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Amnesty? No way!
John Makumbe, The Zimbabwean
May 25, 2007

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=6&linkid=11&id=4520

It was, indeed, magnanimous for Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the MDC, to indicate that Robert Mugabe could be granted an amnesty for all the sins that he has committed during his reign of terror in Zimbabwe. But that was Tsvangirai's own opinion, and certainly not that of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. It may even have been the position of the MDC faction led by Tsvangirai but it still is not the preferred position of the suffering people of this country.

There are certainly a few good reasons why the blood-sucking dictator should be granted immunity from prosecution. One good reason is that this will encourage Bob to willingly retire from active politics and allow the nation to inch its way back to democracy, peace and development.

Another good reason is that it is a little awkward to prosecute Mugabe for crimes against humanity while Ian Smith, who committed more or less equally atrocious crimes, is walking about a free man. Perhaps a third good reason is that it is always logical to allow one man to (sort of) get away with murder or some such evil in order to rescue millions of innocent hostages that are under his captivity.

The argument is that if the evil Mugabe is not promised amnesty, he will continue his relentless torture against the innocent people of Zimbabwe as a way of safeguarding himself against prosecution and possible conviction in a court of law. He will do his best to remain in office until his death. But these three reasons, while seeming to be logical and reasonable, are easily overwhelmed by the numerous reasons against granting Mugabe an amnesty.

Robert Mugabe is not invincible; he can lose an election even if he redoubles his rigging efforts. We are all aware that he lost the 2002 presidential election but held onto power like an octopus. At that time, however, Mugabe was still generally accepted within the Zanu (PF) circles as the only possible candidate against the hugely popular Morgan Tsvangirai.

This is no longer the case given the two other factions in Mugabe's rotting party.

The Mnangagwa and Mujuru factions are very unlikely to co-operate with the Mugabe faction in shoring up support for the geriatric. There is therefore no need to grant the dictator an amnesty in order to coax him out of office.

With regard to Ian Smith's apparent freedom after committing all those crimes against humanity, Zimbabweans can safely argue that Smith has long since left the country and is now resident in South Africa. For all we know, Smith may have been granted political asylum in our southern neighbouring country, and there is little we can do to bring him back to Zimbabwe to face charges of genocide. Indeed, Mugabe would do himself a favour if he followed suit.

Zimbabweans would not bother to pursue Mugabe into South Africa, should he be granted political asylum there. The argument that one evil ruler should be allowed to get away with crimes against humanity does not hold water. As a nation, we are anxious to put to an end this evil culture of impunity, reckless abuse of innocent people, and bad governance.

We will not be able to destroy this culture if we allow Mugabe and his evildoers to escape justice. Indeed, we run the risk of setting a dangerous precedent, which could be exploited by the next dictator at State House.

We need to send a strong and powerful message to all potential governors of this our land: that no one will be allowed to abuse power, trample roughshod on the rights of the people and get away with it at the end of the day.

Robert Mugabe must pay for the numerous sins that he committed against the people of this country. He must never be allowed to escape from justice.

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