I have written many blogs about the regime of Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe. I was hesitant to write another one, as I know many of you will say, “Not another bloody Mugabe blog”, but the latest news coming out of the screwed up nation literally fills me with a giant sense of hopelessness.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader for the Movement for Democratic Change, and the man trying to remove Robert Mugabe from power, is seriously thinking of giving up on any further attempt to win power. Mugabe has stopped opposition supporters from meeting, or from holding political rallies in the lead up to the Presidential run-off election on June 27. MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti has been arrested on a trumped up charge of treason. Tsvangirai has himself been detained without charge numerous times in the last few weeks. And the most horrific element to all this has been the kidnapping and brutal killing of the wife of Harare’s MDC Mayor.
In a further sign of the worsening situation in Zimbabwe, the body of the mayor of Harare’s wife was found in a mortuary close to the couple’s house north of the city. She had been beaten so severely with rocks and iron bars that her face was almost unrecognizable, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/06/20/zimbabwe.violence/index.html
Can you blame Tsvangirai for wanting to throw in the towel? As I have reported before, the African continent sits on its hands; it honestly does not care. The rest of the world community is jumping up and down, but, similar to the Burmese Junta, Mugabe sits back, pokes his tongue out and keeps doing what he has done for over 20 years.
There has only been one lone African hand raised these last few days. It is the hand of Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.
Meanwhile Rwandan President Paul Kagame attacked what he said was a failure by African nations to address the situation in Zimbabwe, breaking rank with other countries in the region who have until now avoided direct criticism of the electoral process.
“It does not need a genius to understand that free and fair elections can be hard to contemplate in the current situation,” Kagame told a news conference.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/06/20/zimbabwe.violence/index.html
One can only continue to protest if one can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the light Tsvangirai is seeing ahead is a train. How is he ever going to have a serious chance of running for President, if his opponent is stopping him from campaigning, trumping up charges, and murdering supporters? And then, if he does win, Mugabe vows to begin a guerilla war against the new government. The old bastard will go down in a violent blaze of glory.
President Kagame of Rwanda needs to seriously rally the African leaders not just behind Tsvangirai, but behind the future of Zimbabwe. Tabo Mbeki of South South Africa needs to develop some courage and tackle Mugabe head on. It is Africa as a collective group that needs to get hard line with Mugabe. No more conferences, no more ’sitting back and waiting for the result’, but hard line punishments that will hurt Mugabe, and banish him from the playground. I have no idea what they can do, but I am sure they do. They just haven’t exercised their power. However it is important that it is collective power. President Kagame can do nothing on his own.
I know that many a victory has come through tough struggles and pain. Nelson Mandela suffered decades in prison before he finally saw the South Africa that he had been longing for. But, like Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, pain simply for the sake of it when the rest of the world glances over from time to time and says, “Sad, isn’t it?” can be seen as simply not worth it.
Enjoy your day.
