Posted on 03/08/2002 10:16:23 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Feb. 27-29 - Zimbabwe holds its first democratic elections.
April 18 - Robert Mugabe becomes prime minister. A coalition government is formed between his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front and its longtime foe, the Zimbabwe African People's Union led by Joshua Nkomo.
1982 - Troops from Mugabe's majority Shona tribe begin a harsh crackdown on the minority Ndebeles. Mugabe claims Nkomo was leading the Ndebeles in an armed rebellion. At least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, are killed, according to human rights groups.
1985 - Mugabe's party wins an overwhelming election victory, and the country edges toward one-party rule.
1987 - Mugabe's party merges with the weakened opposition. The government abolishes a separate role for white voters. The constitution is amended and Mugabe becomes executive president, a position that incorporates the powers of the prime minister.
1989 - Parliament passes legislation to establish one-party rule, but it is never enacted.
1995 - Mugabe's party wins all but two seats in parliamentary elections, which are boycotted by several opposition parties.
1996 - Mugabe is re-elected president, winning 93 percent of the vote in an election marked by a low voter turnout.
1999
April 29 - Mugabe appoints a commission composed almost entirely of party loyalists to draft a new constitution to replace the one negotiated at independence. The commission proposes allowing Mugabe to serve more than two terms and enabling the government to seize white-owned farms without compensation.
Sept. 6 - The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is established under the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai, uniting trade unionists, church groups, civic organizations and many students.
2000
Feb. 12-13 - Mugabe stages a referendum asking Zimbabweans to support adoption of his constitution, but it is rejected by 53 percent of the voters. Mugabe initially agrees to abide by the will of the people, but later backtracks. Human rights monitors notice a marked increase in human rights violations, and ruling party militants begin invading white-owned farms. The government does not intervene.
June 24-25 - The ruling party narrowly wins parliamentary elections. Although election day is relatively peaceful, the run-up is marred by violence and intimidation mainly blamed on the ruling party. Western observers say the election was neither free nor fair.
2001
June 30 - Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay retires after the government warns it cannot protect him from ruling party militants. Several other senior judges follow suit.
July 27 - The Supreme Court bench is expanded from six to eight judges, a move widely criticized as an effort to put compliant judges onto a court that often ruled against the government.
2002
January - February - Political violence intensifies, and militants continue invading white owned farms.
Jan. 10 - The government pushes legislation through Parliament clamping down on freedom of expression and assembly, and giving the police sweeping new powers.
Jan. 9 - The military chief says the military will refuse to recognize an opposition victory in the presidential election.
Jan. 31 - Parliament passes a bill aimed at muzzling the independent media, but Mugabe delays enacting the law.
Feb. 18 - The European Union, angered by Zimbabwe's refusal to let its observers freely monitor the elections, imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe, including a freeze on development aid and a ban on travel to the EU for senior government officials.
Feb. 22 - The United States imposes limited travel sanctions on Mugabe and members of his Cabinet.
Feb. 25 - Tsvangirai is charged with treason after a videotaped meeting implicates him in a plot to overthrow Mugabe. The opposition says the tape was doctored.
This is why you hear NOTHING from the Left: The perils of designer tribalism
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, once revered as a model African democrat, enters the weekend presidential election reviled by many of his former admirers as an example of the worst African traditions.
In power now for 22 years, the former Marxist guerilla has seen the vast majority at his first election win in 1980 dwindle to the real prospect of defeat in voting tomorrow and on Sunday.
"Mugabe seems to have gone bonkers in a big way," South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in January. "When you disregard the rule of law, when you do not allow space for dissent and when you use violence to silence your critics...you are on the slippery slope towards dictatorship with the trappings of a multi-party democracy," the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner said.
Few other African leaders have been so vocal in their public criticism of the man who led the former Rhodesia to Independence, to prosperity and then to penury. But South African government sources make it clear in private briefings that they and other African leaders have tried again and again to guide Mugabe back to democracy and the rule of law.
Mugabe (78) is seeking a third six-year term as president and a fifth term as leader of Zimbabwe's 13 million people, of whom just 70 000 are white. As unemployment and inflation have soared to record levels, he has repeatedly blamed an alleged British-led Western conspiracy for his country's economic woes.
Mugabe, known in liberal international circles 40 years ago as the thinking man's guerilla, was jailed for 10 years in 1964 for fighting white minority rule. But when, after a negotiated settlement with London and white leader Ian Smith, he was elected overwhelmingly as the first black prime minister, he offered forgiveness and reconciliation. He built schools, upgraded infrastructure for blacks left trailing under white rule and presided over a booming economy fuelled by heavy international borrowing.
After two terms as prime minister, he rewrote the constitution and won election as president in 1990.
The change was possible after he had crushed a seven-year armed rebellion in Matabeleland province and humbled his only rival for power, Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo.
There was a world outcry over alleged atrocities against civilians in Matabeleland, where mass graves are still being discovered.
Later, as the debt burden began to weigh and a younger generation of voters responded less enthusiastically to his liberation war record, Mugabe moved to shore up his support with patronage.
Farms bought from whites for landless peasants were given to cabinet ministers and soldiers, cronies won lucrative military contracts and Mugabe offered support to regional leaders no more popular at home than he had become.
An increasingly independent trade union movement defeated his attempts to raise fuel and food prices and rejected a proposed tax to fund war-veteran grants.
In February 2000, Mugabe tasted defeat for the first time when voters in a referendum rejected a new constitution that would have given him yet more powers. - Reuter.
Boston Globe Editorial (3/8/02) At stake in Zimbabwe [Full Text] PRESIDENT ROBERT Mugabe of Zimbabwe and other African leaders are telling European nations not to get involved in Zimbabwe's election this weekend. The obligation is therefore on African observers to make sure the vote is honest. If Mugabe fixes this election, African nations have a responsibility to make that call as well so Mugabe is subject to the full weight of international censure until he leaves power.
At a meeting of the Commonwealth nations this week, Africans told Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair that they would not endorse sanctions against Zimbabwe to punish Mugabe for previous efforts to throttle the opposition. This inaction makes sense only if it is accompanied by a resolve to make Mugabe and his cronies suffer if they steal the current election. So far the Africans have not been speaking toughly in public.
Mugabe is running on his record as a liberator of his country 22 years ago and as an enemy of white domination. ''We are not learners being put in a class by Britain, less still by a young politician like Blair,'' Mugabe said in a campaign speech. ''He has a lot to learn.''
Mugabe still has much to learn about democratic practices. He has sent gangs of thugs to terrorize the opposition, pressured his supporters in Parliament to approve a law to intimidate the press, grabbed land from white farmers without compensation, and expelled the chief election observer from the European Union (the other EU observers left the country because they could not do their work properly). All this to perpetuate a government awash in graft and mismanagement, so much so that Zimbabwe, once an exporter of food, cannot feed itself.
Voters need to decide freely whether Morgan Tsvangirai, a union leader, is the right replacement. He is far from perfect, having been caught on a videotape at a meeting where the subject of Mugabe's assassination was discussed (though some claim the tape was doctored). He draws financial support from white landowners, which may inhibit his ability to redistribute land to black Zimbabweans who rightly believe it was stolen from them more than a century ago.
The United States and nations in the European Union have already imposed restrictions on the assets of Mugabe and his top supporters for past antidemocratic practices. These nations need to inform Mugabe that their sanctions will be toughened if the election is rigged. Mugabe could easily dismiss their threat as the work of modern colonialists, but he cannot ignore the advice of African presidents such as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. They and other leaders of the emerging democracies in Africa need to convince Mugabe that unless the vote is honestly held, he and his regime will be pariahs on the continent. [End]
This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 3/8/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
What a disgusting tyrant. See above how the Leftists in Boston report on this brutal dictatorship.
Oh, and for all of you VERY naieve people, who get on an Africa Watch thread, every now and again, and say : " THE WHITES SHOULD JUST LEAVE ! " , I have a question for you. ? They are forbidden , by the government, from taking much money out of the country, and MUST pettion the government to take their own money out, there are NO countries that will take the MILLIONS of whites , and even trying to get an immigration visa, is virtually impossible. Soooooooooooo , where should the whites , in South Africa and Zimbabwe go and how ? Besides not being allowed to take more than a paltry sum out of the country , the Rand has fallen to its lowest EVER value. Many can't even buy a plane ticket out. Maybe you want them to build rafts and try to navigate the Atlantic ? Is that it ?
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