Mark Steyn-- What the Afghans need is colonizing [Excerpt] Afghanistan needs not just food parcels, but British courts and Canadian police and Indian civil servants and U.S. town clerks and Australian newspapers. So does much of the rest of the region. Given the billions of dollars of damage done to the world economy by September 11th, massive engagement in the region will be cheaper than the alternative.
America has prided itself on being the first non-imperial superpower, but the viability of that strategy was demolished on September 11th. For its own security, it needs to do what it did to Japan and Germany after the war: civilize them. It needs to take up (in Kipling's words), "the white man's burden," a phrase that will have to be modified in the age of Colin Powell and Condi Rice but whose spirit is generous and admirable.[End Excerpt]
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said Ephraim Taba was abducted Feb. 16 near the ruling party stronghold of Mutoko, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Harare.
Witnesses reported Taba being assaulted and reported his disappearance to police, said Lovemore Matombo, the federation's president. He has not been found.
The independent Human Rights Forum, an umbrella group of 11 church and rights groups, said in a report released Thursday that it was compiling witness information on at least 72 ruling party militia bases - known as "re-education camps" - across the country.
A return to law and order "must entail the disbanding of the youth and other militia and the immediate closure of the so-called re-education camps used by such militia," Matombo said.
The report said 26 people had died in political violence in the first 23 days of February, 16 opposition supporters, five members of the ruling party and six people whose affiliation was unknown.
The federation has protested to the government over "widespread violence and intimidation by organized state-sponsored forces targeted mostly at members of the opposition and civil society" including labor groups, Matombo said.
The government says labor groups support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, used to lead the federation. The labor group represents 90 percent of organized labor, and affiliated civic groups. [End Excerpt]