African leaders are reportedly planning an “irresistible” retirement package for Mugabe. Ghana is one country Mugabe could retire to.
Is it any wonder that Africa is in a mess; we never seem to learn anything! African leaders are talking of a “dignified” retirement for Mugabe. Was it not the same foolish sentiment that made the same continental leaders propose the power sharing in 2008 after Mugabe lost the March vote and then used brute force to when the June run-off ? If SADC and the AU had expected Mugabe to use the time since the signing of the GPA and the next elections to pick his bags, take the bow before the final curtains to his political career; they were wrong.
Mugabe has used the last three years to reorganise his party and secure funding for its terror machine. He lost the March 2008 elections because he had allowed some democratic reforms and worse still, he had used kid gloves to punch his opponents. For the run-off it was back to the iron fist and the whole nation fell back into line. When everyone shunned Mugabe for the sham elections, he finally realised that he could not get away with such blatant denial of the people’s basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of their country and the violation of the right to life. He has no intention of removing the iron fist, he can not afford to do that and lose power, his will be the iron fist in a velvet glove!
Even if the African leaders can negotiate for him a golden and all-sins-forgiven retirement for Mugabe with rock solid guarantees; what about all those around him? The Zanu PF dictatorship is much more that a one-man show. It is widely believed that Mugabe was ready to throw in the towel after the March 2008 defeat but many of those with blood on their hands and loot to lose told him in no uncertain terms that the cabal would break every rule of human decency to “win” the run-off. These thugs are not going to give up power and face the music of their evil past; salt Mugabe away and the violence will still continue. The worst case scenario is that Zanu PF will break-up into warring factions triggering even more bloodshed.
At best one Zanu PF faction will agree a deal with MDC in which Zanu PF thugs get to keep all they looted from the nation and all their rapes and murders are swept under the carpet. That will be a great deserve to Zimbabwe because the country’s economic recovery is totally dependent on getting the nation’s resources such as land back into full production. Mugabe and his cronies expropriated most of the farms, although they have clearly failed to put them into productive use, still they will not give up any of the farms. The culture of violence is born out of the failure in the past to bring those responsible for serious human rights violations to account. Zimbabwe must deal with this issue this time!
Instead of considering what is good for Mugabe AU and SADC leaders must consider for a change what is good for the mass of Zimbabwe and the country. Appeasing Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF thugs is the last thing the people of Zimbabwe would want to do; we have been doing for thirty years and look where it got us! It is time for Mugabe and his cronies to return to the people of Zimbabwe what they stole and accounted for the thousands of innocent blood they shed!
777
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams, has been warned that he risks handing a propaganda coup by shaking the Zimbabwe dictator, Mugabe’s hand. Dr Williams is visiting Zimbabwe at a time members of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe are being prosecuted by a rogue Bishop Kunonga allied to Mugabe.
What Mugabe is doing is wrong and people should not be afraid of telling him so, particularly those in positions of power and authority, like Dr Williams. If Dr Williams is to be silence then who is going to speak? Surely not the Priests and the ordinary church members who are being kicked about, the teachers and students whose schools Mugabe's Bishop closed, etc.; like the rest of the Zimbabwe populous, they have voice.
Dictators like Mugabe take great pride in seeing everyone cowering before them; their power is founded on fear. Dr Williams should not gratify the tyrant's sadistic ego by showing that he too is afraid of Mugabe!
8888
This is the kind of nonsense we have learnt to expect from Mugabe and his sycophants; what is at issue here is the many innocent Anglicans whose lives Kunonga, with the backing of Mugabe, has turned into a living hell.
When the Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 he told the world he would leave until Israel left all occupied Palestinian land! “So why should Kuwait be punished for whatever wrongs Israel has done?” people asked. By the same token, why should orphans and school children in Zimbabwe be punished because an Anglican Bishop in America is gay? Whatever quarrel Mugabe has with the West he should not pick on defenceless Anglicans in Zimbabwe to force Dr Williams to fight the British government on his behalf.
In 1990 world spoke with one voice in ordering Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait today the same voice is ordering Mugabe to end his tyrannical rule in Zimbabwe. The world does not want to hear Mugabe’s feeble excuses why he is a tyrant!
2 comments:
@Mashiri
SADC and AU leaders should have learnt that there was nothing that could be achieved by appeasing a dictator. And now there are now at it once again, backing over backwards to appease Mugabe without ever sparing a thought for the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans his lives he ruined and the tens of thousands he murdered. If there is a God in this world, then he never meant it to be so!
@ Robmug
Zimbabwe should have had the equivalent of the SA's Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the very least after independence in 1980. Then Ian Smith should have been asked to account for some of the innocent blood shed by his forces and agents. Mugabe did not want to dive into the past because he too would have had some awkward questions to answer. Yes we spared Mugabe some blushes but the nation has paid dearly for it because Mugabe has shed even more innocent blood since 1980, confident that he will never be called to account.
The plan here is to send Mugabe out of the country with rock solid guarantees that he will never be called to account for what he did. Charles Taylor received the same guarantees but look where he is today? We need to send a clear message to all dictators and would-be dictators that they will be held accountable for their abuse of power and I am very pleased that Charles Taylor and a few others have already been nabbed. We must not allow Mugabe to walk scot-free! The African leaders can say what they like; their word is worthless because their credibility is worthless; Mugabe, of all people, knows that.
Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant and must be treated as such. It is amazing that some people should feel sorry for him but have no sympathy for the thousands of Zimbabweans he murdered or the suffering of millions whose lives Mugabe ruined? It is said millions of Russians mourned when Josef Stalin died although the Russian dictator was responsible of the deaths of millions of Russians. There are sentimental people the world over; we just have to be careful national policies are founded on reason and not sentimental nonsense!
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