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Zimbabwe: Situation Calls for Decisive Action
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The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
OPINION
29 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008
Nebert Mulenga
WITH no end in sight to the worsening scenario of Zimbabwe's human rights abuses, pressure is now beginning to mount on southern African countries to break the silence and join hands to help resolve the neighbouring country's crisis.
"All SADC (Southern African Development Community) member states must move into Zimbabwe to organise elections and to make the people come together," says Wisdom Gondwe, a Lusaka-based political observer.
"As far as the situation in Zimbabwe is concerned, President Robert Mugabe is ruling by default, he is not the president of Zimbabwe because his mandate expired before the (March 29) election. So, that country's chief justice should have been in control during the period of preparing for the election re-run. He is ruling by default, and even his government officials are all ruling by default."
Zimbabwe is in its eighth year of an economic recession that has seen inflation soar to unofficial estimates of one million per cent - the highest ever in the world - and unemployment levels rising to above 80 per cent. Shortages of key commodities such as fuel and food, have over the years been commonplace in literally every corner of the once-buoyant southern African economic giant.
According to international donor organisations, nearly five million Zimbabweans are in need of emergency food assistance this year alone. It is estimated that as many as three million Zimbabweans could have left the country for neighbouring states, such as Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and South Africa, or have gone further outside the continent to England and the United States.
Inside Zimbabwe, a myriad of glaring cases of violent attacks has been reported with about 86 people, mostly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) killed in targeted attacks since the March 29 election, according to the MDC.
The first round presidential election was won by the MDC's Morgan Tsvangarai, but he fell short of the required 50 per cent plus one vote for an outright victory, forcing a re-run with Mugabe, 84,who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
Last week, about five people were reportedly found dead after missing for some days in the capital Harare, one of them a wife of the MDC's mayor for Harare. Thousands others have been beaten and displaced in recent weeks.
In the wake of the violent clashes in this SADC country, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa this week called for the postponement of the election re-run, saying the atmosphere was not conducive for a free and fair ballot.
"The run-off election in Zimbabwe must be postponed to a later date. I urge the responsible authorities in Zimbabwe to implement this postponement to allow for the establishment of conditions that are suitable for holding of genuinely free and fair elections in accordance with Zimbabwean law, the SADC principles and the charter and conventions of the African Union," said President Mwanawasa who is a also chairperson of the 14-nation regional bloc, with an estimated population of about 400 million people.
Dr Mwanawasa's remarks, at a Press conference held on Sunday at State House, came a few hours after the MDC's Tsvangarai announced the withdrawal of his candidature from tomorrow's election re-run which could leave Mr Mugabe as the automatic winner, if the poll went ahead.
"What is happening in Zimbabwe is a matter of serious embarrassment to all of us. It is scandalous for the SADC to remain silent in the light of what is happening," said Mwanawasa.
Several international organisations and individuals have since re-echoed his sentiments with the United Nations Security Council, stating that a free and fair presidential run off in Zimbabwe was impossible.
"The Security Council condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition. The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on 27 June," said the 15-member body in a statement issued on June 23.
A few days before the Security Council's unanimous position, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon had called for the ballot to be delayed, saying "conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe. There has been too much violence, too much intimidation."
But Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN, Boniface Chidyausiku said the vote would still go on as planned even in the absence of Mr Mugabe's rival. "As far as we are concerned, the election will take place on Friday," Chidyausiku was quoted this week by the BBC.
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"Should the people of Zimbabwe decide, whoever they elect, that's their sovereign right and there is nobody who can say: 'you have made the wrong decision - you should've elected another candidate'."
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Stop the money and so stop the bank rollers of Mugabe. We know who they are, mining houses, banks and pale faced individuals. One even boasts to be British, the other South African. The rest are investors without morals. Its easy, just stop the money and Mugabe wont be able to pay the army and milita that keesp him in power.
Perhaps as more and more institutes and peoples world wide admit to themselves just how corrupt and decayed the Mugabe regime is, their clout will drive him out. As you have said without money to lavish his morons, he will soon find out who his real friends are. Not one - not even disGrace!
Go to hell a thousand times. Leave Afrika alone. Undoubtedly you are a NON-African ... a negative entity.
Go to hell a thousand times. Leave Afrika alone. Undoubtedly you are a NON-African ... a negative entity.
You fail to see akapfunde1 that is mugabe and his regime that will go to hell.You can not do what mugabe and his regime have done and not have a pact with the devil!
I hear the Devil likes murderers...
Akapfunde, don't get mad at me. I didn't ask you to be a loser by following your devil Mugabe. You my friend already have one foot in hell with Mugabe just a few feet away from you. Keep supporting a brainless, stupid, impotent, tyrannical old gas bag and you become the same. 'Show me your friends and I will tell you what you are'
people in zimbabwe and elsewhere have cursed and shouted about personalities, but nothing positive has come out of it. our country needs people who believe in themselves and in God to solve their problems. during the 1982-87 armed conflict, no outsider came to solve the problem, zimbabweans on their own sat down and ironed out their differences. president mugabe is not a devil as some people would want to portray him. the zimbabwean issue can be solved sooner rather than later if only outsiders stopped meddling in the affairs of the country.
Shame on you scumbag!! pliz get a life...leave our motherland Zimbabwe alone!!you have your own problems to deal with..You evil freak , stop subbotaging poor people's economy and pretend you like them!!!That subbotage you are calling for hits innocent people..
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