A menace verbal onslaught can't clear

The lion of Zimbabwe is still barking and biting while the world is unbelievably and inexplicably watching. I make bold to say that the United Nations and other nations that have the political and economic nerves to keep Mugabe in check and bring about a popular government have lost a golden opportunity to effect that change. Let's face it, Mugabe himself knows that Morgan Tsvangirai defeated him on March 29 but he did not know how to take that other than to joggle with the results for over a month and nobody did anything to stall the stealing of that vote.
Neither the United Nations, which has a wide range of powers to call some nations and their leaders to order nor any of the world leading powers took a pragmatic step to get that result out on time and protect the opposition victory.
Now with barely three weeks to the rerun, Mugabe has gone full blast arresting and detaining anyone he perceives wound not support him. His agents have even stopped Tsvangirai from public rallies and prevented aid agencies from supplying food to the poor. As if that is not enough, his men are now arresting and insulting diplomats, a domain always held sacrosanct by world leaders.
In all this, it is as if Mugabe has sealed the lips of his victims' countries and tied their hands as well because only a few dare to speak out against the barbaric acts.
The latest wave of crackdown on the opposition and the international aid agencies in Zimbabwe raises fear about the safety of Tsvangirai.
Would he be alive to take part in the June 27 rerun? If he survives, would his supporters be able to come out and cast their votes for him? If they do and he wins, will Mugabe allow the electoral commission to release the result?
The state of tyranny ochestrated by Mugabe and his thugs demands more of action and less talk by world leaders and international bodies. This is the time to tame Mugabe and his mad dogs or the world should prepare for a bloody situation in the weeks ahead.

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The sign of things to come before Mugabe’s, Tsvangirai’s second clash

To borrow from Rev. Jeremiah Right, the controversial Barack Obama’s pastor, the chickens have come home to roost in Zimbabwe. These are the days of mayhem in the highly famished but repressive South African nation, as the leader of the opposition MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, returns home to prepare for the rerun of the disputed presidential poll, which many believe he won, but denied victory by Mugabe and his cohorts.
Tsvangirai, who spent six weeks in some African countries apparently to escape the wrath of his adverseries who see him as an agent of the West, returned to Harare on Saturday, thus setting the stage for the June 27 rerun.
However, Mugabe still roaring like a scourged viper, spit fire on Sunday against the U.S. Ambassador, James McGee .McGee incurred Mugabe’s anger for reportedly urging Tsvangirai to return from his six-week exile to prepare for the poll.
Mugabe said of the diplomat: He says he fought in Vietnam, but fighting in Vietnam does not give him the right to interfere in our domestic affairs.
"I am just waiting to see if he makes one more step wrong. He will get out. As tall as he is, if he continues to do that I will kick him out of the country."


Turning to the U.S. top envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, Mugabe said: "You saw this little American girl trotting around like ... celebrating that the MDC had won. A disgraceful act."
Mugabe has bounced back and ready to sting any real or imagined MDC sympathiser. A broadcaster said to be aiding the opposition was sacked last week. Now, what gives the world the hope that Tsvangirai can survive and stand the election?

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World’s lethargy aids Mugabe's recovery

Did anyone watch Robert Mugabe address the leadership of ZANU-PF in Harare on Saturday?
It was a display of arrogance and defiance laden with unprovoked insults on the U.S., the UK and any country that is not in support of the unparalleled authoritarianism that has been going on in Zimbabwe in the past 28 years.
Although in one way, the belated speech portrays Mugabe as regretting the loss of the March 29 polls to his arch rival, MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, he is in another breadth, seen rejoicing over the undue delay in releasing the results, thereby keeping him and his party intact.
To corroborate what I mean, read the direct quotes of the president as captured by the country’s mouthpiece –The Herald.
Going through the speech leaves me with no hope for the opposition. Why am I so pessimistic? Mugabe has been allowed to fully recover from his dilemma and is now barking like a wounded lion, ready to devour anyone on his way and the nearest prey is Tsvangirai, whom many believe won the first ballot.
Since the ‘cooked’ Zimbabwe election results were ‘released’ two weeks ago, the world, media and human rights groups have gone to sleep, leaving Tsvangirai to decide whether to confront Mugabe or not. Of note is the sad fact that no serious pressure has been brought to bear on Mugabe by international bodies charged with such duties. The best we have seen is a passive remark by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, that he is discussing the rerun of the Zimbabwe election with some countries.
Why would the UN and some powerful nations not confront Mugabe now before he creates a bloodbath in the South African nation and forces the UN to send in troops and humanitarian teams?
Learning from the experience of the last election, Mugabe has now mobilised his arsenal and is already doing battle with MDC supporters and anyone opposed to his repressive regime.
If the streets of Harare are no longer safe for people who voted against Mugabe in the previous election, how are we sure they will be allowed to come out and vote in a rerun now fixed for June 27?
I am just afraid that the world must have lost an opportunity to uphold Tsvangirai’s well deserved victory and free Zimbabweans from the claws of death.



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The Herald

Reuters Alertnet

My Zimbabwe Today

Tsvangirai in the 'lion's den'

Should Morgan Tsvangirai take part in Zimbabwe's presidential election re-run? Yes and no. That is my candid answer. He should not go for any re-run if he wants to stay alive and see the sad end of his tormentor-in-chief: Robert Mugabe.
Many believe that Tsvangirai won the March 29, 2008 election outright and that what the ZEC has simply done is to joggle the vote outcome to suit a Mugabe mindset and prevent the MDC leader from savouring the trappings of the presidential palace, which Mugabe has been enjoying since 1980.
I have heard several propositions on the election. If you ask Zimbabaloola, a blogger on Frontline Club, he would tell you that the MDC chickened out by running away from Harare instead of going to the street to combat Mugabe's ‘mad dogs' and claiming his victory.
To those who think like this blogger, Tsvangirai is a coward and he has already lost a golden opportunity to sacrifice a few thousands of his supporters and get victory at the end.
Now, tell me how a free and fair presidential re-run can be conducted when all those known to have supported Tsvangirai have been driven aground and the MDC headquarters raided by Mugabe forces for no tangible reason than to intimidate them.
I am disappointed that neither the United Nations nor the African Union has voiced out opposition to the proposed re-run between Mugabe and Tsvangirai in the face of killings and intimidation of MDC sympathisers. The atmosphere for a credible poll does not just exist in Harare and it will be suicidal for Tsvangirai and his men to take part in the contest. They should not forget an African proverb that it is only a man who does not want to eat coconut that offers his head to be used in breaking it. But come to think of it: if Tsvangirai boycotts the election, Mugabe would be declared president for the umpteenth time and if he contests, ZEC, police and ZANU-PF would still connive to rob him of victory and nothing would happen.
As things now stand, Tsvangirai and his MDC are already in the lion's den; only God can salvage

them from the dungeon.

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Mugabe's Palace

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Frontlineclub

Wayne Blank

Conspiracy against Tsvangirai, Zimbabweans

A big setback to the democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe has already taken place in that famished nation. It is not only painful to those who voted for change in the country but it is also a worrisome development in the Southern African nation. But it does not come as surprise to those who have been following the game plan adopted by Mugabe and his lieutenants since the conclusion of the March 29, 2008 election.
It is clear to the world that what Mugabe could not get from the ballot paper; he has successfully used his supporters- war veterans, police and soldiers and electoral agents to subvert the wish of the people.
Of course, it’s clear that if Mugabe had won the election, the results would have come almost immediately the votes were collated. But that he lost and being a bad loser with an eye still set on the presidential mansion, he has been keeping a disturbing silence while pursuing the opposition with hammer and chainsaw.
Now, even before the results are released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, top ZANU-PF officials are already armed with the figures for Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.
While they made the people to believe that it was not possible to get the results out at once, Mugabe and his lieutenants knew the outcome and were merely working on measures to scare the opposition and stay on.
The country’s UN Ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, was so convinced that Mugabe had lost to Tsvangirai that he proposed a unity government only for a ZANU-PF spokesman, Bright Matonga, to dismiss Tsvangirai as a sell-out.
The world can now see whose handwriting they are reading on Zimbabwe’s wall.



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A vessel of controversy

I woke up smiling this morning without knowing when my breakfast would be ready. I did not win a jackpot either. But the news of the rejection of the Chinese ship loaded with assorted arms for the desperate Mugabe government elated me the most. It made my day.
The controversial vessel, An Yue Jiang, like a bad product, has been drifting like a shaft driven by the wave, since South African workers unions protested the shipment. The workers had threatened not to offload its contents ferried in by a Chinese firm. It was laden with ammunition as well as rockets, mortar bombs and mortar tubes ordered by the Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defence.
The shipment weighed 77 tons and was valued at $1.245 million. The invoice was dated Jan. 21, and the goods left China on March 15, two weeks after the Zimbabwe general elections, whose result is now being unduly delayed. Angered by the shipment, Rubin Phillip, the Anglican archbishop of KwaZulu-Natal, and Gerald Patrick Kearney, public activist, aided by the Southern African Litigation Centre, approached a South Africa’s High Court to halt the transportation of the arms across South Africa and the court granted the request before long.
But on Friday evening, when the authorities went to serve the court order on An Yue Jiang, it pulled up anchor and sailed away. It is being said that the ship might be heading for Congo, Maputo or Beijing. But the Chinese government says it might recall the ship with its contents.
As things are, the best destination for the ship is Beijing and that should be done at once. Zimbabweans need the result of the vote they cast on March 29, 2008 and not weapons of destruction. Enough of Chinese arms build-up in Africa in the name of economic transaction.

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Usatoday

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BBC

Mugabe's 'mad dogs' on rampage

Is there any one out there who is still surprised over the news that Mugabe's security men raided Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC's office in Harare today? I am the last person to be shaken by such news. Why? I had predicted barely 24 hours ago that like a wounded lion, Mugabe would move against Tsvangirai for trying to give the impression that he won the presidential poll.

I had also predicted that Mugabe's ominous silence was merely to allow him time to perfect plans on how to stage a comeback after the electorate had given him a 'red card' in last week's presidential and parlimentary poll.

Now, the chickens have come home to roost. Apart from raiding the offices of the opposition party, which had only on Wednesday declared victory in both parliamentary and presidential vote, Mugabe's 'mad dogs' descended on journalists at the Meikles Hotel and arrested a number of foreign journalists, amongst them, New York Times correspondent, Barry Bearak, a winner of a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for allegedly violating journalism law.

These are issues that have nothing whatsoever to do with the main that is agitating the minds of ordinary Zimbabweans who trooped out last Saturday to vote for change in the poverty-ridden nation with over 100,000 percent inflation and unprecedented hunger and starvation.

While Mugabe uses iron fist to clamp down on the ordinary people, journalists and the opposition, the world is increasingly getting fed up with him. Like an opium, not even his comrade-in-chief and friend Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has come out openly to support him in his darkest moment.

New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists, CPJ, has condemned the arrest and detention of the journalists by the Zimbabwean security forces and has called for immediate release.

"It is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to work freely," said Joel Simon, the group's executive director.

Now, it is clear to the world that Mugabe has no intention to allow the will of the impoverished people of Zimbabwe to prevail over his inordinate ambition of presiding over the affairs of the country, which has been held hostage by him and other scavengers for about three decades.

Links: Guardian

Guardian

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Committee for the Protection of Journalists

The wounded 'lion' of Zimbabwe

He has temporarily lost a voice and gone into hibernation. But, make no mistake, the 'revolutionist yesterday, today and tomorrow' may be strategising on the next line of action to pin his arch opponent-Morgan Tsvangirai, to the ground.
Tyrants, like Mugabe would rather believe in voodooism and hang on to power rather than see the handwriting on the wall and quit the stage before the ovation ebbs. Mugabe has gone into an ominous solitude like an orphan and a bruised serpent but would not allow the results of the vote concluded since Saturday to be announced. He may be trying to re-enact the rare courage portrayed by Ernest Hemingway in his famous 1952 'The Old Man and The Sea' novel or may be playing Shakespeare's Macbeth outright.
Whichever way he chooses to go, the world is against him. Although the UK and the US may not roll in tanks to drive him away like they did to Saddam Hussein in 2003, they have strongly warned him to respect the democratic rights of the electorate. Gordon Brown warned on Tuesday that the results be released at once while David Miliband and other ministers took turns on Wednesday to vilify Mugabe. This was in addition to a verdict by Desmond Tutu that Mugabe had no reason to have stayed on till now. Same date, the US insisted the results be released.
It is common knowledge that having won 99 out of the 210 parliamentary seats against Mugabe's ZANU-PF's 94, Tsvangirai's MDC has won both the presidential and parliamentary votes.
Disappointingly, the ZEC has not published the results. By its own tally, the MDC says Tsvangirai has won the race with 50.3 percent to Mugabe's 43.8, thus eliminating the need for a re-run.
However, like soldiers of misfortune, ZANU-PF describes the MDC's claim as a mere 'wishful thinking'.
With soldiers and riot policemen already mobilised on the streets of Harare, the stage may be set for Mugabe to fight back like a wounded lion or a viper bruised but not dead. Get the point?

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The Old Man and the Sea

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