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Mugabe treats his people worse than beasts
Grace. P Karamura, The Monitor (Uganda)
May 05, 2008

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/opinions/Mugabe_treats_his_people_worse_than_beasts.shtml

A few weeks ago, the BBC showed a picture of a woman in Zimbabwe who was so badly tortured that she could hardly walk. Uncharacteristic of an African woman who would rather take an injection in her gomesi rather than expose her nakedness, she stripped naked for the world media to see the horrendous wounds inflicted on her by the government that had fought the independence war to protect her. Her crime wasn't because she may have or not voted for the opposition but because she lives in the opposition stronghold! The following evening I was leading a Parish Junior Youth club when a few nine-year-olds ran to me as if they had something troubling them. "Rev. Grace, why does Mugabe beat women?" one of them asked. Children can be unpredictable at best of times but I must confess I was caught off guard this time. As I scratched my head to tactfully respond, another child cut in, 'it's not fair Rev. Grace, is it'? 'No it isn't darling', I responded as I looked away at the youth worker that had just come in. I tried as much to hold back the tears and I rushed for the door back to the Vicarage. All night I pondered at those innocents' questions and concerns. What pricks my conscience even now is not my failure to give them a satisfactory answer but how I have tried as much to avoid these children in case they demand for an answer. Every day I ponder about these children's question and wonder how many more children in Zimbabwe that may be asking the same.

I suppose it's the same situation in which the Archbishop of York found himself when he cut his clerical collar on live TV and vowed never to wear it again until Mugabe is gone. By the way things stand, it seems it will be awhile before my brother Sentamu wears his collar again. Presumably he must be asked from time to time what he thinks of the Zimbabwe situation. By cutting his collar, it was a clear response of what he thinks of Mugabe's regime. I must however take off my hat for Mr Mugabe who at 84 years, still has his faculties intact (or does he?) and can still manage such hectic and demanding political campaigns. He is obviously a very bright man with seven degrees many of which he acquired when he was in prison fighting the oppressive Ian Smith's regime. As bright as he may be, he is still convinced that he has something special to offer Zimbabwe, even at 84. This is where I find the irony. For such an intelligent man who endured the dangers of the guerrilla war, who witnessed first-hand prison torture inflicted on his people and his first wife in particular, how he could allow similar if not worse suffering to happen to his people under his regime. I am using the word 'under his regime' deliberately. Many people who perished during Amin's regime were not necessarily killed by Amin. Some of them disappeared as a result of unscrupulous individuals thirsty for unsettled family and political feuds. Either way it defeats every imagination that ordinary people for whom Mr Mugabe was sworn in to protect can be treated worse than beasts simply because they exercised their constitutional right.

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