WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2001-11-22 Time: 17:35:58 Posted By: Jan
By Robert I. Rotberg in Harare
Washington, London, and Pretoria need to act now to save Zimbabwe and all of
southern Africa from a desperate dictator’s relentless mayhem. Like Idi Amin
and other African despots before him, President Robert G. Mugabe is
ruthlessly destroying his own, once rich land and spreading economic and
social chaos into neighboring South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique.
Starvation is predicted by January because the country has no foreign
exchange and its grain supplies are almost gone. Washington is ready to
supply corn and wheat and wants it to be distributed by local voluntary
organizations rather than the venal government. However, Mugabe decreed last
week that all food donations had to be channeled through his officials, thus
creating a policy dilemma for would-be donors.
Because of Zimbabwe, South Africa’s currency has depreciated, foreign
investors and tourists are shunning the region, and immigrants are flooding
south. Mugabe has promised to stop flouting the rule of law and preying
maliciously on his own people, but nothing has changed. Mugabe, who must call
a new presidential election by the end of March, is directing his
state-sponsored terrorism against Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition Movement for
Democratic Change. He aims to intimidate any Zimbabweans who would vote for
the party.
Tsvangirai and his followers defeated Mugabe in a referendum in February 2000
and then surprised the ruling party by winning almost half of the elected
seats in a parliamentary election in June 2000. In response, Mugabe has used
violence to disrupt the opposition party’s potential. Last week a respected
opinion poll found a majority who would vote for Tsvangirai over Mugabe.
Washington, London, and Pretoria will recognize a new Zimbabwean president
only if the election is not preceded by intimidation, press curbs, voting
roll alterations, and blatant harassment of the Movement for Democratic
Change. Washington and its allies also demand international observers and
local monitors. But Mugabe last week said that there would be no observers or
monitors not sanctioned by his own electoral commission. He also decided to
ban voting by Zimbabweans in South Africa and overseas, most of whom might
support the opposition party.
Late last week, militant members of Mugabe’s party burned down the Movement
for Democratic Change’s offices in the city of Bulawayo. They also raided,
with the police looking on benignly, the party’s new headquarters here. They
arrested 11 party officials for the murder of a ruling party operative whom
many believe was removed by his own colleagues before he could speak out
against them. Mugabe is also attacking the nation’s only independent daily
newspaper, the Daily News. Earlier this month, the newspaper’s editor and
publisher were arrested briefly and its financial backers have been
questioned. Thugs frequently attack its street-corner vendors. The minister
of information has threatened any journalist who dare works for the Daily
News.
Life for most Zimbabweans is becoming increasingly difficult. Inflation has
soared this year from 50 percent to 150 percent. The Zimbabwe dollar traded a
year ago at 38 to the US dollar and now trades at 300 to 400 against the US
dollar. Unemployment has reached 50 percent. The official government deficit
is 19 percent. It owes borrowers 115 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
Thanks to farm invasions, agricultural output in this crop-dependent country
is down 20 percent, and manufacturing has fallen 30 percent. Overall, GDP has
slipped 20 percent in two years. Gas stations frequently have nothing to
sell. Since the government has clamped price controls on critical consumer
items, there are also shortages of bread, maize meal (the staple), sugar, and
cooking oil.
Meanwhile, state-induced lawlessness grows. Since early 1999, Mugabe has
defied rulings of the Supreme Court regarding land invasions, confiscation of
property, torture of journalists, corruption, and election issues. In
September, Mugabe finally gained control of the Supreme Court, having
installed a crony as chief justice and packed the formerly five-justice court
with four more party stalwarts. Now the Supreme Court rules the way Mugabe
dictates.
Ordinary crime is also on the rise. Metal street signs have virtually
disappeared from the center of this once pleasant and well-ordered city. At
night, thieves take the signs and either melt them down for cash or fashion
them into handles for the many coffins that Zimbabweans now need. About 2,000
Zimbabweans die each week from AIDS, cemeteries are full, and hospitals have
no medicines or equipment. Yet, the government’s recent budget added large
sums for defense and security and decreased the paltry amounts appropriated
for health and education.
Mugabe is out of control, and seems prepared to let his people grow poorer
and possibly starve. South Africa is best placed to condemn Mugabe publicly,
to use sanctions to curb corruption, and possibly to mobilize an intervention
force. South African President Thabo Mbeki does not want to go that far, but
doing nothing only contributes to the rapid meltdown of southern Africa’s
economy and to the impoverishment of Zimbabwe’s people. Getting rid of a
ruthless despot is urgent and cannot be done by beleaguered Zimbabweans
alone.
source:Boston Globe
Robert I. Rotbert is president of the World Peace Foundation.