Mugabe's Madness

The wishful thinking that Robert Mugabe would give up power peacefully in Zimbabwe after his apparent electoral defeat has slowly faded away, and now only those with Jimmy Carter-levels of naivete hold out more than the slimmest of hopes that this particular marriage will end any way but very badly:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may be forced to face justice by a citizenry that has run out of patience with his regime’s abuses, his main rival said in an interview Thursday.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s new stance could make it even harder to dislodge Mugabe, who according to some critics is holding onto power because he fears he and his top aides will be dragged to court to face human rights abuse charges if he steps down.

Tsvangirai’s hardened position on Mugabe came the same day Zimbabwean state media reported that the ruling party accused the opposition leader of plotting with former colonial ruler Britain.

“Tsvangirai along with (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown) are seeking an illegal regime change in Zimbabwe, and on the part of Tsvangirai, this is treasonous,” The Herald newspaper quoted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying.

The opposition leader dismissed the treason charges and said accusations that he was plotting to overthrow the Mugabe regime were “outrageous.”

The text of the original Associated Press story has been edited, but was preserved by Hot Air, where Ed Morrissey comments:

Battle lines are hardening in this confrontation, and Mugabe shows no sign of responding to calls for publication of the presidential vote. It has been almost three weeks since voters went to the polls, and yet the election commission has gone to court to keep the count secret, assisted by Mugabe’s friends on the bench. The widespread assumption is that Mugabe has something to hide, which is that his citizens have demanded his departure, and he will refuse to leave.

In response, Mugabe has determined that criticism of these actions constitutes treason — and his security forces have acted accordingly. They conducted arrests when the MDC called a general strike that so far has gone nowhere. Mugabe sent troops into districts that heavily supported the MDC, intimidating Zimbabweans who dared to oppose the dictator in an election.

That apparently changed Tsvangirai’s mind about Mugabe’s fate. Earlier, he had been careful to remain conciliatory, eschewing what he called a “witch hunt” against the ruler after his departure in order to maintain a peaceful transition. Now, however, seeing little help from neighboring South Africa because of Thabo Mbeki’s denial of a “crisis” in Zimbabwe, it looks like Tsvangirai has decided to get more confrontational to make the crisis a lot more obvious.

Mbeki may have a lot to answer for in this entire affair. Mbeki has consistently block any efforts to remove Mugabe as he has used Khmer Rouge tactics to drive the country into Khmer Rouge Cambodia levels of Hell. The only tactic Mbeki would allow is "quiet diplomacy," which more often than not translates into "doing nothing." Even the Washington Post has tired of Mbeki's position:

[...]Mr. Mbeki's perverse and immoral policy is reaching its nadir -- in South Africa's neighbor Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is inarguably one of the world's worst: It has wrecked the economy, triggering food shortages that have driven millions of refugees into neighboring states, and used brute force to stem what would otherwise be overwhelming opposition. On March 29, the regime staged presidential and parliamentary elections and lost both by a wide margin. Rather than concede, Mr. Mugabe has refused to release the presidential vote count, called for a recount in parliamentary districts won by the opposition and launched another violent campaign to intimidate those who voted against him.

Every Western democratic government has condemned Mr. Mugabe's maneuvering, and even many Africans have appeared to lose patience with the 84-year-old strongman. That he remains in office is due mainly to Mr. Mbeki, who has used South Africa's considerable influence and prestige to bolster Mr. Mugabe. Last weekend, when Zambia's president called an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community, which he chairs, to consider the situation in Zimbabwe, Mr. Mbeki flew to Harare for a preemptive meeting with Mr. Mugabe, after which he declared, "There is no crisis." Then he traveled to the regional conference, where he prevented the group from criticizing Mr. Mugabe or supporting the opposition's demand that the election results be immediately released.

If there is good news in this sordid story -- and consolation for the proponents of an alliance of democracies -- it is that Mr. Mbeki's policy is increasingly unpopular in his own country. South Africa's free press has been scathing in its denunciations of the coddling of Mr. Mugabe, as have opposition party leaders. Even better, the new president of Mr. Mbeki's own African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has distanced himself from the Zimbabwe posture, as have the party's secretary general and treasurer.

Meanwhile, if you didn't think it possible for Mugabe's loathsomeness quotient to get any higher, you thought wrong. Mugabe's security forces have now started "Operation Mavhoterapapi" -- "Where you put your 'X' -- where their thugs are beating the opposition and torching their offices and homes.

You need weapons to provide such government services as Mugabe is providing, and Mugabe is certainly trying to get them. From those noble paragons of humanitarianism, the Chinese. The Chinese sent a shipload of arms to the Mugabe regime this week including mortars, more than 3000 mortar bombs and 1500 rocket-propelled grenades. The shipment was to go through Durban, South Africa, and was approved by Mugabe's friend, Thabo Mbeki. Sounds like the fix is in.

Until the South African dockworkers got word of it:

Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased on Thursday when South Africa's biggest transport workers' union announced that its members would not unload the ship.

SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) general secretary Randall Howard said: "Satawu does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons.

"Our members employed at Durban container terminal will not unload this cargo neither will any of our members in the truck-driving sector move this cargo by road."

He said the ship, the An Yue Jiang, should not dock in Durban and should return to China.

Sounds like those reports of the unpopularity of Mugabe in South Africa are not exaggerations. It's nice to know someone is standing up for the people of Zimbabwe here.

But it will take more than South African dockworkers to stop the descent of Zimbabwe into ever-lower levels of Hell.

(crossposted at Circle City Pundit)