Mugabe turns the screw on opposition
Mugabe is turning the screws further in his battle to steal Zimbabwe's next election.
He's not even trying to be subtle, he's simply bludgeoning his way to the presidency. It simply horrifies me that, in the twenty first century, he can get away with this while the rest of the world stands around impotently. I understand why Britain and other European nations are reluctant to play into his narrative that colonialism and British interference are behind all of Zimbabwe's problems, but I am simply horrified that Mbeki is so silent when South Africa could have a real effect on the events unfurling in Zimbabwe today. Mbeki may be angered by the responsibility which he now finds on his shoulders, and which he never requested, but it is a responsibility that comes with the office he ran for.The Zimbabwean government yesterday banned the opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, from holding political rallies three weeks ahead of his run-off election against Robert Mugabe.
The police told Tsvangirai of the ban, ostensibly over concerns for his safety, when he was arrested for a second time this week while trying to campaign. But the move appears to reflect a growing concern in Mugabe's camp that its strategy of violence, intimidation and nationalist appeals will not be sufficient to ensure victory in the June 27 vote after Tsvangirai won the first round in March but fell just short of an outright majority.
He is in a unique position to have influence over events in Zimbabwe and it a stain on his time in office that he has always backed Mugabe rather than the wishes of the Zimbabwean electorate.
And he has done so, not for any high moral standpoint, he has done so because it is easier to do so.
So he's banning any international organisations from working in Zimbabwe during the elections, giving him free reign to do as he pleases.The ban on opposition rallies came a day after the government barred international aid agencies, including the United Nations, from working in Zimbabwe for the duration of the election campaign.
The US described the restrictions as further evidence that Mugabe wants to control food distribution to use it as a political weapon to blackmail Zimbabweans into voting for him.
But aid workers said they believed it is also an attempt to prevent them from witnessing the escalating state-sponsored attacks on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and its supporters in rural areas. The MDC says more than 60 of its activists and supporters have been murdered by pro-Mugabe militias or security forces and thousands more have been severely beaten.
In a country where people already suffer from food shortages brought about by Mugabe's own stupid plan to have unqualified people take over white farms, and with inflation running at what is estimated to be 165,000%, it is hard to think of a more incompetent leader on Earth than Robert Mugabe. And yet we will now stand aside and watch as he bans opposition rallies and uses food as a weapon to bludgeon the Zimbabwean people into voting for more of his disastrous policies.Zanu-PF was clearly shocked after the first round of elections at the inroads Tsvangirai made into the ruling party's former strongholds, particularly in Mashonaland. The MDC leader had campaigned heavily in rural areas for the first time because of the relative lack of violence compared to other recent elections.
Mugabe has evidently fallen back on violence once again but in banning foreign aid agencies, and detaining British and American diplomats on Thursday, the authorities evidently do not want outside witnesses. On Thursday, foreign aid organisations were ordered to suspend field work indefinitely. Mugabe this week accused NGOs of acting as a front for western support for the MDC.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the ban would severely hamper assistance to millions of people. "These restrictions are also coming at a time when food security in Zimbabwe is deteriorating, leaving an increasing number of people vulnerable," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for OCHA, told the Associated Press.
Two British aid agencies affected by the ban, Save the Children and Christian Aid, condemned it. Christian Aid described the restrictions as certain to have an "extremely detrimental effect" and "frightening".
The United States have, at last, started attempts to sideline Mbeki but it may all be too little, too late.
It's enough to make one despair.
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