World needs a plan for Mugabe lunacy (Editorial)
Posted by African Press International on June 29, 2008
Nairobi (Kenya) – There is no easy way to tell the story of Zimbabwe, a country most of whose citizens have only known one leader — independence war veteran, President Robert Mugabe.
He has over the years systematically emasculated the opposition and silenced any dissent within his ruling Zanu-PF party. All opposition has been branded puppets of the West. Mugabe has presided over a slide into economic chaos to record 80 per cent unemployment and the world’s highest inflation rate.
Following a massively rigged March 29 General Election, he decided to withhold the final results and instead released a statement three weeks later declaring a tie and ordering a run-off in 21 says. This was later rescheduled to today and has been preceded by unprecedented acts and statements of aggression by the State and its agents.
Not even the chorus of appeals and protests from a clearly enraged world has moved Comrade Mugabe. He argues that he cannot afford to lose this election and “hand over power to the British colonialists through the back door”.
If he does, he promises war.
Having fought so hard to liberate his people from colonial rule, he has now enslaved them in a manic grip that has seen hundreds of thousands unemployed and famine stricken Zimbabweans become economic refugees. He has created a nation of sick and poor ‘billionaires’, awash in a currency so depleted everyone carries bags of it.
Are these not crimes against humanity? Are we not witnessing a form of genocide against the people of Zimbabwe? Some commentators have suggested forcible removal of Zanu-PF from power. But, obviously, an invasion is not the first choice of engagement. More sanctions are pointless as there is very little left to strip.
However, new investments — especially by Zimbabwe’s biggest investor Anglo-American, which plans to build a $400 million platinum mine — should be postponed.
The clearest option seems to be a negotiated settlement that would allow Mugabe to retain his nationalistic fervour as he participates in a government of national unity. This would accommodate everybody even as efforts are started to prepare for new elections under a revised constitution. For the sake of the people of Zimbabwe, the world needs to engage Mugabe constructively. He is looking for a reason to fight — don’t give him one since he has nothing to lose.
Human rights abuses anywhere are abuses everywhere. Similarly genocide anywhere is genocide everywhere since no country exists in isolation. The comrade is clearly an unstable man and such people need counselling. Not chains.
—————-
API/The Standard (Kenya) – June 27, 2008.
