Posted on 03/29/2002 12:38:28 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Having conducted a terror campaign against his political opponents, beggared his country's economy, corrupted its courts, intimidated its press, alienated its entrepreneurs, widened its racial divide, presided over the armed robbery of thousands of farms and then rigged an election to assure his victory, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe paid a small price last week: Zimbabwe was suspended for a year from the Commonwealth - a group of 54 nations, most of them former British colonies.
But it is not the British Commonwealth, or any other international organization led by Westerners, that is apt to deter Mugabe from his increasingly autocratic and destructive course and bring democracy and prosperity to Zimbabwe. What must sway Mugabe, if he is to be moved at all, is collective action by responsible African leaders.
The stakes go beyond Zimbabwe. International financier George Soros has pointed out that the phony elections in Zimbabwe cast doubt on the ability of African countries generally "to create suitable preconditions for private investment." The economic, political, legal and social degeneration of Zimbabwe, in short, is frightening off the kind of foreign investment that is needed for the entire region's economic development and political stability.
There is, mercifully, some small sign that critical African leaders are awakening to the danger. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and South African President Thabo Mbeki stood at the side of Australian President John Howard, who announced Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
Thus far, however, Obasanjo, Mbeki and other African leaders have been squeamish about criticizing Mugabe harshly or in public, no doubt because they respect his role as a father of the liberation movement in southern Africa.
But their silence is risking the collapse of all that movement has achieved in Zimbabwe. Investors have fled the nation, and the International Monetary Fund has suspended loans, citing growing corruption in the use of state funds. Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate tops 115%, and more than 60% of the people are unemployed.
There is every reason to believe the downward spiral will continue if Mugabe is left to his own devices. Any notion that he might change course after the election, evince signs of magnanimity and establish some sort of legitimacy and credibility were demolished last week when Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, was charged with treason.
It was unity that helped liberate southern Africa and send the region down the road to freedom and independence. Leaders in southern Africa need to demonstrate the same unity of purpose to rescue Zimbabwe and the region from the threat posed by one of their wayward and increasingly destructive brothers.
On Wednesday, Mugabe's government threatened to prosecute Geoff Nyarota, editor of the country's only private daily newspaper, over a story his paper ran about a presidential election run-off, South African Broadcast Radio Corp. reported.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo wrote Nyarota asking him to correct what Moyo termed "deliberate falsehoods" or face legal action, the report said.
The Daily News reported last week that the African Caribbean Pacific-European Union Joint Assembly in Cape Town had passed a resolution calling for a fresh election.
Moyo lashed out today at local journalists he accused of promoting what he called American propaganda against Zimbabwe by reporting on travel restrictions on government officials and prominent ruling party supporters imposed by Washington.
Independent newspapers in Zimbabwe have reported the wife of an army general, top businessmen closely aligned to the government and several bankers and weapons and fuel suppliers have been denied visas for trips to the United States. [End Excerpt]
From the South African Press Associtaion about a journalist working for Britain's Daily Telegraph and the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian and Business Day. -- Zimbabwe -- Journalist moved to new cell - [Full Text] Harare - Detained Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft was moved from Chimanimani to a police cell in Mutare, north east of Harare, her son, Adrian, told Sapa on Friday.
"She has had access to her lawyer, which is a good thing. Her cousin has also seen her and said she seems okay," he said.
Adrian said his 57-year-old mother would probably be jailed for the weekend, as the courts were closed. She was moved to the new cell on Thursday afternoon.
"It's the normal harassment they're doing."
Her lawyer, Tapiwanashe Kujinga, who saw her on Thursday afternoon, also said the journalist seemed fine.
"She told me she had no complaints and they (the police) were treating her well."
Speaking from Chimanimani, east of Harare, where Thornycroft was arrested on Wednesday afternoon under the Public Order and Security Act, Kujinga said there was still no indication when Thornycroft would appear in court.
She was arrested on charges of publishing false statements likely to prejudice state security and inciting public violence.
Each offence carries a two-year prison sentence.
The Act also allows the authorities to detain people for up to seven days, and makes criticism of President Robert Mugabe a criminal offence.
Thornycroft, a Zimbabwean citizen with a South African residence permit, is a correspondent for a number of publications, including Britain's Daily Telegraph and the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian and Business Day.
Thornycroft had gone to Chimanimani to investigate reports of reprisal violence against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change after the March 9-11 presidential election. [End]
Daily News Zim- Zimbabwe -- MDC polling agent beaten to death by police, soldiers [Excerpt] HIS life ended abruptly at the age of 25 after a group of enthusiastic policemen and soldiers at Ruda police station beat him up for backing the candidature of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, in the just- ended presidential election.
Donald Jeranyama, an MDC polling agent in Mutasa, died at his home in the constituency on Monday from internal injuries he sustained following a severe beating allegedly by members of the uniformed forces.
Jeranyama was among the 25 MDC polling agents and five whites arrested on 7 March for allegedly contravening a section of Public Order and Security Act after they gathered at St Martins School to be deployed to various polling stations. [End Excerpt]
The globalists speak. Sorry, but I disagree with this assessment. What needs to be done is that the citizens of Zimbabwe need to be educated and encouraged to overthrow this guy on their own. It is an *internal* matter; but, like most globalists, the author wants other countries to involve themselves in someone else's business.
Tuor
Good Morning to you.
Hopefully the word is spreading and the response is consolidating.
But Mbeki and Obasanjo are still trying to save Mugabe's butt.
Zimbabwe -- Mbeki, Obasanjo envoys in fresh bid to save Mugabe
Ot was due to lefty idiots, the UN, and the LIBERAL media telling lies, that delivered this region into the 8th ring of Hell , ruled over by brutal, corrupt, Marxist , black madmen.
Yeah, that'll happen exactly one week after hell freezes over.
Well they TRIED and did have the votes to vote in a new president and many were killed for that. Even now, after the election, many who voted against Mugabe are being tortured and run off or jailed. The opposition candidate has been charged with treason. The backers of Mugabe are fewer but they have the power now. What they NEED is whimpy aid from the UN and the Red Cross (both have turned them down) but for enough international monetary pressure and outrage for this terror, to be applied to the other African countries, until Mugabe becomes so hot they'll drop their support for him and start thinking about saving their own hides.
There needs to be enough pressure put on them that they'll start seeing their own power bases are threatened.
I don't mean that way. I mean the way *we* did it: with guns and bullets. We, or, better, other African nations, should send the opposition lots of guns and, maybe, people to teach them how to use them. If, however, the opposition cannot drum up enough support from the citizenry to overthrow the government, then the wisest thing for them to do would be to pack up their things and get out while they can.
Tuor
And Gadaafi has been giving Mugabe money and muscle*****More sinister is the fact that Gadaafi insisted on calling into conclave Harare's small community of Indian Muslims, telling them that they must assist Mugabe's plans by declaring a jihad (holy war) to throw the whites out. If they did not do this, he told the Muslim elders, he would bring in strong arm men from the Pagad movement in Cape Town with which he had close links. There has long been speculation that Gadaafi might have links to Pagad, an extremist Muslim vigilante movement often linked to bombings and murders in the Cape, including bomb attacks on US-linked enterprises such as the Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Cape waterfront, but this is the first open confirmation of the fact.
The bulk of Harare's Muslim community, consisting largely of merchants and professionals, was aghast at this demand and has failed to declare a jihad ,a failure which they believe lies behind the sudden spate of attacks on Muslim shops by Zanu-PF youths in the last ten days. For heaven's sake, said one Muslim merchant, we all do business with whites all the time. We rely on them and most of us are appalled by what Mugabe's doing. It's obvious that those youths who were sent to attack white and Muslim shops were meant to be punishing us for not complying.
However, Gadaafi - like Mugabe a virtual paranoiac in matters of personal security - had also left behind two extra bodyguards for Mugabe and four specialist coordinators. These men are believed to have experience in the training and handling of death squads and they have, in the last month, bought up 20 houses right around Zimbabwe to act as safe houses for the squads. The houses are strategically scattered only four are in Harare and there is one in every regional town or centre of any size. ****
And all Jimmy Carter has done, is yell at President Bush, that he isn't sending money to the back, Marxist, lunatic, om Jimmy helped install in Zimbabwe. Jimmy should go over there, and build a whooooooooooooooooole lotta houses . Don't ya think ?
Ah. Good. Now we're getting somewhere. What you're telling me is that nearly all of Southern Africa is turing racist? Or at least, they seem to be regressing from civility into savagery?
I don't know what your stand on the matter is, but, if this is true, then the Whites had best get the heck out of there, because there's no way the US or Europe is going to go there...especially not when the US is pursuing their Neverending War Against Evil.
I guess that the consequences of Colonialism are still echoing across the years. I really do feel sorry for those caught in this...the ones that just want to farm and live in peace, but I think if the West got involved, matters would only get worse for everyone.
Tuor
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