--Robert Mugabe
The same man who shelters mass murderers such as Mengistu Haile Mariam, the former genocidal ruler of Ethiopia, has been unleashing a path of terror on his own people for the last 28 years. The man with a self-proclaimed "Degree in Violence"
clings tenuously to power in a disgraced and ruined nation, once one of the most prosperous on the continent; now, an empty shell, ravaged by continued torment. Often in the African press and in op-ed pieces by some confused writers, Mugabe is still presented as a hero to the poor, a land reformer who is fighting for the people, an anti-colonial anachronism. He has done nothing but enrich himself and his clique for the duration of his rule; the list of atrocities that can be directly attributed to his word is simply too large to list. How anybody could dream of defending this monster in the year 2008, after reading or researching any history of this country is astounding.
Mugabe, the great freedom fighter, breaker of colonial rule, on dealing with dissident political and ethnic groups in the province of Matabeleland, in 1984:
"We have to deal with this problem quite ruthlessly. Don't cry if your relatives get killed in the process. Where men and women provide food for the dissidents, when we get there we eradicate them. We do not differentiate who we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident and who is not."
"In Mugabe's drive for a one-party state, at least 10,000 civilians were murdered, many thousands more beaten or tortured, and an entire people were victimized."
-Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa
Politically, nothing has changed since the early 1980's in Zimbabwe; economically, the only change has been for the negative. The NYTimes continues on the present situation, with eerie similarities to the past,
"Beneath their defiance, though, lay raw fear as the country’s ruling party stepped up its campaign of intimidation ahead of a presidential runoff. In a conflict that has penetrated ever deeper into Zimbabwe’s social fabric, the party has focused on a growing roster of groups that elude its direct control — a list that includes the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition."
I hope something will change. For the future of this country, now in ruins; for the future of Africa, sitting so precariously on the edge of the past and future.
