Today May 18 2008; there are more chilling tales of political beatings and murders in every story on Zimbabwe. The sorry story of George Nyandoro in the UK Observer, is one such story. These are human beings like you and me with loved ones who share in their pain and feel their loss.
I am as keen as many other Zimbabweans out there to see the back of Robert Mugabe. It is right that it should be done through the ballot and not the bullet; I have never lost my faith in the democratic process and never in my life encourage voter apathy. But when the price of exercising one’s democratic right to vote is human lives, as Mugabe has now done, then situation demands a review.
The best possible outcome of the run-off is that Tsvangirai has a convincing victory over Mugabe. Afterwards the victorious Tsvangirai moves swiftly to dismantle the Mugabe dictatorship by bring all those responsible for serious human rights violation to book and recover what the regime has looted and thus end the mismanagement and corruption. And in its place create a democratic system in which all Zimbabwean are valued and accorded the full rights and freedom. Then the human misery and sacrifice sweeping the country would excusable. Even then, concrete steps must be taken to protect the most helpless in society against the Mugabe onslaught rather than the current MDC position of literary abandoning them.
A Tsvangirai victory which will result in a government of national unity which effectively mean retaining the Zanu PF dictatorship and protecting those responsible for past wrongs and that they get to keep their loot would be a sell out.
A Mugabe victory, which is the most probable out come given the near impossible situation Tsvangirai now finds himself in, and the political and economic consequences of that with made it down right immoral that human lives, 32 so far have been murdered, were gabled like pawns in a game of chess.
Mugabe upped the stakes in the run-off by putting the security and lives of Zimbabweans at risk. He is a ruthless dictator who cares little about the suffering and deaths of anyone; we all know that. He had over 20 000 people murdered in the mid 1980s. Zimbabwe must be spared further blood shed.
What makes the whole run-off even less tolerable is that by taking part Tsvangirai is giving the dictatorship some degree of acceptability. The five weeks of machination by Mugabe following the 29 March, 2008 Election has left Mugabe with not a shred of democratic credential.
Last but not least, there are other ways of ending the Mugabe dictatorship without sacrificing so many innocent lives. Tsvangirai should explore these first and not go for the soft option. Tsvangirai like Mugabe is showing how little he values human life- that is a very, very worry thing indeed!
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