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Waiting
for Thabo Mbeki
New York Times
May 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/opinion/17thu3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Will Robert Mugabe's
outrages never stop? For months he has been jailing and brutalizing
opposition leaders and trampling the rule of law in order to guarantee
himself another rigged victory in next year's presidential elections.
If Zimbabwe is to brake
its headlong descent into tyranny, famine and some of the world's
lowest life-expectancy figures, the leaders of neighboring African
countries will have to bring strong political and economic pressure
on Mr. Mugabe, and they will have to move quickly. So far they have
done the opposite. In the midst of Mr. Mugabe's reign of terror,
his fellow African leaders appallingly selected the continent's
prime example of economic free fall as the chair of the United Nations'
Commission on Sustainable Development.
The leader with the most
potential leverage is Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa,
which is the region's political powerhouse, as well as the supplier
of 40 percent of Zimbabwe's electricity and one of its largest investors.
A group of southern African nations have asked Mr. Mbeki to mediate
between Mr. Mugabe and his opponents. So far, Mr. Mbeki hasn't done
much more than write a few letters.
If his mediation is to
succeed, substantive negotiations will have to start quickly and
be concluded well in advance of next year's election. And, to assure
that the opposition can freely campaign, Mr. Mbeki must insist that
Zimbabwe repeal its legal restrictions on free assembly and that
Mr. Mugabe stop terrorizing opposition leaders.
If the human
tragedy of Zimbabwe cannot move Mr. Mbeki, he might at least consider
his own country's narrow self-interest. Potential investors in South
Africa can only be put off by the growing tide of misery and upheaval
just over the border.
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