Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Africa: Subsaharan

Mugabe's friends fail Zimbabwe

2005-06-26

al-Guardian editorial.

We all have a duty to oppose tyranny

Just figured that out, did you?

Zimbabwe's brutal clearances of thousands of slum dwellers from the country's capital, Harare, might not top the league of human-rights abuses in Africa (as defendants of Robert Mugabe's corrupt regime are quick to point out). But the almost casual cruelty of the 'Drive Out the Rubbish' campaign, whose victims now include two children crushed to death by bulldozers, marks an alarming increase in that nonchalant violence we associate with tyrants.
And they add, too, to a growing list of abuses that include one of the highest torture rates in the world, deliberate killings, physical assaults and torture of political opponents which together put in serious question Zimbabwe's claim to be a democracy.

Motivated by bitterness about the colonial past and extreme self-interest, Mugabe has undermined a once independent judiciary; destroyed the country's agricultural infrastructure, the best in Africa; closed down its free press; expelled the critical foreign press; persecuted the minority Ndebele-speaking people from Matabeleland; and driven the general population into poverty and starvation.

Two full paragraphs and not one word about what they'd do about it, but maybe they're just getting warmed up.

Despite these atrocities, Robert Mugabe enjoys an unwarranted tolerance from fellow African leaders who appear to believe that the only fault line in this rapidly deteriorating economy is white farmer resistance to land redistribution. The leading apologist remains Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, whose refusal to condemn his old friend is now seriously failing the people of Zimbabwe. Just as South Africa's friends around the world once found ways to put pressure on the apartheid regime of South Africa, now Zimbabwe's nearest neighbour must recognise its responsibilities.

But critics of Mugabe in the UK must recognise their responsibilities, too.

As they get ready to blame themselves. No wait ...

International obligations require the government to ensure that returning asylum seekers to their countries of origin does not put their lives in danger. This is impossible in a country as closed to outsiders as Zimbabwe. We cannot call on African leaders to condemn Mugabe's brutality and yet return asylum seekers into the hands of his thugs. Jack Straw cannot as Foreign Secretary lecture fellow G8 ministers about the deteriorating situation in the country, while his cabinet colleague, Charles Clarke, authorises the return of people who have fled from there.

This Home Office obduracy makes an uncomfortable counterpart to Robert Mugabe's 'Drive Out the Rubbish' campaign, which forces shantytown dwellers back to inhospitable and often dangerous areas. By ignoring the parallels, we lose all credibility in our justified condemnation of Mugabe's increasing tyranny.

It was lost a while back, doncha think? How 'bout sending 1Para into Zim-bob-we? We'll match with a brigade of the 82nd Airborne.

Posted by:Steve White

#3 By ignoring the parallels, we lose all credibility in our justified condemnation of Mugabe's increasing tyranny.

I don't think the "parallels" actually exist. There are plenty of social safety nets for British squatters. There aren't ANY for Zimbabwe's "nonpersons". Once again the LLL Media mouthpieces try to shield the left-wing perpetrators of stupidity from the consequences of their behavior. I just wrote a screed to OUR lll moonbats on my own weblog (click link) who are equally to blame for the perpetration of the destruction of human society. There will come a time of clensing. I LOVE the "Lord High Executioner"'s song, "I've got a little list...". I'll be busy making up my own. You all should, too. One day, perhaps very soon, it will be necessary to either surrender ALL our freedoms, or exercise those lists.

Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-06-26 19:40

#2 We all have a duty to oppose tyranny

or else what?

We will be forced to write you a really nasty letter from the UN or oped in the Guardian.

Posted by: 2b 2005-06-26 05:49

#1 once again the left looks at the mess they made for others and says, oh, isn't that a shame.

Too bad about the Pol Pot dead. Too bad about the 60 million dead for the fun and self-rightous party we had promoting communism (or is it 600? What's a zero among friends?) Too bad all we love about Europe is under serious threat of decline. Too bad about all those millions starving in Korea - but Kim Jong's the man. Too bad Cuba's such a little dung-hole, cause Castro and Che are cool.

Yeah, too bad you guys never got what a bunch of tools you have been for ruthless despots.

Posted by: 2b 2005-06-26 05:47

00:00