June 02, 2003
DISSENT ACTUALLY CRUSHED
Is it time to destroy Robert Mugabe yet?
Posted by Tim Blair at June 2, 2003 07:39 PMMorgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader was arrested today, as the authorities sought to crush a week of anti-government demonstrations and strikes.
Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested at his home, accused of planning an illegal demonstration, said William Bango, an opposition official.
Unfortunately world opinion (especially those of fellow dictators) would be against such an action. Which country would we use as a base for infantry (the country is landlocked, as Peter Reith once alluded to)?
Posted by: Andjam at June 2, 2003 at 09:22 PMHe's a Marxist so don't expect anyone on the left to be upset.
Posted by: kwela at June 2, 2003 at 09:52 PMWith Inflation at over 200% and the central bank not even having enough money to print notes he is not just dangerous to Zimbabwe but to most of Africa as investors get nervy about the Continent.
It's time for the African leaders' to pull their fingers out as well as Mugabe!
Posted by: Homer Paxton at June 2, 2003 at 10:00 PMFair go kwela. As a non Marxist leftie who's possibly been critical of Mugabe even longer than you have [unless you're African, and woke up to him very early?] I'd be pleased to see him go; but it's extremely unfair to Marx to call Mugabe a Marxist.
Posted by: Norman at June 2, 2003 at 11:41 PMKwela
True to an extent, except for the case of my bisexual Marxist uncle. The only reason he hates Mugabe though is because his comrade in sexual persuasion, Peter Tatchell, got bitch slapped by Mugabe's boys in Belgium. Other than that he probably thinks Mugabe is just swell.
Andy
Posted by: AndyM at June 2, 2003 at 11:43 PMBrown people are incapable of oppressing anyone. Their hearts are just that big.
Posted by: gg at June 3, 2003 at 01:17 AMNorman,
ALL totalitarians are Marxists, it comes with the territory.
Posted by: Peter at June 3, 2003 at 08:50 AMMichael Darby's website, for those not familiar with it, is constantly running articles on what is unfolding in Zimbabwe. many of them by first hand witness form various walks of life in Zimbabwe. One letter was a an eloquent summation of the situation by Dr.Tsvangirai.
The last fews months, things have deteriotated rapidly and continues to do so. It is truly appalling to read of what is happening , sickening.
Mugabe has turned a prosperous country with a once fast growing enterprising middle class blacks into a living hell.
It might be effective to assassinate the henchmen of the regime , including Mugabe.This would be difficult, however, as in, how many would have to be killed in order to bring the regime to an end?
As, the regime continues its descent into savagery and becomes more entrenched as a totalitarian regime, the more difficult it becomes to remove it by internal opposition. Or, to put things in perspective, opposition is being strangled, Mugabe's murdering thugs firmly in control supported by some corrupt police officers and other petty tyrants in government offices.
And the situation can be summarised, it took an invasion to remove the Baath regime in Iraq. No comment need be made on some socialist twits in Australia who asserted during Gulf WarII ,the Iraqi people would have removed Hussein from office. The long standing bestial regimes of Castro and North Korea are also illuminating.
One cannot but muse, as Chirac dealt with Hussein, defying sanctions, the chump is at it again with Mugabe. Mugabe, one might say, is Chirac's last big business partner'.The French never learn, like Marxists.
Posted by: d at June 3, 2003 at 09:52 AMIs there any possibility of a Commonwealth nation - South Africa, India, the UK, whichever - sending in advisors to keep the election clean? One fair election and Mugabe's out of power, and easily extradited.
Posted by: Dave Weigel at June 4, 2003 at 02:32 AMWell surely the US will be in there in a flash to defend democracy and human rights. Surprised they havent done something already.
Ha.
Posted by: Tom at June 4, 2003 at 05:08 AMWait and see Tom. Commonwealth governments are firming up against Mugabe.The war against Hussein and Baath and terrorists has interceded. Against that background, commonwealth governments are still in the process of distilling how to proceed.Slow to anger and act accordingly, is a virtue of the three anglos. The war against terrorists and that aginst Hussein, linked also on the count of terrorism, illustrates the virtue, since both have been proceeded by decades of trying to cater to those two problems by limited measures and negotiations.
Posted by: d at June 4, 2003 at 11:29 AMMr.Darby's blog site carries more damning evidence against Mugabe and his fellow murdering thugs.
Accounts of what is unfolding in Zimbabwe under that regime of savages is so terrible it is difficult to read evidence without weeping and having to fight down nausea.
It is time to splatter that ton of lard called a Mugabe over a patch of desert.