I have a former student Lindani - who left with his mother to return to Zimbabwe this year. He's 14, and very gentle. I would give anything to know he is save and alive.


Washington diary: Tackling Zimbabwe

By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington



Look around the world and what you see is one nasty regime after another getting away with it.


How will the international community tackle Robert Mugabe?
The generals of Burma thumbed their nose at the global community, first by gunning down monks in the streets, then by watching their own citizens die rather than accept urgently needed aid after the cyclone.

The government of Sudan happily continues to sponsor what President George W Bush has called "genocide", and a phalanx of outrage from Hollywood to The Hague has been powerless to stop it.

Iran continues to enrich uranium - and its own coffers thanks to the soaring price of crude oil - while the Israelis are wondering whether they should put a stop to Tehran's alleged nuclear programme with a unilateral strike sanctioned by the US.

And now it is Zimbabwe's turn to proffer two fingers.

As he prances around the campaign trail in his colourful jackets, the still-sprightly 84-year-old Robert Mugabe reminds me of the Joker in Batman, laughing at a disapproving world.

His opponent Morgan Tsvangirai has been forced to hide in the Dutch embassy.

The wife of the mayor of Harare, a regime opponent, has been beaten to death.

There is consistent evidence of systematic harassment and murder of anyone who dares to support the opposition.

And a ham sandwich now costs 3.8 billion Zim dollars, when we last checked.

Zimbabwe is a country of destitute, frightened billionaires. And yet there seems very little that a disapproving world can do about it.

Call it the axis of impunity. It is a club that speaks volumes about the state of the world.

There is no shortage of moral outrage about the members of this club. What is missing is the moral high ground.

When America points a justly accusing finger at Burma's generals, it no longer has the same clout as it did a decade ago.

The double standards of Guantanamo Bay are one reason.

The other is the concept of "the coalition of the willing", the phrase used by President Bush to describe a fairly reluctant bunch of fellow travellers on the regime change express.

This further eroded the weak authority of the United Nations and introduced an air of voluntary laxity into matters of global urgency.

Economic interests

When I put it to Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, that Zimbabwe might be a case for "regime-change", she almost reacted as if she had never heard the phrase.

Diplomacy has replaced the 101st Airborne Division as the administration's tool of influence.

The trouble is that it is firing blanks.

Just when you actually want Uncle Sam to throw his weight around a bit, he says he is bogged down, busy, otherwise engaged - call back later.

The UN is toothless, the EU is gormless and the US has had 'the willing' kicked out of it by Iraq and Afghanistan


Then there is good old fashioned economic self-interest.

Why would the Chinese rein in their clients in Sudan if they need to buy all the oil and copper they can get their hands on?

And what hope is there for Europe to speak with one thunderous voice when its 27 members cannot even agree on a basic common constitution?

And if you're Russia, Iran or Venezuela - the axis of crude - and you can rake in $145 for a barrel of oil, why should you be listening anyway? You're laughing all the way to the refinery.

The UN is toothless, the EU is gormless and the US has had "the willing" kicked out of it by Iraq and Afghanistan.

Age of non-intervention

The emphasis now seems to be on regional bodies that most of the world barely even knew existed until recently.

Asean has tried to grapple politely with Burma.

The African Union is sending peacekeepers to Sudan.

And Zimbabwe awaits the stinging sanction of the Southern African Development Community. Take cover!

The good things about these neighbourhood watchdog schemes is that they are regional.

If his African neighbours berate him, then Robert Mugabe can no longer claim that he is being hounded by Rhodesia's former colonial masters.

Unfortunately the neighbours also need to shed their milk teeth.

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president-in-waiting, may have called the actions of Zimbabwe's ruling party Zanu PF "unacceptable".

The President of Namibia has chimed in.

But the man who really counts - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa - has remained mutely on the fence, apparently unwilling to ruffle the feathers of his former comrade-in-arms.

But whatever debt the ANC leadership owes Mr Mugabe from its days in opposition against apartheid, it must know that it would probably never have come to power if the international community had not imposed stringent sanctions against the Pretoria regime.

This crisis is about Zimbabwe's future and South Africa's reputation.

There is clearly more work for sanctions to do.

The British bank Barclays, for instance, opted out of business in apartheid South Africa but continues to function in Zimbabwe, which has made a mockery of human rights as well as the value of money - both of which are surely good reasons to cut ties.

The crisis in Burma, Darfur and Zimbabwe illustrate how messy the global picture has become.

We are living in an age of non-intervention, where the stage is crowded with fuming ringside observers.

It is time to get back to the drawing board.

__________________
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
- Robertson Davies

I will reply to this if only to say America's silence on Robert Mugabe, is sad. We are more worried about places with oil.

Venezuela, Iraq, Iran. but not about this shows what people care about.

__________________

First thing first. The Mugabe regime is not a nice regime.

What gets me on all this story over Zimbabwe is the blatant double standards. Here in Britain the government and media never shut up about ZImbabwe being a dictatorship and all rest of it. Brown refuses to go to events where Mugabe is present. Yet he goes to Saudi Arabia to cosy up to one of the worst dictatorships in the world. Again he doesnt care about democracy in China. These people pick and choose when they care about democracy. Total hypocrites.

Now it is worth noting that the Lancaster agreement was never upheld by the British. They were meant to compensate for the land reforms. They never did this. They failed to pay for the resettling of the white farmers. It's not all Mugabe's fault as the media and British would have us believe. The British government are guilty too.

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Oh, colonialism is at the root - but the flower ain't pretty. Mugabe was starving anyone who supported his rivel - those he didn't have killed. That's personal choice - not colonialism.

Lindani is the perfect age and size to be taken as a soldier in this crap - and I suspect he'd get killed quickly if that happened.

__________________
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
- Robertson Davies

At least the Queen took back his knighthood.

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100% agree.

Mugabe has been in power ever since. The irony is the current issue isn't because of British Policies but one of Marxist Policies as the ZANU and Mugabe are Marxist. He need to push out the Matabele and the White settlers who disagreed with Marxism. Then Mugabe got involved in the Second Congo War, expropriation ( loot the looters mentality), and printed Trillions of Zimbabwean dollars causing Hyperinflation.

Its a shame that Rhodesia traded one imperialist for another.

__________________
Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

And we're refusing to play cricket against them, pending a meeting with the powerless ICC (world governing body for cricket). Like Joe said our government is a hypocritical one but we are actually doing something about Zimbabwe, which is comendable.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Not playing cricket is a farce, that opens the door for other things. Why not refuyse to play Israel at football, England at Rugby for Iraq, even Scotland. WHy not refuse to compete against the US, why not boycott ther olympics ? Refuse to take part with the Saudi's at sport. You see the only nation they stand up to are the poor nation, the nation that soesn't let them into exploit.

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Oh yeah, I recognise the hypocrisy, but the English work against apartheid South Africa started because of cricket.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Marxist ? Givr me a break.

And it has everything to do with the British. They robbed Zimbabwe of millions. It has even more to do with the IMF. Once they got into Zimbabwe the coountries debt skyrocked.

__________________
Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?