On Friday, Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights said its members have treated more than 900 victims of torture and assault since the presidential poll.
The doctors estimate they have seen only a fraction of the real number of victims since many cases of intimidation and assault go unreported.
John Worsley-Worswick, head of the Justice for Agriculture Trust, an advocacy group for Zimbabwe's farmers, says attacks on farm workers who supported opposition parties in the election have escalated in the past week.
There have been reports of beatings, burned huts and intimidation, he said. The attackers are usually young men wearing military clothing.
In one case, a farm worker was beaten with iron bars and sticks, while another was strangled with wire.
The advocacy group says since the election 142 farms have been invaded, with Mashonaland, the northern region that used to be the backbone of Mr. Mugabe's rural support, the hardest hit.
This week, members of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum and a farm workers union said Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwean African National Unity-Patriotic Front party (ZANU-PF) has launched "a countrywide terror campaign" to discourage opposition voters from voting against him in a runoff election.
Up to 40,000 farm workers and their families have been forced to flee their homes by armed youth militias loyal to Mr. Mugabe, Gertrude Hambira, head of the General Agriculture & Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, told a news conference in Johannesburg.
"We have had security agents going out to the farms, addressing the farm workers. Some of them have said, ‘We need to discipline you because you voted for the opposition,' " she said. "It is really bad."
If the farm families are not in their home districts when the runoff is held, they will be unable to vote.
According to Zimbabwe's constitution, the runoff should be held on May 24, three weeks after results of the March 29 election were officially announced.
It took the election commission more than a month to make the announcement, which officially showed Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, beating Mr. Mugabe with 47.9% of the vote to 43.2%.
The MDC insists Mr. Tsvangirai won the election outright, with more than 50% of the vote, and says there is no need for a runoff.
A week after the results were announced, the MDC still has not said if it will participate in a runoff election. Opposition groups insist Mr. Mugabe's supporters may have launched the latest wave of attacks simply to discourage the MDC from challenging him again.
"It will be very difficult for them to win the runoff because the people have been thoroughly intimidated," said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.
"A lot of people have been displaced. The political field is grossly uneven and ZANU-PF is using all this extra time to rig the elections. They are already marking ballot papers for Mugabe. They are likely to rig this election in overdrive so the MDC has little chance of winning."
Before he will agree to take part in a runoff, Mr. Tsvangirai is calling for international observers to monitor the poll. He has been backed by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General.
Mr. Mugabe banned Western observers from the first election, accusing them of bias after they said there had been widespread fraud in previous Zimbabwe elections.
Now, amid reports of mounting violence and growing uncertainty, Harare is starting to lash out at other critics.
On Thursday, police arrested Davison Maruziva, editor of the independent weekly newspaper The Standard. He has been charged with "publishing false statements prejudicial to the state" for printing an article critical of Mr. Mugabe by an MDC leader, Arthur Mutambara.
At the same time, police arrested Harrison Nkomo, a prominent human rights lawyer, for "insulting or undermining the authority of the head of state."
After bailing two other journalists out of jail, Mr. Nkomo apparently told a staff member in the attorney general's office Mr. Mugabe should quit. Unfortunately for him, the civil servant was a nephew of Mr. Mugabe.
A 2002 law made it a crime to criticize the president or his office.
Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, says the two sets of arrests "may signal the government's escalation of its crackdown on perceived opponents."
It may also be an attempt to intimidate Mr. Tsvangirai into conceding the runoff before it is even announced. Officials with the MDC have said Mr. Tsvangirai will make a "definitive statement" on his intentions during a news conference in South Africa Saturday.
National Post
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But at least Mugabee has gun control to reduce the violence (such as would occur if the victims had means to defend their lives and families).
Thank you Jesus for letting me be born and raised in a civilized country.
This is Africa, folks..
This is African Home Rule..
I’ve notice that all of academia’s Leftists and bleeding heart do gooders are SILENT as they observe the outcome of their “good works” to dispossess the white man in Africa and implement “Home Rule”...
“Home Rule” has in fact become Thug Rule — and nary a complaint from all the jerks and U.N. pukes who worked so hard to bring it about...
I’ll bet they’re proud....
Africa was still about a century short of being ready for “home rule”..
The proof is in the current reality of the situation.
Let's hope it stays that way. I believe we may well look back on more civilized times in the not too distant future.
With bitter jackasses like Wright,Belafonte, Jackson, Sharpton, Shabazz, etc. whipping up black hatred, we may well wish we hadn't tried to welcome this race into the American community, atone for past bad behavior and bend over backward to cater to them.
Then there are Muslims......
I wonder what his grades were.
They didn't want to affect his self esteem so grades weren't kept. (After-all, we're all the same anyway)
Mugabe “earned” his first PhD in violence a longtime ago and has “earned” quite a few more since them.
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