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Enabling Mr. Mugabe
New York Times
July 01, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/opinion/01tue2.html?ref=opinion

Robert Mugabe brazenly and brutally stole his latest re-election as president of Zimbabwe. Now Africa's leaders, who have looked the other way for far too long, must decide what they will do.

They can continue to enable Mr. Mugabe out of political cynicism or misplaced solidarity with a former liberation leader turned tyrant. Or they can follow the wiser example of the living symbol of African liberation, Nelson Mandela, who last week condemned Zimbabwe's "tragic failure of leadership." The signals from Monday's opening session of the African Union summit, with Mr. Mugabe smugly in attendance were not encouraging. While African election monitors rightly denounced the voting, few summit speakers went beyond muted and indirect criticism.

More than truth telling is at stake. Zimbabwe and its people are dying at Mr. Mugabe's hand - ravaged by an imploding economy, skyrocketing inflation, man-made famine and a governmental machinery whose only visible function is to reward the dictator's collaborators and cronies and beat and kill his critics and opponents.

Zimbabwe needs a transitional government that reflects the true will of its voters, who gave a convincing first-round victory to the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai. And it needs a fair rerun of the election.

Africa's leaders are best placed to keep Zimbabwe from further destabilizing the whole region. They can do so by refusing to recognize Mr. Mugabe's election theft and by pressuring those who continue to collaborate with him by denying them visas, freezing bank accounts and calling on the rest of the world to follow suit.

While far too many African leaders - most notably President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa - refuse to accept that responsibility, the United States and other Western countries have taken the lead.

President Bush has extended unilateral sanctions against Zimbabwean officials. The United States is pressing the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and sanctions on Mr. Mugabe's cronies.

Unfortunately, Russia, China and South Africa seem determined to block such moves.

That is yet another reason Africa's other leaders must take the lead. They must speak the truth about Mr. Mugabe and all the horrors he has visited on Zimbabwe, back their words with sanctions and call on the Security Council to do the same.

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