Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

International community must reject Mugabe
Namibia National Society for Human Rights (NSHR)
April 18, 2008

Namibia's National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) calls upon the international community (IC) to refrain from calling upon Zimbabwe to release the presidential elections. Instead, the IC must reject Mr. Robert Mugabe and his unelected Government outright. Also, the IC must unequivocally urge Mugabe to step down.

In the likely event Mr. Mugabe decides to cling to power, the IC must institute even more stringent and urgent punitive measures as listed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. It is clear that on March 29 2008, the people of Zimbabwe repudiated President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF and freely elected a new government.

NSHR believes that Mr. Mugabe is intent on doctoring the electoral results because of the following reasons:

1. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have not yet officially announced that they are interested in any presidential run-off.
2. At their emergency summit in Lusaka on Sunday, April 13 2008, SADC leaders declared that the due process of law was being followed in Zimbabwe and, hence, they would not do anything like interfering with that process. The SADC declaration did not call for the immediate release of the presidential election results. Instead, it called for the expeditious verification of the said results in the presence of the candidates or their agents "within the rule of law." The SADC declaration also urged "all parties to accept the results when they are announced."
3. Not surprisingly, on April 14 2008 the Zimbabwe High Court rejected the MDC petition seeking to compel the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to urgently release the presidential election results. The court dismissed the MDC petition on the grounds that an investigation into the said results was underway.

From the above it can be reasonably deduced that Mugabe has lost the presidential elections, but has been busy doctoring both House of Assembly and Presidential poll results. Hence, instead of releasing the original results, showing that he had lost, Mugabe is now likely to "respond" to the international calls and, instead, release the doctored results showing him the winner. Furthermore, Mugabe would then make an "offer" to the Opposition MDC about "forming a government of national unity" in which the MDC will play a subordinate role. However, should the MDC dare to reject this "offer" as expected, a massive crackdown would follow.

Precedents to the above scenario have already occurred elsewhere in Africa and beyond. Recently, a bloody strife ensued after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki lost the election to the Opposition Orange Democratic Movement but refused to accept the results. Consequently, more than 1 500 Kenyans lost their lives with tens of thousands displaced.

In 1993 Nigerian Chief Moshood Abiola (1937-1998) ran for the presidency and won the poll. However, Chief Abiola was denied the opportunity to become Nigerian President after a court annulled the election results under he regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. When Chief Abiola declared himself the lawful president of Nigeria, he was accused of treason and imprisoned. He subsequently died under mysterious circumstances on July 7 1998.

In a similar development, in a 1990 election, the Burmese people voted overwhelmingly (with 80 percent) for the Opposition National League for Democracy NLD party and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, the military junta in that country refused to accept the vote and placed Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest.

It is against the above background that NSHR is calling upon the IC not to allow the same to repeat itself in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the IC must act resolutely and vigilantly and ensure that Mugabe steps down immediately.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP