March 30, 2003
AFRICA SCREAMS:
Mugabe 'runs amok' as world watches the war (Brian Latham and Basildon Peta, March 30 2003, Independent Online)Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has unleashed a wave of terror on his political opponents in Harare's poverty-ridden townships while world attention is diverted by the war in Iraq.Mugabe appears to be taking revenge on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for organising a successful two-day general strike last week - and also trying to intimidate MDC supporters planning further mass action.
Mugabe is also trying to prevent MDC voters from voting against him in two parliamentary by-elections in the Harare townships this weekend, the MDC believes.
The wave of violence appears to be derailing a tentative new peace initiative by President Thabo Mbeki.
A report by the independent Human Rights Forum tells of devastating violence against residents of the Harare townships, which are largely MDC strongholds.
"People taken by police for questioning were handed over to Zanu-PF youths and taken behind police stations where they were assaulted severely, using weapons such as baton sticks, chains, hosepipes and rifles.
"In most cases [the assaults involved] groups of between 20 and 50 individuals," reads the report.
The Human Rights Forum believes the new wave of violence is worse than that which preceded the June 2000 parliamentary general elections and the presidential elections in March last year. Its report details a horrific list of tortures, which include beatings, blindfolding, rape and electric shocks.
And according to the Human Rights Forum, the terror campaign is not aimed only at MDC supporters. Allegations of elderly parents and young children being blindfolded, taken to torture camps and then dumped in the bush have also surfaced.
One case study tells of a woman who was raped with the barrel of an AK47 while the rest of her family stood by helplessly.
The attack, carried out by 16 men in army uniform and four civilians loyal to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, continued with a savage assault on the woman's son, who was beaten and burnt with cigarettes before being dumped in the bush.
Others told of electric wires attached to their noses, ears and genitals and current switched on whenever they were asked a question.
You don't have to think that the Iraq war is "all about oil" to believe that if Zimbabwe had oil reserves we'd pay more attention to it. Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush should turn the world's full focus on Mugabe's reign of terror post haste and drive him from office by any means necessary. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 30, 2003 11:26 AM
The difference is oil -- in that the easy income that oil affords allows a regime to purchase the means to threaten both its citizens and others.
Posted by: Dave at March 30, 2003 7:00 PMI cannot see how the world's attention is taken
up by the war in Iraq. The world -- and specifically
the UN -- is doing absolutely nothing, and has
all the time it could possibly need to deal
with Mugabe.
Zimbabwe is a bit more difficult than Iraq because its neighbors, by and large, support Mugabe. If South Africa turns against him, then real action becomes feasible.
Posted by: Paul Jaminet at March 30, 2003 10:21 PMIn addition, the Palestinians and their supporters in academia and elsewhere have so focused international on Israel's "intention" to use the Gulf War to drive the Palestinians into Jordan, that all attention is spent in this worthy direction, at the expense of "less worthy" (e.g., African) causes.
As usual.
(One solution, however, might be for Mugabe's political opponents to persuade Sharon to attack them, perhaps wiping out a village or two, thus earning them the world's sympathy and introducing them to the world's spotlight. What do they have to lose? Algeria, where millions have died over the past decade or so, might also wish to consider this suggestion.)
I don't know about that "raped with an AK-47 barrel" story. The AK has a large elevated front sight sticking up about three inches at a right angle to the end of the barrel. Ouch.
Posted by: Lou Gots at March 31, 2003 7:34 AM