Gugulethu Moyo: Yes, Tsvangirai was right to pull out
Too many lives have been lost in run-up to election
Monday, 23 June 2008
Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to pull out of the presidential run-off comes as no surprise.
At least 86 of his supporters have been killed and thousands have been beaten, driven from their homes or both. When more than a thousand of his polling agents were detained days before the election and armed Zanu-PF gangsters occupied and blocked access to the venue of his final rally yesterday, he decided to end the charade.
Mr Tsvangirai's impulse, which is to prevent further pointless bloodshed, especially of frontline electoral staff such as polling agents is understandable. After all, President Robert Mugabe has said he will not cede power to the MDC, even if by some miracle, the result shows that he has lost.
There is little evidence that Mr Mugabe's campaign to obliterate the MDC will end just because there is no election. Instead, Mr Mugabe is likely to seize the opportunity handed to him to kick out foreign election observers, who for the moment are the witnesses of the world on Mr Mugabe's crimes. When they leave, Mr Tsvangirai and his supporters will be in even greater danger.
Still, the problem of the dangerous regime in Harare is now for world leaders to solve, not for Mr Tsvangirai. For far too long, defenders of the ineffectual policies of Mr Mugabe's neighbours have argued they have been walking a fine line, trying to cajole the President, who only cares about staying in power, into cooperating. That hasn't worked, and more lives are lost every day. They now have an obligation to move swiftly and finally resolve the problem. To save lives.
For starters, the African Union should immediately deploy credible human rights monitors to Zimbabwe. These monitors should not be limited to the cities – they should also venture into rural areas, where murders, torture and rape are most prevalent.
In his cynical, bloody bid to cling on to power, Mr Mugabe, has bet on the unwillingness of regional and international institutions to take effective measures to stop his reign of terror. It is now time for world leaders to prove him wrong.
The author is a Zimbabwean lawyer and member of the International Bar Association.
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Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
lam so proud of MDC not to participate in the re run election for friday 27 june.
Posted by Dr Betty Nkomo | 25.06.08, 13:52 GMT
It is obvious now that Mugabe’s regime has been hollowed out so comprehensively by the economic crisis and the violence that no one – in or out of power – believes anymore in the official narrative of a great man resisting the attacks of the spiteful Colonialist West. And yet the media continues to recycle these seemingly gratuitous lies. Why?
In part because they are gratutious. What could be more terrifying than a public discourse which proceeds as before in a regime where no one has any faith in the words anymore? Orthodox public communication has been reduced to the enactment of a ritual of power in which those talking and those listening rehearse a sham discourse. In so doing, they attest in their utterances to the power of a regime that can force people to go through the motions of communicating, when in fact everything that is said is meaningless. There is a nightmare quality of absurdity to it. Read more by searching my blog, Just who the hell are we?, at wordpress.com.
Posted by Adam McNestrie | 24.06.08, 15:43 GMT
I am not at all educated on world politics as I think are most of the uk's general population.
However my opinion is that I for one would much rather see the uk's armed forces in Zimbabwe ousting the nutter that is Mugabe than protecting the financial interests of global corperations in Iraq and Afgan.
I wonder how many of the serving armed forces personel would feel the same?
Posted by Ordinary Joe | 23.06.08, 15:37 GMT
Facing the electorate honestly is the basis of trust in governance. The regime crimes are especially heinous since Mugabe stated in March that the electoral process would be respected when days later the politicide would begin. He has targetted defenceless individuals and communities for indoctrination and extermination since the 80's. Extremist and uncritical teaching about land, sovereignty and history is the elementary crime driving the incitement to violence.
The country has been on genocide alert for years as this process increases and recedes before reappearing with greater intensity. (at www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/genocidespoliticides.html). After the world community picks up the story years later, there may be over 50,000 locked up for crimes against humanity. This is a tragedy that may be shortened only where international politicians exercise their responsibilities with rigour.
Posted by Mark | 23.06.08, 12:48 GMT
Yes, I agree that on balance the MDC are right in refusing to participate in a sham election. It saves the lives of many innocent people, exposes the election for the grotesque parody of democracy that it is and, most importantly, places the onus squarely on the SADC countries to face up to their responsibilty to find an African solution to the problem and directly challenges the international community to put the necessary pressure and give the necessary assistance in finding that African solution. It challenges the whole world as to whether they will stand and watch and wring their hands or actually DO something.
If Mugabe and his murderous cronies were white, what would the SADC countries and the international community be saying and doing? Without a doubt rising up in righteous outrage and calling for the whole world to bring an end to this evil regime, which is far, far worse than apartheid ever was, as I and millions of black South Africans can testify.
Posted by gary | 23.06.08, 03:57 GMT