The Zimbabwe election was held on March 26th, and still no results have been released. Opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai contends that this is because he won the election and current president Robert Mugabe refuses to relinquish power. The international community has decried the actions of the ZANU-PF, the ruling party which supports Mugabe’s regime. Leaders around the world have called for Mugabe to release the results of the election; only Wednesday Gordon Brown, the new PM for the UK, spoke at a UN security council about the need to act to support the democratic process and the people of Zimbabwe. He was quoted as saying that “nobody thinks Mugabe won”, and pledged the support of the UK government in ensuring the Zimbabwean people’s voice is heard. This can only have inflamed Mugabe and his party, as he is fond of accusing the British and the Americans of plotting against him, and blaming the problems of his country on “Western plots”. Only a week or so ago he called Brown a “tiny little dot in this world”. Thado Mbeki, president of South Africa, has been the diplomatic link to Mugabe, and has recently been accused of being ineffective at best. However, this morning has seen him joining the international call for the election results to be released.
Meanwhile Tsvangirai has been staying in Botswana, and Mugabe has now accused him of treason, in trying to effect a “regime change”. This was funny to me, as of course he IS trying to effect a regime change, through the legal process of a democratic election. Mugabe accuses him of plotting with the UK to bring armed force to bear, even while reports are surfacing in Zimbabwe of beatings, arrests, and even murders of opposition party members by the government. Zimbabwe is classified as a conflict zone right now, which means Western countries are pledged not to sell them arms. As usual in Africa, when Western countries sit back on their “ideals”, China steps in pragmatically and without care for the effects of its actions. A Chinese ship has reportedly docked in South Africa, carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe. Whether Mbeki will back his words with actions and prevent those arms from reaching Zimbabwe remains to be seen. However, it seems likely that Mugabe will attempt to put down this democratic “revolution” with violence; somehow it always seems that he does what he accuses others of doing.
This situation is scary to me, because it seems so obvious that Mugabe is subverting the democratic process. It is so easy for these situations to deteriorate into violence; look at the recent elections in Kenya, fortunately resolved now. The Zimbabwean people have so far chosen the relative peace of submission to this man’s illegal rule; however, when starvation threatens and unemployment rises above 80%, one cannot imagine how they will hold out much longer without some change. Meanwhile the international community pays lip service to their support of the democratic process, but is intervention by the UK just another advance of the long arm of colonialism? Is it truly best for an international force to intervene? Would we have welcomed an international force, even a UN peacekeeping force, in the US when President Bush “won” that hotly disputed second election? I don’t think so. The Zimbabwean people also seem poised to accept whatever government is imposed on them, rather than descend into sectarian violence from which there seems to be no good return, which poisons people against each other for many years to come. If Mugabe succeeds in retaining power, will he use undue violence against his own people anyway, as he has been accused of before? It is a very tense and unhappy situation for the people of Zimbabwe, and one can only hope there can be a peaceful resolution.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804170081.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7349733.stm
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