Zero Hour in Zimbabwe
Editorial
The Washington Post
CREDIT President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe with transforming his country from southern Africa's breadbasket into a southern Africa basket case. Thanks to his mismanagement, corruption and the damage he has inflicted on Zimbabwe's economy, a nation
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a nation that once fed its regional neighbors cannot now feed itself
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that once fed its regional neighbors cannot now feed itself. To plunge Zimbabwe even further into international disrepute, Mr. Mugabe, thief of his last election, is now trying to mask his failures by scapegoating the country's white commercial farmers as the main source of the country's ills. Even as he, in the name of "land reform," expropriates private farms and arrests white farmers for defying orders to get off their land, Robert Mugabe is fooling no one but himself. The colonial legacy, which at the time of independence allowed fewer than 5,000 white farmers to hold 70 percent of Zimbabwe's best farmland, is a wrong that needs to be set right. But Mr. Mugabe, rather than pursuing constructive reforms, is persecuting his opponents, taking land without compensation and behaving for all the world to see as a power-mad autocrat.
At the same time, Zimbabwe, nearly bankrupt, suffering a drought and edging toward famine, comes to the West with a tin cup. Because the disaster in agricultural policy will afflict Zimbabwe's neighbors in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, Mr.
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"(Mugabe) deserves all the sanctions the world can muster"
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Mugabe's problem is falling into the hands of the rest of the world to solve. His misrule cannot serve as an excuse to ignore the region's growing humanitarian crisis. But Mr. Mugabe's attacks on commercial farms and businesses, his intimidation of opponents and critics, and his demonstrated contempt for the law merit only international contempt and isolation. He deserves all the sanctions the world can muster.
Robert Mugabe was once a hero, leading his country's struggle for independence. Today he stands as a representative of all that is wrong with postcolonial African leadership: a self-centered, power-hungry dictator who has lost the support of his people, yet clings to the trappings of office through the help of the mob, the gun and a demagogic political appeal to the worst kind of human emotions. Zimbabwe would do well to be rid of him.
Last 25 Visitor Comments
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| Frik Hefer | frik_hefer_at_comcast.net | Please vote for Mugabe and Zanu-PF | 4/6/2005 |
| Thank you for every one that voted and gave Mugabe and Zanu-PF a landslide 2/3 majority. This action will ensure that Zimbabwe will get to minus 10 Zero hour time frame, in a world record breaking speed, an all new African record! |
