Posted on 05/25/2005 7:31:29 PM PDT by RWR8189
Harare
PARAMILITARY UNITS armed with batons, riot shields, and tear gas patrolled main roads in Zimbabwe's capital last weekend as police warned they would not tolerate protests against their crackdown on street trading--the only livelihood for thousands of poor township dwellers.
The police, under direct orders from Didymus Mutasa, the head of the secret police (Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization), have brutally removed any competition to Chinese traders whose shops have sprung up around the capital over the past few years. Mutasa said law and order had to be preserved and Harare's Police Chief, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, said 9,653 people were arrested in the five-day blitz on street vendors, flea market stalls, and other informal businesses.
This crackdown appears to be part of an orchestrated pro-China initiative. Mutasa, who is now overseeing the distribution of land to the Chinese, would not comment on charges that the Mugabe regime is giving tobacco farming land to the Chinese in exchange for war planes and other arms. What is certain is that the Zimbabwean government is buying these arms and the only imminent threat to Mugabe is his own people.
Police Chief Mandipaka said people were preparing to demonstrate but that police were ready and commuter minibuses (the main form of transport across Zimbabwe) were prevented from entering the city center. As Zimbabweans fight off hunger and oppression, some have had the courage to fight back. Angry demonstrators clashed with police over the weekend in the most serious unrest since President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party stole a landslide victory in the March 31 parliamentary general election.
But the violence by demonstrators may backfire, according to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. He recognizes classic Mugabe tactics and is accusing the 81-year-old tyrant of provoking conditions for declaring a state of emergency, which would give him unlimited powers of detention, seizure, and censorship. Tsvangirai also accused Mugabe of ordering the crackdown in response to pressure from newly-arrived Chinese businessmen to stop secondhand dealers undercutting their cheap imports. "The country has been mortgaged to the Chinese," Tsvangirai said in a statement. "How can we violently remove Zimbabweans from our flea markets to make way for the Chinese? The majority of Zimbabweans depend on informal trade to feed, clothe, and educate their families."
Since western countries imposed sanctions on the Mugabe regime three years ago for failing to uphold democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, the Zimbabwean leader has responded by looking East. Mugabe himself vigorously courted Chinese businessmen to invest in Zimbabwe, who in the last three years have descended on Harare and the country's other major cities, setting up shop at every street corner to sell cheap clothing and electronic goods.
But Zimbabweans have responded with cut-throat competition and informal trading. Police Chief Mandipaka said operators of informal businesses had been fined for operating without city council licenses or for possessing scarce staple items such as maize meal, sugar, and gasoline intended for resale on the black market. "Police will leave no stone unturned in their endeavor to flush out economic saboteurs," said Mandipaka.
One local academic joked that Mugabe had "yellow fever" since he can only see allies in Asia, which he knows will not criticize his oppressive policies. But the academic also raised a more serious point: Mugabe is throwing his own political cronies off tobacco growing land and oppressing street hawkers in towns to make way for the Chinese; and he is selling out his country to the Chinese in order to cling to power. So far, the West has done nothing to stem the tide of human rights abuse in Zimbabwe and has steadfastly refused to push for a UN resolution or any military solution. But what of Chinese influence in a destabilized region, is that a possible national security threat? Perhaps it's time the State Department took another look at Zimbabwe's new colonialists.
Roger Bate is a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
The kind of situation that should be natural for a decent United Nations to do something about. But, of course, there is no such thing, and never has been.
Lotsa Zimbabwe posts on this board. Not that I mind- pretty interesting situation there.
I think one of the reasons for all the Zim posts is that it has its own unique tragedy -- a nation that went from prosperous and stable (by African standards) to starving and desperate in just a few years. And it was all done deliberately by one insane man to ensure his hold on power. Not many nations fall so far so quickly. And for those of us who have spent some time there it is that much more heartbreaking to watch such a beautiful place with such wonderful people be destroyed.
Once again, all foretold by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged- all countries that let the looters rule will suffer a similiar fate- very tragic, very real. Mugabe must be stopped.
Very tragic indeed, but not so unique. The Americas have their own brand of this sickness and it's called Venezuela. A lot of similarities except VZ is wealthy enough to export it's troubles to its' neighbors.
No argument from me on Venezuela, although they have a ways to go to reach the Zimbabwe level of dissolution. Of course, on the other hand, Venezuela is in a position to cause us a lot of grief, unlike Zimbabwe. When I think back to that short-lived coup a few years ago -- how easy it would have been to take out Chavez. Our lives would be so much better.
I met so many great people in Zim/Rhodesia, both black and white. It was such a pleasant place -- people came from all over southern Africa to get IN, which is one sure sign you are doing something right. Hope you had a chance to visit before lunatic Mugabe started taking the farms.
Selling out one's country? Isn't it a standard free market practice? Why the West does not offer higher price?
Then he kicked out the white farmers and white business men who had these farms and businesses for several generations and give them to unqualified black supporters.
Now the country is in ruin and he now takes it from them and gives it to the Chinese who give him weapons to use against this people.
Well at least they got rid of their awful cruel apartheid problem.
If white people could come over there, why not Chinese.
As Heraclitus said "Nothing endures but change".
I have a feeling Mugabe's head is going to end up on a spike, and the Chinese will be the ones holding the sword covered in Mugabe's blood. I'm amazed that no one has organized an uprising. I mean, even the French managed to overthrow their leaders.
No one will offer a higher price for a sh*thole of a country. The chinese can get some work out of the tribal gangs there by the usual marxist methods and loot the country themselves.
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He's already sold a lot of it to Moammar Kadafi.
Incredible. How cruel and brutal. And the ChiComs get a foothold in Africa right next to South Africa with its gold and strategic minerals.
Colonialism/ done Chinese style.
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