Mugabe’s murderous crackdown

ZIMBABWE'S PRESIDENTIAL election became an effective coup as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 vote amid a murderous crackdown by forces loyal to President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), went on to call for international peacekeeping troops to prepare for a new election. A fair vote in the presidential runoff vote scheduled for June 27, he said, was impossible due the widespread repression carried out by Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

"We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force," Tsvangirai wrote for the British newspaper, the Guardian. "Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not troublemakers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns."

Tsvangirai hopes to get action from the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which unanimously condemned Mugabe's attacks on the opposition. "The next stage should be a new presidential election," he wrote. "The reality is that a new election, devoid of violence and intimidation, is the only way to put Zimbabwe right."

The solid condemnation of Zimbabwe by the Security Council is noteworthy, given that two of its permanent members, Russia and China, have in the past moved to block sanctions against Zimbabwe. Also, Burkina Faso, Libya and South Africa joined the vote to condemn Zimbabwe--also significant, given that South African President Thabo Mbeki has provided Mugabe with a political and economic lifeline for years.

Yet there is little chance of the African Union assembling peacekeeping operation in Zimbabwe, and it's even less likely that the UN vote will curb Mugabe in his bid to hang on to power.

Despite the international pressure that's been building for years, ZANU, police, the army and paramilitary forces claiming to be "war veterans" of the liberation struggle have carried out a wave of violence. Mugabe, the central leader of Zimbabwe's war against the old white minority regime, has ruled since 1980. For years, he refused political deals that would have eased him into retirement with his ill-gotten wealth intact.

Now, dozens of opposition activists have been murdered, and hundreds jailed, including MDC spokesperson Tendai Biti, who's set to go on trial for treason. Tsvangirai himself took refuge in the Dutch embassy to avoid beatings, arrest or worse.

Thousands of MDC supporters have been driven from their homes, making it impossible for them to vote. Moreover, the government ordered the closure of all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cripple the opposition and enforced the edict through violent raids. Food aid from foreign governments was halted, after Mugabe charged that relief workers were actually agents of Western imperialism.

The result has been to make life in Zimbabwe, already difficult, unbearable. As Jan Puhl and Toby Selander of Der Spiegel reported June 25:

It is impossible for people to move about freely in the countryside. All the roads that cross the country are covered in a network of roadblocks where potential MDC supporters are dragged out of their cars or off buses. Simply not knowing the ZANU-PF song or declining to sing it is proof enough.

Life in the capital Harare has also become grim. All official vehicles are covered in Mugabe posters, even bus drivers are forced to wear Mugabe T-shirts.

Even aside from the intensified political oppression, life under Mugabe has become a daily struggle. The rate of inflation has risen to a staggering 2 million percent, a liter of Coke has increased in price from 200 million Zimbabwean dollars to 1.4 billion in just one week. A kilogram of meat has jumped from 1.5 million to 7 million Zimbabwean dollars. Postponing grocery shopping by even half an hour, one newspaper calculated, could see the value of one's money reduced by half.

JUST A few months ago, it seemed as if a more or less peaceful transition of political power had finally become possible in Zimbabwe. The opposition MDC had overcome a split to mount a winning campaign in the first round of the March 29 elections, taking control of parliament from ZANU-PF.

For its part, the ruling party was divided, with a former top government official, Simba Makoni, challenging Mugabe along with Tsvangirai. But the Zimbabwe election authorities delayed the presidential election results for a month. Ultimately, they declared that Tsvangirai, a former labor union leader, won with 48 percent to Mugabe's 43 percent, thereby necessitating a runoff election.

Tsvangirai and the MDC believed--with good reason--that he had won an outright majority during the first round of the election, and therefore, he should have been declared the victor outright. After initially refusing to participate in a second-round vote, he reversed course. Mugabe then unleashed the crackdown.

While trying to crush the opposition, Mugabe has postured as an anti-imperialist fighter who is leading the country in struggle once again. He says he's trying to prevent a U.S.-British takeover of Zimbabwe through the MDC, which has long had the support of the West.

Now, with Tsvangirai out of the race, Mugabe has pledged to hold the vote anyway. And with arrests, assassinations and repression of MDC members of parliament, ZANU-PF may even be able to reclaim a majority when the new parliament finally convenes.

Mugabe may be trying to preserve his rule with even more dictatorial methods than he has used so far in his 28-year rule. Or he may be using the violence to impose a government of "national unity."

His model may be the stolen Kenyan elections of last December, which led weeks of ethnically-based political violence. The result was a power-sharing deal, brokered by the U.S. and Britain, that left incumbent Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in office while installing opposition leader Raila Odinga as prime minister.

It's unclear whether such a deal will be offered to the MDC, and, if so, whether it would be accepted. In either case--a ZANU-PF dictatorship or a power-sharing deal--the popular struggle against Zimbabwe's corrupt rulers will continue.