It's Official
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Begone I Say And Let Us Have Done With You | Foreign Affairs | Robert Mugabe | Zimbabwe — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Robert Mugabe has decided to keep Zimbabwe in Hell:
President Robert Mugabe has thrown his weight behind militias waging a campaign of intimidation in rural areas where the opposition has made inroads intensifying concerns that a presidential run-off will be scarred by state-sponsored violence.
Gangs of self-styled veterans of the war of independence surrounded six farms in the central Zimbabwean area of Masvingo, on Saturday and twelve farms in the northern area of Mashonaland Central on Sunday, forcing several of the farmers to flee.
The areas were traditionally Mr Mugabe's strongholds, but in the March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections, they recorded a shift in support to Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The attacks were seen as a way of intimidating rural voters and also of reviving the anti-white rhetoric that has fuelled Mr Mugabe's campaigns in the past.
The state-run Herald newspaper on Monday quoted Mr Mugabe calling on Zimbabweans to safeguard the land from former colonisers. "Land must remain in our hands. The land is ours, it must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of whites," he is quoted as saying. "We cannot afford to retreat in the battle for land."
Get ready for violence. It is inevitable.
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Mugabe is a dog. I truly pity those folks, and I hope the opposition can actually bring this off. Hell of a thing when winning the election isn't nearly enough.
Maybe not with machetes and guns ... but rural delegates get targeted by certain American politicians.
Mugabe has been in power too long ... he can't relinquish it ... he's enriched himself and his followers at the expense of his people ... but he can never steal enough to fill his Swiss bank accounts.
Sadly, I am put in mind of a tale from an American aid worker: African children would beg for a new pair of shoes, and would sell them for money (cash) the moment a well-meaning missionary would provide them. Mugabe is a product of that culture: take the money and run! But he won't run away.