Mugabe has got away with murder too long,
Robin Renwick*, Daily Telegraph, Jan 29, 2002

After 20 years of Robert Mugabe's party -- Zanu-PF -- in power, the Zimbabwean people have had enough of its violence, arrogance, corruption and incompetence. In the run-up to last year's elections, Mugabe and his henchmen found themselves faced with the real prospect of losing power. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is led by some extraordinarily courageous people -- Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues -- with overwhelming evidence of wide popular support. Mugabe's response was to unleash the "war veterans" campaign to terrorize white farmers into abandoning their farms.

Few of the so-called veterans had even been born at the time of the liberation war. This campaign of violence was and is organized and financed by the Central Intelligence Organization. Several farmers were killed and, in many other cases, they and their families were beaten up or imprisoned. But the whites were not the real target of this campaign. The objective was to terrorize the black farm workers and the rural population generally into voting for their present masters.

The response of the Commonwealth and of the international community was feeble indeed. Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, explained that this kind of thing was to be expected in Africa. His senior deputy, Moses Anafu, who was sent to observe the elections, was found to be a director of a diamond company, Oryx, in which the Zimbabwe government turned out to have a large interest.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has opined that Mugabe has gone "bonkers." Nelson Mandela has suggested that people should take up arms against him. But Mugabe's conduct is entirely in character. Throughout the liberation struggle, he advocated the use of terror asa political weapon. Village headmen who opposed him were butchered in front of thevillagers. After independence, the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade was used to murder and terrorize his political opponents throughout Matabeleland. He is a terrorist in the strictest sense of the term. He also believes, as he used to tell me, that power comes from the barrel of a gun. Although the opposition has the votes, he does not take it seriously,because it does not have any guns.

As Mugabe -- to the dismay even of his own ministers -- is now seeking re-election asPresident at the age of 78, attacks on the rural population and the opposition have beenintensified. A dozen middle-ranking members of the opposition have been murdered. Thousands more have been beaten up and tortured. The chief justice was terrorized into resigning. Other independent judges have been ousted. Newspaper editors have been arrested and tortured. Criticism of Mugabe has been criminalized. The opposition leader has been charged with treason. The head of the army has stated that, if the oppositionwere to win the election, its victory would not be recognized.

Mugabe has no intention of allowing the opposition to win. He neither knows nor cares about economics. Like other dictators, he believes in the triumph of the will. Zimbabwe isnow facing famine. The tourist industry has collapsed. The currency is worthless. One ofthe most prosperous economies in Africa has been destroyed.

The use of torture is commonplace in Zimbabwe. Typically, it takes the form of villagers being tied to trees and beaten all night by members of the "youth brigades." And yet there still has been no effective response from the international community.

A Commonwealth meeting is due to be held today. It looks likely to be inconclusive. ButZimbabwe's expulsion should be demanded. If the Commonwealth chooses to retainMugabe as a member, one is bound to wonder what the organization is for. Are we reallyexpected to conclude that torture is OK in the Commonwealth, provided it isgovernment-sponsored?

I was recently declared an "enemy of the state" in Zimbabwe. And it is true that I am justas much committed to the overthrow of the Mugabe regime today as I was to that of IanSmith 20 years ago. Faced then with oppression and human rights abuses by a whiteminority government, the world did not hesitate to impose general sanctions against it.

The world has yet to show that it can deal with a similar challenge posed, this time, by ablack African government. As Mugabe, his ministers and his security chiefs are practisingviolence and corruption on a large scale, is it too much to ask that all decent countriesshould ostracize them, deny them weapons, freeze their overseas accounts and dowhatever else we can do to terminate their reign of terror? This benighted regime willstart to collapse when its leading members understand that they will, in due course, facetrial and imprisonment for the crimes they have committed.

The world as yet has done precious little to show the people of Zimbabwe that there isany hope in their present plight.

*Lord Renwick was adviser to Lord Carrington during the Lancaster House negotiations leading to the independence of Zimbabwe and ambassador to South Africa in the period leading to the release of Nelson Mandela

Workers claim abuse as China adds Zimbabwe to its scramble for Africa, Guardian, Jan 3, 2012

Black Power (the polarized lives of Zimbabwe's rich and poor), BBC, Feb 11, 2010

Mugabe & wife visit Tsvangirai in hospital. News24, 2009
Harare - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was being treated for injuries following a car crash on Friday. The couple did not speak to reporters as they entered the private hospital where Tsvangirai was taken after the crash that killed his wife Susan. "The leadership of MDC in South Africa is receiving confirmed reports from our Harvest House headquarters in Harare that MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai was involved in a head on collision accident," Sapa reported party spokesperson Sibanengi Dube as saying. "His wife Susan Tsvangirai died in Harare's Avenues Clinic." Dube said the couple was driving along Harare-Masvingo road on their way home. He said details of the accident were still sketchy, "but we understand that they were hit from the front by a truck". "We hope it is just a genuine accident and we appeal to Zimbabweans in South Africa to remain calm as facts continue to surface. "We are however alive to the fact that a lot of Robert Mugabe's opponents died in suspicious road accidents involving army trucks." On Friday night, Agence France Presse reported that the couple was headed to the Buhera district where Morgan was to hold a rally on Saturday, but their car was hit by a freight truck and Susan Tsvangirai died at the scene.

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai in car crash; wife killed (Mugabe's crimes since 1980s to now; murder, torture, disappearance of opposition). Guardian, Mar 6, 2009

Mugabe vows to seize more white farms (85th-birthday cake weighed 85-kg (187-lb). BBC, Feb 28, 2009

China a refuge for Zimbabwe tyrant Mugabe (money-laundering diamonds there too) & Mugabe home away from home in Hong Kong (wife hit journalist in face with diamond ring). NationalPost/Time, Feb 28, 2009. Go to MUGABE HAS YELLOW FEVER

Zimbabwe's Bennett wins bail but still stuck behind bars (gov't prosecutors appealing him out on bail). AFP, Feb 24, 2009

Scores of Zimbabwe white farms seized. BBC, Feb 23, 2009

Robert Mugabe's wife Grace seizes Zimbabwe farm. Telegraph, Feb 4, 2009
Mrs Mugabe, who at 43 is more than four decades younger than her husband, already has a string of properties across the country, taken after Mr Mugabe's loyalists began evicting white farmers in 2000. Her latest acquisition - said to be for a son, Russell Goreraza, from her first marriage - comes as Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party prepares to form a coalition with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change next week. It demonstrates that the ruling hierarchy have yet to change their behaviour, and are even turning on their own supporters to satiate their greed. Gwina, about 50 miles north of Harare and close to Mr Mugabe's rural home, was once a prize-winning farm until Judge Ben Hlatshwayo, who presides in the High Court in Harare, forced off its owner, Vernon Nicol. Mr Nicol - who is now in Australia, along with most members of his large family, who also lost their farms - won a court order to prevent Mr Hlatshwayo seizing the premises in 2002, but the judge ignored it and broke into the homestead. Now he has received similar treatment, and is said to be "absolutely furious". According to farming sources the judge was an exception among the Zanu-PF elite who helped themselves to farms, employing a qualified manager, growing decent crops, and even spending some time living on the farm. By contrast at least 90 per cent of formerly white-owned farms - more than 20 million acres - lie fallow since Mr Mugabe began chasing whites off their rural properties, while agricultural exports, which once earned 40 per cent of Zimbabwe's foreign exchange, have collapsed, and more than half the population needs food aid. Mr Hlatshwayo's downfall came after he held an "open day" at Gwina last year, when visitors included some connected with the first lady. The details of how she forced him off are not clear, but according to legal sources in Harare the judge decided to go to his own court to seek "justice" shortly before Christmas. He tried to bring an urgent chamber application before a fellow member of the bench, Judge Joseph Musakwa, but was persuaded "one way or another" to drop the case before it was heard. Mr Hlatshwayo was contacted by The Daily Telegraph and was given all the details in this article. He did not deny anything and said only that he had "no comment". Once one of the country's youngest judges, he chaired the commission which drew up the constitution that was rejected in a referendum in 2000. It was Mr Mugabe's first electoral defeat, which presaged the start of the land invasions two weeks later. Now the judge is due to be given another farm, south east of Harare - so that either another of the few remaining productive white farmers will be evicted, or one of his Zanu-PF colleagues will be in danger of losing "their" land. Mrs Mugabe was married to an air force officer when she worked as a typist in State House and had two children with Mr Mugabe while his popular first wife Sally was dying of kidney failure. They married after her death and had a third child together. Mrs Mugabe is now renowned for her prodigious spending ability on overseas shopping trips, and recently attacked a British photographer outside a £2,000-a-night hotel in Hong Kong. Her spokesman Laurence Kamwi did not answer his telephone and State House said there was no one in her office to comment.

Robert Mugabe, then and now. National Post, Jul 4, 2008
...Mugabe inherited a remarkable country. Despite almost 15 years of war, Zimbabwe still had an excellent road network, a first-rate airline, an honest and effective civil service, a functioning health and education system and a reasonably healthy economy despite years of international sanctions. All the while, it was producing an educated and sophisticated workforce, with a growing black middle and business class. The tough and professional Rhodesian army, by war's end, had more blacks than whites in the ranks, including a great many black NCOs and even some officers. (We were left with the irony of a highly motivated, largely black army battling black guerrillas, both claiming to be fighting for their country.) A surprising number of white soldiers stayed on and served side-by-side with their former guerrilla enemies, who were now to be incorporated into the new Zimbabwean army....There were early signs of trouble. In 1981, only a year after independence, Mugabe asked the North Koreans, of all people, to train his dreaded Fifth Brigade, which proceeded to massacre as many as 20,000 people in the country's restive Matabeleland region. The Zimbabwe army, once one of the best in Africa, has become hopelessly politicized and is now a defender not of the state but merely of the regime. Its medal-encrusted generals have announced they would not let anyone other than Mugabe ever become president. And Mugabe says only God can remove him. Zimbabwe, once an African breadbasket, now imports food. Yet still there are dire shortages. Seized farms and government contracts have ended up in the hands of Mugabe's relatives and cronies. The corrupt ministry of finance is derided as "Bob's Take-Out." Zimbabwe's education and health services have collapsed. AIDS, in particular, is epidemic. The economy is a train wreck. Eight adults in 10 have no work. Inflation is running in six digits, perhaps seven. No one is really sure: At such stratospheric heights, numbers lose their meaning, and money has little value...

Battered white farmers vow to battle Mugabe (his seizure of their land illegal). Telegraph, Jul 2, 2008

Mugabe rival Tsvangirai rejects unity talks (ruling party militias on rampage) & Mugabe 'welcomes' unity dialogue (pact drawn up by elite of 53 African leaders) & Tsvangirai must play tough with foxy Mugabe (brutalises opponents then plays magnanimous winner inviting to talks). BBC/NewZimbabwe, Jul 2, 2008

QUEEN KNIGHTED TERRORIST MUGABE

Queen strips 'Sir' Mugabe of his knighthood (bestowed highest honour in 1994). DailyMail, Jul 2, 2008

'West can go hang' says Mugabe spokesman (Zimbabwe farmers beaten up). BBC, Jul 1, 2008

Chinese-built MIG jet fighters scream victory over Zimbabwe (posters say "final battle for total control"). Blogger News, Jun 30, 2008

Zimbabwe's Ian Smith was right (post-colonial corrupt venal villains turned beautiful continent & lovely people into a wasteland inhabited by wretched of earth) & Ian Smith declared Rhodesia independent (severed link with Britain in 1965). Telegraph/BBC, Jun 30, 2008

Zimbabwe reporter Freedom Moyo silenced (not heard since defied Mugabe on radio). Telegraph, Jun 28, 2008

Mugage sworn in after one-man election (a joke for Guinness Book of Records) & Vote Mugabe or your house destroyed (finger dipped in red to prove; thugs check ID number with ballot). OzAge/Times, Jun 28-29, 2008

ZIMBABWE SPADE RED CHINA

Zimbabwe election crisis unravels (world seeing Mugabe for what he is - undemocratic, senile and evil) & Australia's Mugabe rhetoric needs action (stop tyrant's crimes against humanity). RealTruth/Age, Jun 26, 2008

Zimbabwe's last white farmer forced to quit. Telegraph, Jun 26, 2008
Zimbabwe's once proud white farming community is facing extinction, as President Robert Mugabe steps up his campaign of violence and intimidation on all fronts. Virtually all of the remaining 280 white farmers have been invaded by government supporters since Mr Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential election in March...Finally a fortnight ago a court issued a final eviction order against Mr van Rensburg, who is Zimbabwean-born. "They just carry on and do as they wish," he said. "They are spelling out point blank that there's no place for a white man in Zimbabwe...

Opposition leader seeks embassy refuge (Mugabe ZANU police raided MDC office) & Zimbabwe friends pander to China (China got farmland stolen from whites; support Mugabe in sadism to blacks) & Mugabe thugs surround white farmers (black farmworkers must join punge, torturous indoctrination sessions) & Africa's Mandela silent on Zimbabwe (won't criticize tyrant Mugabe or treatment of refugees in South Africa) & Mandela in UK for 90th birthday concert (proceeds to AIDS charity 46664).
VOA/Tel/Times/Guard, Jun 23, 2008

Zimbabwe police raid opposition offices (hundreds fleeing gov't violence). VOA, Apr 25, 2008

Zim protesters held at Chinese embassy (need ballots not Chinese bullets). SundayZambia, Apr 25, 2008

Angola allows Chinese arms ship to dock (close ally of Zimbabwe's Mugabe). VOA, Apr 26, 2008. Go to USA GAVE CHINA PANAMA CANAL & CHINA NUKES THRU PANAMA?

Canada students honour Nelson Mandela (gov't, school boards, teachers endorse). CanNewsWire, Apr 22, 2008

Lionizing Mandela, a lifelong subversive (President Mbeko his political clone). New274.com, Apr 22, 2008

Why "Cry The Beloved" wife fled S/Africa ("President Mandela said we're cowards; but crime is rampaging through the land"). by Anne Paton (widow of Alan Paton). Sunday Times

South Africa's Mandela silent on Mugabe (neighbour Zimbabwe in hands of madman). Mirror, Apr 22, 2008