The West can scream all it wants: Mugabe

[Fade]

African leaders hold emergency summit
Paul Simao, *******

MBABANE -- Southern African leaders will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Zimbabwe's crisis, but the region's designated mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, will not attend, officials said.

The meeting in Swaziland's capital Mbabane was called by the 14-nation regional body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as international pressure mounted on President Robert Mugabe to call off a presidential election on Friday.

The leaders of a SADC security troika of Tanzania, Angola and Swaziland would attend the meeting, the Tanzanian government said in a statement.

It said Mr. Mbeki had been invited, together with Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa, but Mr. Mbeki's spokesman said he would not go.
Story continued.... (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=612870)

[Afro-European]

This guy must be removed from power...physically.That's the only solution left.He went from hero to zero.Yuk.

[farfox9]

This guy must be removed from power...physically.That's the only solution left.He went from hero to zero.Yuk.

Pray tell when he was a hero........

[Rudolph]

Pray tell when he was a hero........

According to the whole world he was a liberation hero until 2000. That is how sad the West has become. Neither the atrocities commited during the liberation war, nor the Matabeleland genocide, changed people's minds, until the farm evictions destroyed the economy. Even the fact that he was president for 20 years bothered no one, so no wonder he came to think that the world belongs to him and that he can do whatever he wants to.

[Afro-European]

Pray tell when he was a hero........
Just google Zimbabwe's history.

[WarriorMonk]

Put a bounty on Mugabe's head and see what happens...

[Maktab]

He was only a hero because the world elevated him atop a pedestal he could never have climbed on his own. He certainly never deserved the title.

It always amuses me to see people falling over themselves to try and explain why Mugabe suddenly 'went bad', as though he had only recently changed into a monster. Spare me the revisionism; the leopard has always had these spots.

During the guerilla war against Smith's regime, Mugabe's ZANU/Zanla was by far the more brutal, savage and violent of the groups. Zanla was notorious for the atrocities it would visit on those, white or black, whom it regarded as its enemies. Mugabe should have been reviled for the crimes committed in his name, but instead he was fêted as a liberator and as the moral counterpoint to the evil and racist Ian Smith. The latter is a man I have no love for, but in attempting to promote the moderate Muzorewa over Mugabe he was taking the sane route in that he understood Mugabe's nature far better than anybody else did. The international community, of course, would have none of it and declared Mugabe the winner after a deeply-flawed election in which Zanla's thugs spread fear and violence amongst Zimbabwe's black African population and warned of even worse consequences if they did not vote for his party.

He was true to his word. Not two years after becoming President, Mugabe deployed his North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade into southern Matabeleland to brutally crush Nkomo's ZAPU, his political opponent, and to punish the region's people for voting against him. The operation was called the Gukhurahundi, meaning the spring rains that wash away the chaff, and by the time it was complete at least 20'000 Matabele civilians lay dead. It was close to genocide, and far worse than anything either Ian Smith's government or his apartheid-era counterparts in South Africa had ever done even in combination. Yet the world, fearful of admitting that they had been wrong and that they had replaced the hated Smith with somebody worse, raised no big fuss over the massacre and let Mugabe be. He was to be celebrated at international events and awarded with accolades such as honorary degrees all the way up until the 1990s when Nelson Mandela stole his spotlight. The thousands of dead Matabele were forgotten, becoming nothing more than a historical footnote.

So those who claim that things have changed are liars; weak fools who lack the courage to admit they were wrong to have supported him in the 1980s and that they were intentionally blind to his abuses. Nothing has changed, he has always been thus. He was just quiet in the 1990s, when he faced no determined political opposition, but he has always been an evil bastard.

And now he is preparing to repeat his performance in the Gukhurahundi all over again, confident that he'll get away with it just like every other time. So far, it looks like he may be right. But I bloody well hope that's not the case.

[jokuvaan]

Killing Mugabe would require only one South African Gripen and a bit of intel but there would still be civil war after that. Neither West or local neighbours want to participate in it.

[Rudolph]

There was a report in last week's paper I believe about a new rebel group who opposes Mugabe. Formed by ex military personnel. Can't for the life of me remember the name, something like ZSM. They said they have details on all military operations and bases, and would have no problem dealing with the military.

Found something:

"Distrust amongst (http://blogs.24.com/ViewComments.aspx?mid=1dbe281e-647a-495e-bca7-da032ce7e615&blogid=fbaa2b2e-28dc-4586-9dd7-bc7ce65f15db) all prevails in the civil service and with the formation of the Zimbabwe Resistance Movement this distrust is sure to turn the security services into mechanisms of paranoia. In particular as the website of the ZRM claims to have former as well as serving officers of the security services as members. If these claims are true then is leaves the impression that the police, the defence force and the CIO must now also be regarded as divided thus raising the stakes that a military coup may become a reality. As I said yesterday the existence of the ZRM can be twisted by the regime as a cause to declare a state of emergency prior to 27 June and postpone the run-off election almost indefinitely. Should this happen the reaction of the SADC and the AU will be of great interest."

[Afro-European]

Killing Mugabe would require only one South African Gripen and a bit of intel but there would still be civil war after that. Neither West or local neighbours want to participate in it.
You are 100% right.A soultion à la Sani Abacha 'd be suitable.The ex- Nigerian dictator that was poisoned and died in june 1998.He was replaced by the chief of staff of the armed forces who handed over the power to a democratically elected civilian president after 9 months of a peaceful transition.A peaceful removal from power wouldn't work with this thug.

[ren0312]

You are 100% right.A soultion à la Sani Abacha 'd be suitable.The ex- Nigerian dictator that was poisoned and died in june 1998.He was replaced by the chief of staff of the armed forces who handed over the power to a democratically elected civilian president after 9 months of a peaceful transition.A peaceful removal from power wouldn't work with this thug.

I really question the suitability/rationality of democratic elections for a country of which more than half of the population can not even read or write, there is no sense in putting the cart before the oxen, but that is another topic altogether.

[Rudolph]

As much as I hate to admit it, no one interferred with the South Africans or Rhodesians during their questionable racial status. In fact, when the foreign communists tried to help the majority, the Western powers gave secret aid in terms of military support to both countries.

[a_very_ex_STAB]

According to the whole world he was a liberation hero until 2000. That is how sad the West has become. Neither the atrocities commited during the liberation war, nor the Matabeleland genocide, changed people's minds, until the farm evictions destroyed the economy. Even the fact that he was president for 20 years bothered no one, so no wonder he came to think that the world belongs to him and that he can do whatever he wants to.

IIRC it was actually Joshua Nkomo's ZIPRA rebels who did most of the fighting in the campaign against the Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime. Mugabe's group took a bit of a back seat basically biding their time in Mozambique so they could stitch up Nkomo when the time came.

[wagon]

Mugabe is 84 years old. Perhaps he will croak it from natural causes. Soon.

[jebelcat]

As much as I hate to admit it, no one interferred with the South Africans or Rhodesians during their questionable racial status. In fact, when the foreign communists tried to help the majority, the Western powers gave secret aid in terms of military support to both countries.


No they did'nt.....I can't speak for South Africans but with regard to Rhodesia we got no support the major western countries, the Russians were actually buying our crome from us and selling it to the Americans because as you know we had full blown sanctions against us so the Americans stopped buying our crome....as for military support no ways we were the ones that offered to send troops to vietnam because we were supposed to be allies yet you did'nt see the British do that..

[Sanat-e-naft]

They really should just whack this clown and see what happens.

[PeterRJG]

They really should just whack this clown and see what happens.

Trouble is; there isn't a "they" out there.