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Stand up for Zimbabwe
Njoroge Wachai
May 15, 2008

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2008/05/stand_up_for_zimbabwe.html

Put aside for a moment today-s situation in Zimbabwe, where political turmoil reigns after President Mugabe-s attempts to rob the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, of his legitimate election victory.

Instead, imagine that it-s November, 2008 in the U.S.. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has just pummeled the GOP-s John McCain in both the popular vote and the Electoral Colleges to claim the U.S. presidency.

But McCain, courtesy of the power of incumbency (Republicans control the White House), adamantly refuses to concede. He and President Bush hoard the official election results in a bid to block Obama from being officially declared the president.

Democrats threaten violent street protests unless their candidate is declared the winner. Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU) rally behind them, threatening the U.S. with unspecified actions, including travel restrictions for McCain and members of his inner circle.

Democrats, frustrated by Republican obstinacy, rush to court to seek an order to compel the government to release the election results immediately. The Court rejects their plea, just as the Zimbabwean High Court recently did. McCain and Bush threaten "to bash the heads" of Obama supporters who dare "disturb peace and tranquility that this county is enjoying.

Meanwhile, the heads of the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff call a press conference at the Pentagon to denounce Obama, declaring that they will not salute a person who didn-t fight in the Vietnam War, the Second World War, the First Gulf War or the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They call Obama a stooge, and demand immediate swearing in of John McCain.

Soon after the conference they, along with the Illinois State Troopers and the local Sheriff-s office raid the Obama Campaign headquarters in Chicago, bloodying staff, confiscating computers and making mass arrests. A heavily armed SWAT team with military reinforcement invades the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters; they beat up Howard Dean, Democratic senators and representatives, and labor organizations that support Obama.

Obama, having gotten wind of the operation, flees to Mexico, where he appeals to regional leaders to intervene. "We-re still verifying the ballots," McCain declares.

While Obama is away, Republicans - in cahoots with security agents (war veterans, sheriff deputies, soldiers, and SWAT officers) - fan out across the country hunting down his supporters, beating, arresting and killing them. Many flee to Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba and other neighboring countries.

There-s a noisy media outcry. The government-s response: taking off all radio and TV stations off the air except the Voice of American and FOX News.

Welcome to Zimbabwe. We-re not talking about Barack Obama and John McCain. This is about a dictator and a demagogue called Robert Mugabe and Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, the man many believe won the March 29 General Election, but who has not been allowed to assume power. Instead, Mugabe and his goons have forced Tsvangirai into exile.

As I noted two weeks ago, Mugabe wants to subvert the democratic process in Zimbabwe. Many observers led by the respected Zimbabwe Election Support Network have proclaimed that Mr. Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential election. Rather than acquiesce to the fact that he has lost, Mugabe and his supporters are brutalizing opposition supporters in the hope of discouraging them from participating in a runoff, which the government has just postponed by a whopping 90 days.

Clearly, apathy has fast descended on the international community. There-s hardly a strong voice to be heard coming from the African Union (AU) or the South African Development Community (SADCC), the two organizations that should be drawing a democratic roadmap for Zimbabwe.

South African president Thabo Mbeki, who might have been instrumental in turning things around, is already in bed with Mugabe, which prompted the Washington Post two weeks ago to label him a rogue democrat.

Now, should the world remain silent in the face of Mugabe and his cronies- wanton abuse of human rights? Mugabe is undoubtedly a tin-pot dictator. Diplomatic denunciations, wherever their source, are unlikely to move him. Time and again, he has demonstrated his contempt for any member of the international community who has dared to challenge his ineptitude.

Just today Mugabe-s police detained, for one hour, several Western diplomats who had gone to visit victims of political violence that the ruling party ZANU-PF militias have been waging against opposition supporters. Mugabe is more than determined to terrorize anybody deemed to oppose him.

The Washington Post recently reported how 11 opposition supporters were killed in a single day. In April the New York-based Human Rights Watch detailed how ZANU-PF goons, with the help of security agents, have been setting up informal detention centers across the county to torture opposition supporters.

It-s time for the international community to make a resolute demand that the democratic rights of all Zimbabweans be respected. Coercive measures, including punitive sanctions for companies and countries propping up the Mugabe regime, might force this man to sober up.

*Njoroge Wachai is a former Kenyan journalist currently based in the United States.

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