March 9, 2003
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE:
'I was ordered to kill my father' (Charlene Smith, March 08 2003, Sunday Independent)Hundreds of Zimbabwe's notorious youth militia, nicknamed the "green bombers", are fleeing to South Africa because they say they too are being beaten and starved, and are tired of "killing for nothing".This week The Sunday Independent interviewed 14 green bombers aged from 15 to 28, giving the first insight into the terror organisation.
One youth said he fled Zimbabwe after being forced to take part in the murder of his uncle, a supporter of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Another said he was involved in the murder of an MDC party chairperson and claimed that within hours of that death, Jonathan Moyo, the Zanu-PF minister of information, visited the area, followed by President Robert Mugabe. A large consignment of food was moved in while green bombers exhorted villagers to chant Zanu-PF slogans.Yet another said he fled to South Africa after being instructed to murder his father, an MDC supporter.
Hundreds of youths have fled to South Africa, according to human rights organisations, churches and law offices.
The stories of the youths interviewed - who come from different areas of Zimbabwe and who did not previously know each other - provide chilling details of the green bombers, their training and methods.
They come from the hundreds of youth militia training camps which have sprung up in Zimbabwe, many at secondary schools where pupils are forced to take part in activities or risk death. Most of those interviewed fled in December and January, some swimming the Limpopo and risking crocodiles to get to South Africa.
Why does no one speak of obscenities like this when they occur in Africa? Have we given up on a continent and a race? Posted by Orrin Judd at March 9, 2003 12:33 PM
Let's hope Chirac's sensitivities weren't disturbed by this article.
Of course he has had no idea this could be happening.
Our course should be obvious. All we need to do is come out say that Mugabe's opponents are "enemies of democracy", and that the the US will stand by Mugabe 'til the end, and that we even plan on sending forces to help him.
IMMEDIATELY..... the entire world will "discover" Mr. Mugabe's ooponents, and pour at least diplomatic and moral support, if not more, upon them, and glorify them for opposing "Bush's ally". Suddenly, the lives of Mr. Mugabe's opponents will magically be assigned some value that they obviously do not have now. Suddenly, people will appear in the streets by thousands to support Mugabe's oppostion, whereas today we see tumbleweeds blowing through the rallies held for the victims of any tyrant on earth who also conveniently happens to oppose Mr. Bush.
Mugabe's opposition cries out for the world to hear them. We owe it to them to immediately support their murderer, in order that SOMEONE else on this planet may decide to see that killer for who he is. Apparently, siding with Mugabe is pretty much the only way for us to get the ever-so-sophisticated thinkers of Europe et al to acknowledge that truth in Africa... or anywhere else on this planet for that matter.
Telling that youths who refuse to "kill for nothing," but were willing to kill for food, are the ethical
members of the Mugabe regime.
Andrew - You're assuming that the left's hatred of the US exceeds their love of fascism. Not so. They didn't turn on the Soviet Union when FDR befriended Stalin, and they wouldn't turn on Mugabe if he became Bush's friend.
Posted by: Paul Jaminet at March 9, 2003 2:39 PMYeah, I think we've given up on Africa. There
are a few telling paragraphs in the bio of
Dian Fossey about horrors she saw (cannibalism
etc.) 30 years ago. We don't even want to
know.
There is an English magazine, Bizarre, that I
subscribed to for a while, which runs pictures
from Africa (heads used as street signs, things
like that) which, I suppose, are occasionally
used by foreign news outlets. You'll never, ever
see an American editor using one, though.