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Mugabe the author of smart genocide
Shilangu Tshuma
February 06, 2007

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=1711&cat=4

EVENTS unfolding in our motherland Zimbabwe can only be portrayed in calamitous terms. After the sun set of the Mugabe epoch, and when Zimbabwe wakes up from this nightmare the world will be impelled to alter its language to accommodate evil ingenuity of the Mugabe sort.

The modern politician excels in the way he or she chooses his words, because some words attract responsibility to act. When the events in Darfur unfolded many looked upon the then US Secretary of State, Collin Powell and Kofi Annan to pronounce the word genocide.

There was international frustration, as these men, invested with so much authority, hesitated to mention the g-word. Rwanda teaches us that, while those in positions of considerable influence vacillate to confront vice, precious lives are lost.

The Zimbabwean people have been made a spectacle of the whole world. Once again the world's attention is beckoned to the situation in Zimbabwe. If one was to be modest with language, one would still call it a holocaust. According to a study carried out to ascertain the impact of the doctors' strike in Zimbabwe, 60 000 people have perished to date.

The survey says most of these deaths could have been prevented. At a time when the custodians of the world's authority are economic with terms, Zimbabwe has deteriorated into a land of the dying. I submit that the actions of the Mugabe regime will trigger a major paradigm shift in dealing with genocidal incidents.

Mugabe's addiction to power has cost Zimbabwe, a generation. This is a man who will hold on with tooth and claw despite the alarming loss of lives. He will not hesitate to render his countrymen homeless if that would weaken the opposition.

He will feed his supporters and starve those who oppose him. He probably knows that for the Gugurahundi atrocities he is a dead man walking. The fate of Saddam Hussein is one that every dictator dreads privately. As a candidate for The Hague, Mugabe and his henchmen seek to immunise themselves by continual dominance.

The world has a picture of a dictator who is an uneducated, ugly army general, in military regalia, with a heavy accent. In contrast Mugabe is an educated and sophisticated brand of a dictator. Once the beloved adopted son of the West who patronised their palaces. I am sure that even Queen Elizabeth could not imagine this eloquent African could check in The Hague one day. After Mugabe is gone the annals will credit him as the author of a smart genocide.

Surely no-one suggests that Mugabe is responsible for the AIDS pandemic. But he is the brainchild of self-indulgence at the expense of equity. The Zimbabwean people have been denied the benefits of the achievements made in the treatment of HIV.

The health delivery system is in a state of collapse owing to the crumbling economy. The government has abandoned its people in the struggle against AIDS and the cost of the anti-retrovirals is beyond the reach of many. The great strides in the treatment of AIDS, has seen lives being prolonged for decades.

Unfortunately because of Zanu PF's obsession with power, they would rather talk politics and propaganda with their heads in the sand. They pretend to be oblivious of the plague and the affliction all around them.

The evils of the Mugabe regime have always been understated. This is a regime which massacred at list 20 000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands. In the early 80s Mugabe became so paranoid with the opposition, which stood in the way of his ambition to establish a one party state. He unleashed the wrath of Korean trained 5th Brigade who excelled in torture and murder. Mugabe in his own words describes it as "a time of madness which should not be repeated again". After incurring losses in the referendum and in the parliamentary elections, Zanu PF invented a killing machine - the Green Bombers, with a licence to beat and terrorise people into submission.

Young people were recruited and brain bleached. The practise of using children for military purposes is a common practice is rife in most African conflicts. The Zanu PF despots refer to some of their fellow citizens as 'weed'. It is clear if you look at it through the brazen mouth of Mugabe's lieutenant Didymus Mutasa, who once said "we would be better off with only six million people with our people who support the liberation struggle. We do not want these extra people."

Words like philanthropy, altruism are mandarin to Mugabe's regime. The world watched with disbelief as the bulldozers tore through the dwellings of our fellow countrymen. Infants and invalids were exposed to deadly elements. Mugabe gloated that "it had always been a long cherished desire."

The mere mention of genocide attaches the obligation for the international community to intervene. The fall out of Somalia, when the Americans got their fingers burnt and the ongoing fiasco in Iraq, nations have become lethargic in responding to genocides. There is an indisputable disparity in the response rate to African hot spots in comparison with the rest of the world.

Genocide Watch President Gregory Stanton modelled the progression to full blown genocide in eight stages. He says it evolves from classification-dividing people into "us and them", then extermination and later, denial. In the light of this model the Zimbabwe crisis bears every hallmark of a man made cataclysm. This is not the sort of a catastrophe that one can observe from the comforts of a hotel room. One needs to live in a high density suburb of Zimbabwe for just a week. That is where you find the people who are over laden with the brunt of tyranny.

The Mugabe regime has presided over a world record breaking economic meltdown. The death rate is unprecedented for a country which is not at war. 3 500 people die every week from AIDS and other reasons which stem from the collapse of the economy. This number dwarfs the death toll in Baghdad. The government has to account for the decline of the population. Demographic projections expected the population of Zimbabwe to have reached 18 million in 2007. A whole generation could be obliterated. Zimbabwe is a land where the elderly accompany the hearses bearing their young to an early grave. This regime has succeeded in turning Zimbabwe into a death house.

The unyielding arrogance of the Zimbabwe government to the concerns of the doctors has put its citizens on death row. 60 000 people have perished since the doctors went on strike some two months ago. Most of these deaths could have been prevented. The strike highlights the collapsing state of Zimbabwe's public health service - once seen as one of the best in Africa. As a novelty in Zimbabwe, the haves and the have nots are now singing from the same hymn sheet. The state of the health delivery system does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. The blood bank has run dry. A well to do family looked helplessly as their son bled to the point of death. The hospital could not supply enough blood. The family combed the length and breath of the country for a pint of blood in vain.

One does not need be sensational about what is happening in Zimbabwe. The situation on the ground speaks for itself. The authoritarian's hold to power is unrelenting and remorseless. It is obvious why Mugabe is so generous to Mengistu Haile Mariam. Birds of a feather flock together. Mugabe cannot afford to extradite Mengistu, he is not in the business of teaching his successors how to deal with dictators.

The silence of the world, while the nation of Zimbabwe wastes away, is ominous. The peace loving peoples of Zimbabwe feel betrayed by those they call friends around the globe. The world is fed up with leaders who come late on the scene and try to atone for their sins of omission by saying, "if only we had known better." The echoes of President Clinton's voice can still be heard. Speaking on his visit to Rwanda. He said, "All over the world there were people like me sitting in offices who did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror."

The state of affairs in Zimbabwe has evaded the comprehension of the world's leaders. The world is waiting to see blood flowing and amputees running amok on the highways and byways of Zimbabwe, to call it a genocide. Walking along the streets of Bulawayo, the second largest city, you may not see people wielding machetes. You may not hear any gun shots. But if you go and spend a day at the West Park Cemetry you will see the evidence of a smart genocide.

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