Mugabe unleashes wave of terror with mass abductions.

Mugabe has responded to worldwide calls that he stands down the only way he appears to know: He has started abducting those who oppose him.

Fears are mounting in Zimbabwe for the lives of more than 40 opposition officials and human rights activists who have been abducted as part of a renewed crackdown by the regime in Harare. At least two more members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have disappeared in the past week, along with a freelance investigative reporter.

"The abductions are increasing and it now seems to be happening nationwide," Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman,said yesterday.

The operation, codenamed Chimumumu according to sources in the army, aims to eliminate political opponents and remove human rights monitors. The kidnappings follow a pattern familiar from the past two years of political intimidation, where key middle- and lower-ranking officials are "disappeared" in an attempt to terrorise or destabilise opponents of the ruling party. Among those taken in the past month are Chris Dlamini, the head of security for the MDC, and Jestina Mukoko, the director of Zimbabwe Peace Project. The ruling party and security services have denied any part in the abductions.

The police and authorities are claiming that they have had nothing to do with these abductions, even though all of the people being abducted are opponents of Mugabe.

Mugabe is now claiming that Botswana are training guerrillas to topple his government and that the UK are planning an invasion, which is a fanciful theory.

Even Mugabe must realise that there has been a distinct change in the attitude of the international community towards him since the recent outbreak of cholera in his country. However, it was seriously wishful thinking if anyone thought condemnation alone would be enough to shame this old bugger into heading for the sunset. He intends to go out the only way he knows, fighting for his last breath.

Mr Tsvangirai, who is in Botswana, has given a deadline of the end of the year for the release of the abductees, otherwise his party will "suspend" power-sharing talks with the government.

The whole notion of "power sharing" which South Africa, led by Mbeki, championed, has turned into a sick joke. This tyrant has no intention of sharing anything and his recent behaviour shows that this dog is still up to his old tricks.

And the US has now signaled that it no longer has any faith in Mugabe sharing power with anyone else.

Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in Pretoria that Washington had become convinced that the embattled president, Robert Mugabe was not interested in sharing power.

To allow him to continue as president in a unity government would leave "a man who’s lost it, who’s losing his mind, who’s out of touch with reality" in power, she said after talks with regional leaders. Washington – and Britain – had signalled a readiness to step in with a major aid package once a unity government is operational. "We’re not prepared to do any of that now," Ms Frazer said, citing the abductions in Zimbabwe, the deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation and the cholera epidemic.

The US are right in that we are now dealing with someone who appears to have lost his mind.

The question now is what are we all prepared to do about this? Mugabe, despite brutalising his people, is betting that we will do nothing. In the past he has always been proven correct and this time I don't imagine things will change in any significant manner.

Unless we are prepared to go in and topple him on humanitarian grounds then sanctions will achieve nothing. The country is already broken so there is nothing else that sanctions can do. And I somehow doubt that we are prepared to do anything more.

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Tags: Mugabe, Zimbabwe