The Dark Continent

June 27th 2008 – The southern African country of Zimbabwe will hold ‘’elections’’ this Friday in an unprecedented exercise in democracy. The ballot will oppose incumbent president Robert Mugabe who has held power since the independence of the nation in 1987 and the leader of the opposition Morgan Tsvangirai. Or at least it should... Unfortunately, Mr. Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the race earlier this week for reasons that were universally hailed as reasonable. Therefore, Mugabe will run unopposed and almost guarantees himself another win at the age of 84.

Over a month ago, a first round of elections gave Tsvangirai the win by a clear majority yet the 3 weeks delay before the results were announced made the international community quite suspicious about the actual “dead-heat” of the results. It is at this point that international observers from other African nations, the United Nations and the European Union left Zimbabwe to escape a possible civil war. It was then announced that we would have a second round of elections since the original poll was almost too close to call.

Since then, a few weeks have passed where Tsvangirai and the opposition have been imprisoned twice, hundreds of thousands of their supporters have been displaced, intimidated and killed and 86 of the opposition representatives have been assassinated. Fearing further violence, especially for the electors going to the polls this Friday, Tsvangirai threw in the towel, putting an end to this masquerade that President Mugabe has called a democracy.

Mugabe has used a Putin-like subtlety in his legendary respect for democracy: he originally made it a capital offense for the opposition to hold public meetings, affirmed that his presidency is a gift from God, banned international media under threat of imprisonment and death, said he would go to war if he lost and now, as the international community decries these mock elections, he claims that the Zimbabwean people will have the last word and only they can decide how democracy will apply to them.

President Bush and the entire United Nations Security Council have condemned the actions of Mugabe and confirm that they will disregard the results of Friday’s elections. Now, considering the extreme poverty of the Zimbabwean people, the international community can’t morally do much more than that. Mugabe actually holds his people hostage, knowing full well that the United States will not impose economic sanctions or even decrease aid payments, punishing the poorest of the poor. It is quite clear that President Mugabe does not have much to lose by acting like an African Tyrant of which we’ve seen so many.

For example, Charles Taylor ruled with a royal fist over Liberia for 7 years where he instated torture, amputations and the basic enslavement of the Liberians for his own enrichment, all for the liberation and greater good of his people. He is now on trial in The Hague for crimes of war. Further east, General Mobutu of the former Zaire held an iron martial fist over his country and stole all international aid money during his 32 year reign, all for the liberation and greater good of his people. He ended up with a fortune of over 4 billion dollars and recently died in exile. Finally, still further east, General Idi Amin presided over Uganda for 8 years in the 1970s. Up to 500,000 people could have been assassinated during his regime including: all Asians whom he deported, political opponents, various ethnic Ugandans and many more. He again humbly claimed the liberation of his people and then titled himself “ His Excellency, President for Life, Field Doctor Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”. Amin fled to Libya when his people had enough and died there at the ripe old age of 80.

On the one hand, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe will say that we cannot understand the needs of his people; on the other hand, all the other African tyrants claimed the same motives before they were violently overthrown by the very people they wanted to save. All in all, there is currently not much that can be done to help the ACTUAL people of Zimbabwe (the ones that are scared of not feeding their family tonight rather than pleasing the international community with democratic elections). I guess we are simply lucky that Mugabe is not yet as violently “patriotic” and “heroic” as his dictatorial predecessors.

(Pictured: Conference of evil: President Mobutu of Zaire and his sponsor Nixon - A concerned President Robert Mugabe)

End.