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THE Republic of Zimbabwe—known in the past
variously as Southern Rhodesia, the Republic of Rhodesia and
Zimbabwe Rhodesia—was one of Africa’s richest and most developed
farming economies. It was the breadbasket of southern Africa. The
white British colonialist rulers then were more benign than South
Africa’s Boers, whose apartheid policy was horribly dehumanizing.
Nevertheless, Zimbabwe’s 98
percent majority of Black African people—mainly the Shona and the
Matabele—just as the other Black Africans throughout their
continent fought the whites and finally came to rule their country.
From leader of the ZANU, one of
two principal nationalist factions (the other was the ZAPU), who
fought the White British Rhodesians, Robert Mugabe emerged as the
paramount ruler after humbling or doing in his rivals.
His government made life so
difficult for the white farmers that they had to sell their
productive farmlands. These were distributed in a corrupt and
arbitrary land-reform program. Agricultural productivity declined so
much. And Mugabe had to lure white farmers back to the farms. But
when production was improving again, he once more confiscated the
white farmers’ lands. He has ruled Zimbabwe with that kind of
madness in every department of life.
In the past 28 years of Robert
Mugabe rule, his mismanagement and tyrannical rule have made life in
Zimbabwe unbearable except to his favorite people in the police, the
military and his army of thugs armed with clubs and knives.
Following Mugabe’s abandonment
of the market economy, Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate rose from
32 percent in 1998 to the hyperinflation rate of 100,580 percent in
January 2008. Hyperinflation could hit 1.5 million percent this
December.
Zimbabwe has an AIDS epidemic.
Lowest in the world is the life expectancy in that country. For male
Zimbabweans it is 37 years (in 1990 it was 60 years). For females it
is lower even—34 years. This is because 1.8 million of the 13.6
million Zimbabweans are HIV positive and hundreds of thousands are
actually sick of AIDS. Also, most of the rest of the population are
malnourished, afflicted with other diseases and at risk of dying in
the hands of Mugabe’s police, military and thugs if they complain
about human rights abuses or support the opposition parties.
Actual and even suspected
supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
the largest opposition party, are pounced upon by Mugabe’s hoods.
Policemen and soldiers have herded voters into re-education camps.
Leaders of MDC and other opposition parties have been murdered.
Election workers unwilling to cheat for Mugabe and human rights
activists have been harassed and beaten.
Tsvangirai and his leaders have
tasted jail and beatings. In the presidential election in March, he
won against Mugabe. But the latter rigged the results. He shaved
Tsvangirai’s lead so that a run-off has to be held today.
Tsvangirai and all Zimbabweans and the international community know
that he will again be cheated—and be arrested and tortured to
death or assassinated.
On Sunday last over a thousand of
Mugabe’s terrorists moved to stop a rally for Tsvangirai in
Harare, the capital. So, he pulled out of the race and fled to the
Netherlands Embassy for refuge.
Mugabe’s terrorism of his own
people so he can remain in power has few parallels anywhere in the
world. Is he any better than Papa Doc? Or Idi Amin? Or the generals
of Burma?
Mugabe’s tyranny has driven
about 3.4 million Zimbabweans to neighboring countries. And more
than half a million Zimbabweans are homeless inside their
country—violently deprived of their land by Mugabe’s goons and
police. A humanitarian disaster is brewing there.
Calls in the international
community for action to save Zimbabweans from Mugabe’s cruel
misrule are getting louder. But Mugabe just laughs. He has ignored
the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
No Western leader will order his
army to invade Zimbabwe. Outside action against Mugabe must come
from his fellow African leaders.
Lately, President Levy Mwanawasa
of Zambia (the former Northern Rhodesia and therefore the twin of
Zimbabwe), who is also chair of the South African Development
Community, urged Mugabe to agree to a new and fair election. Prime
Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya has called on the international
community to send an expeditionary peacekeeping force to Zimbabwe.
These calls must be backed up solidly by the African Union and the
SADC to have any effect on Mugabe. But these will not act—because
some of the countries in these bodies are ruled by men who are also
tyrannical and oppressive.
What can we do for Zimbabwe and
its pitiful people?
Pray. Sixty two percent of
Zimbabweans attend Christian churches. The largest Christian
churches are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist and
Methodist. We should help the Zimbabweans with our prayers.
rqb@manilatimes.net
rq_bas@yahoo.com
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