Mugabe Sworn In After Landslide Win...Also...Pigs Fly

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Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean thug-o-crat and faux President was sworn in for a sixth term after a reign of terror launched against all who opposed his bid for re-election.  Mugabe, who has taken an economically sound nation which had a strong manufacturing base, mining industry (it is rich in natural resouces)  thriving agricultural as well as tourism industies, and turned it into one of the world's biggest economic basket cases. 

Over the last seven years, Professor Craig Richardson of Salem College estimates the economy has shrunk by 40 percent, wiping out almost 60 years of gradual economic improvements. The standard of living has dropped to levels last seen in 1948. The World Health Organization estimates that Zimbabwe has the world’s lowest life expectancy — 34 years for women and 37 years for men.

Unemployment is at 80 percent. The currency is nearly worthless and inflation currently exceeds 3,700 percent per year. Last week, the black-market exchange rate for one U.S. dollar reached 40,000 Zimbabwean dollars.

The economic meltdown has led to environmental devastation. Zimbabwe, once known for its flourishing wildlife, used to have a sophisticated tourism industry that accounted for up to 6 percent of the country’s GDP. Hunger and lawlessness have put an end to that.

Brian Gratwicke, an Oxford-educated environmentalist and Zimbabwean national who runs a U.S-based nature and wildlife website estimates that “Eighty percent of 250,000 head of game that lived on privately owned commercial farms have been poached by land invaders – often with the encouragement of senior ZANU-PF officials who wanted to wrest control of the farms from their rightful owners.” To make matters worse, Gratwicke argues, chronic environmental problems such as deforestation and overgrazing, water pollution, uncontrolled fires, human-wildlife conflict, and wildlife-borne disease are spreading through Zimbabwe.

Needless to say, this nightmare has not been accomplished without a corresponding downturn in the country's' human rights condition.  Copiously documented here, the violations are a stark indictment of the human suffering taking place under Mugabe:

The ruling party's dominant control and manipulation of the political process through intimidation and corruption effectively negated the right of citizens to change their government. Unlawful killings and politically motivated kidnappings occurred. The state sanctioned the use of excessive force and torture, and security forces tortured members of the opposition, union leaders, and civil society activists. Prison conditions were harsh and life threatening. Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained journalists, demonstrators, and religious leaders; lengthy pretrial detention was a problem. Executive influence and interference in the judiciary were problems. The government continued to forcibly evict citizens and to demolish homes. The government continued to use repressive laws to suppress freedom of speech, press, assembly, movement, association, and academic freedom. Government corruption and impunity remained widespread. High ranking government officials made numerous public threats of violence against demonstrators. The following human rights violations also continued to occur: harassment of human rights and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and interference with their attempts to provide humanitarian assistance; violence and discrimination against women; child labor and prostitution; discrimination against persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities; an increase in the number of HIV/AIDS orphans and child-headed households; harassment and interference with labor organizations critical of government policies; and attempts to supplant legitimate labor leaders with hand-picked supporters.

The current election is a well documented fraud, in which Mugabe's main opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out before the voting, after escalating attacks on him and his supporters.  

The Mugabe-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said the 84-year-old incumbent won Friday's run-off presidential election, in which he was the only candidate, with 85.51 per cent of the vote.

Those Zimbabeans who cannot prove that they voted for Mugabe are currently being hunted down and assaulted by his bands of travelling thugs. 

The vaunted "international community" has been utterly ineffectual in dealing with the situation. A number of Mugabe's African neighbors are supporting him, thereby facilitating the atrocities.  A review of those neighbor's and their positions toward him are illustrative of their impotence and/or complicity:

The African Union – Mugabe's opponents and allies

ANGOLA

The most surprising criticism of Mugabe came from the Angolan president, Jose Dos Santos, who has been one of Mugabe's staunchest allies. In a message sent to Mugabe yesterday, Dos Santos said he welcomed the Zimbabwean's statement that he is open to negotiations with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

BOTSWANA

Botswana's president, Seretse Ian Khama, is the only African leader so far to make an official protest against Robert Mugabe's reign of terror. Botswana has seen its population of fewer than two million invaded by 800,000 Zimbabwean refugees. Mr Khama said he was "deeply disturbed" by Mugabe's politically-motivated arrests.

KENYA

Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga has called on the international community to demand that Mugabe steps down from power, describing the run-off vote as a "shame to Africa".

MOZAMBIQUE

The government of Mozambique has called for renewed dialogue between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to solve the crisis. "We lament the loss of human lives (in the period before the first election on 29 March and before the uncontested run-off on 27 June], and hope that the injured make a speedy recovery," a statement read.

NAMIBIA

Namibia's Swapo government has been an unwavering ally of Robert Mugabe, and last week the country's foreign minister, Marco Hausiku, described reports of electoral violence in Zimbabwe as "unverified rumours". The "Swapo Elders Council," comprising top party members, issued a statement blaming western countries for the crisis and urged Zimbabwean citizens to vote for Mugabe in the run-off.

TANZANIA

The handling of the Zimbabwe crisis by Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, current chairman of the 53-member African Union (AU), has been severely criticised by Amnesty International. In a statement, Amnesty said Mr Kikwete's silence on Zimbabwe has been "deafening and is contrary to its own principles of respect for human rights and the rule of law".

ZAMBIA

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has said: "What is happening in Zimbabwe is a matter of serious embarrassment to all of us."

President Bush has been one of the strongest world leaders in condemning Mugabe and attempting to remove him from power.

United States President, Mr. George W. Bush, has ordered tougher sanctions against the Zimbabwean government headed by Mr. Robert Mugabe for "the regime's blatant disregard for the Zimbabwean people's democratic will and human rights".


The hard slam from the American government is coming as Mugabe is to be sworn in as Zimbabwe's president today, following his victory in a run-off election boycotted by the opposition candidate, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.

Bush, in a directive to his top aides including secretaries of state and the treasury, said the US was compiling sanctions and would also champion international campaign for sanctions against the administration, including an arms embargo.
He said the move was in response to "the Mugabe regime's blatant disregard for the Zimbabwean people's democratic will and human rights".

While Bush's actions are significant, pressure must continue to be applied until Mugabe is finally pushed from powere.

Robert Mugabe must go.

Nocomme1 also posts at The Patriot Room and Flopping Aces

Mugabe Wins. Freedom Loses.

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Zimbabwean Presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the race yesterday following President Robert Mugabe's continuing reign of terror during that country's Presidential election.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai quit Zimbabwe's run-off election Sunday, saying violence had made a fair vote impossible, in a move that virtually hands victory to President Robert Mugabe.

"We will no longer participate in the violent illegitimate sham of an election process," Tsvangirai, 56, told reporters at his home, saying he could not ask supporters to cast ballots "when that vote would cost them their lives."

The opposition chief said Mugabe had "declared war by saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot", referring to the president's earlier threats to fight to keep the opposition out of power.

"We believe an election that reflects the will of the people is impossible," he said, as he appealed to the United Nations, African Union and regional body SADC to "intervene and stop the genocide".

Tsvangirai added he would announce a decision on his next moves on Wednesday -- leaving open the possibility, however slight, that he could change his mind.

The move brought a dramatic end to a presidential campaign that had been marred by allegations of brutal violence, with the opposition accusing government backers of terrorising its supporters.

The situation in Zimbabwe highlights the power of one deeply corrupt and brutal man, Mugabe to plunge an entire nation into bloody chaos and how utterly impotent the "international community" is to do anything to stop him.

Zimbabwe's crisis will move to the UN security council today as the international community contemplates fresh sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government.

Britain, the US and France will call on Russia and China to join the condemnation of Mugabe's regime, while the EU is expected to consider a raft of punitive measures aimed at Zanu-PF's leaders, their finances and their children's European educations. "If Mugabe thinks this finishes it, he's in for a big surprise. He has united the world against him," Mark Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister for Africa, Asia and the UN told the Guardian. "Mugabe remains de facto president but he is not by any stretch of international law or political imagination, a legitimate leader."

I hate to differ with the esteemed UN official but Mugabe is as legitimate as they come. He gets his legitimacy from the barrel of a gun and there is no more convincing form of legitimacy than that.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air suggests a number of methods that might be effective in dealing with Mugabe but also notes it just ain't happening:

Update: One commenter asks whether this means we should “bomb bomb Harare” to intervene. There are intermediate steps that can take place before bombing. The UN and the SADC could take the following actions:

• Charge Mugabe and his military commanders with crimes against humanity
  
  
• Seize all assets held abroad by Mugabe and his advisers
  
  
• List Zimbabwe’s military and militias as terrorist organizations
  
  
• Refuse to offer diplomatic status to Zimbabwean officials traveling abroad
  
  
• Close the borders to all shipments going into Zimbabwe — a complete embargo

The first would not do much, but the rest of these would cripple Mugabe. Unfortunately, no multilateral organization has even begun to consider these steps or anything close to them.

Don't hold your breath waiting.

UPDATE 6/23/06

Ed Morrissey updates with the news that Mugabe now wants Tsvangirai to stay in the race, thus providing his rancid regime with a veneer of credibility. Tsvangirai may find himself in the odd situation of being in greater danger by not running against Mugabe than he was running against him.

Mugabe's Reign Of Terror Continues - World Shrugs

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Serial killer and election-thief Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is continuing his brutal ways in the aftermath of his country's recent much disputed Presidential election.

President Robert Mugabe's regime struck at his rivals Thursday only two weeks before Zimbabwe's presidential runoff, twice detaining his challenger and jailing the No. 2 opposition leader to face treason charges.

The U.S. ambassador, meanwhile, said 20 tons of American food aid heading to impoverished Zimbabwean children had been seized by authorities last week and given to Mugabe supporters at a rally.

The repeated detentions, coupled with Western accusations that Mugabe's regime is using food as a weapon, dramatically demonstrate the obstacles to the campaign thrown up by the longtime leader.

"This is a government that is taking tremendous and, frankly, awful strides to maintain its power, that is increasingly abusing its own citizens and has raised, or should I say lowered, the bar to a level that we rarely see," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said in Washington.

Morgan Tsvangirai, who led the opening round of presidential voting 2 1/2 months ago and faces the increasingly autocratic Mugabe in a June 27 runoff, was first stopped at a roadblock in the south and held at a police station for about two hours, his party said.

Apparently feeling these actions aren't enough to frighten and silence his opponents Mugabe has found more horrific ways to get his point across:

BRUTALITY has sunk to new lows in Zimbabwe ahead of this month's election, with government militiamen burning people alive.

It emerged yesterday that three people linked to the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change party were killed in two attacks last Friday.

Dadirai Chipiro, 45, was attacked by three men seeking her husband who was away on business, The Times reported.

They grabbed Ms Chipiro and chopped off a hand and both her feet.

Then they shoved her into her hut, locked the door and hurled a petrol bomb through the window.

On Friday the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare - Pamela Pasvani - was burned to death.

The councillor's six-year-old son also died in the fire.

Mugabe's neighboring countries have been approached about dealing with him in the past and have instead given him a total pass. That is why attempts to involve them in the current situation are so depressing:

[US Ambassador James] McGee called on Zimbabwe's neighbors to intervene, saying the Southern African Development Community should send more observers to ensure peace before and during the vote.

Officials of the regional group said 120 monitors would deploy beginning Thursday and plans called for a total of 400 observers by election day—three times the number sent for the March 29 vote.

"We'd like to see three to four times that," McGee said. "Then I think we would have an opportunity" for free and fair elections.

The opposition, McGee and other foreign diplomats, and Zimbabwean and international human rights groups accuse Mugabe of unleashing violence against Tsvangirai's supporters to ensure Mugabe wins the runoff.

The government and Mugabe's party deny the allegations.

And so Mugabe's monstrous reign of terror goes on. And so does the "world community" of which so many in the US are so impressed, without any real intention to do anything about him.

Hot Air takes note

Thought Leader is also outraged

BuzzFlash.net talks about UMass revoking Mugabe's degree

So is Vlad Tepes

Hugh Hewitt is also displeased

A Blog For All is equally outraged

Rep Man doesn't seem thrilled, either

Bush on Mugabe

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President Bush today forcefully urged Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe to step down today.

"The will of the people needs to be respected in Zimbabwe," Bush told a White House press conference as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss the month-long election turmoil in the troubled southern African nation.

Bush said it was clear that the people of Zimbabwe had voted for change in the March 29 parliamentary and presidential elections "because their president has failed the country" after 28 years in power.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe ever since independence from Britain and is a hero of Africa's national liberation movements but he has presided over a spiralling economic crisis.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time since 1980 to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai has also claimed victory in the presidential vote.

No official result has yet been issued from the presidential election.

Mugabe is a criminal and one of the world's worst dictators, an extraordinary accomplishment considering the competition. The Washington Post details some of what is a long and horrific list of crimes:

THE EVIDENCE is now overwhelming that the Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe is engaged in a massive, orchestrated and brutal campaign to punish and terrorize its opponents. Security forces and militia groups loyal to the 84-year-old autocrat have rampaged across the countryside for the past month, targeting opposition activists and whole villages suspected of having voted against the government in the March 29 elections. In some areas, torture camps have been established where victims are taken and beaten while their homes are looted and burned. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association said yesterday that at least 10 people have been killed and hundreds displaced; the opposition Movement for Democratic Change counts 15 dead, 3,000 refugees and 500 hospitalized.

It is generally agreed that Mugabe lost the election by a wide margin to Tsvangirai and his refusal to release the results will be just his latest crime if he is allowed to get away with it. Bush's applying the pressure here is necessary and right, especially considering the lack of any significant pressure being applied by the UN, which yet again is proving itself to be useless against tyrants.

President Bush has shown a great deal of positive leadership in areas relating to Africa and he's doing so again here. Now the rest of the world needs to follow.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has more details.