Time's up for Robert Mugabe

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and I don't always agree on the issues, but when it comes to her take on crisis in Zimbabwe, I couldn't agree more. Last week, Secretary Rice was right to call the June 27th election in Zimbabwe, as well as the power-sharing negotiations to this point, what they are -- a sham. European Union leaders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga among others have echoed this message. And with Zimbabwe facing a severe humanitarian crisis, it's time now for all leaders in the region as well as throughout the international community to join that call and stand up to Robert Mugabe.

The elections held on March 29th of this year offered a chance to turn the page on what has become a very tragic chapter in Zimbabwe's history. Although it fell short of international democratic standards, observers reported that the election expressed the general will of the people. Rather than respecting that will, however, the Mugabe regime chose--as they have done time and time again--to repress it. In the weeks after that election, Mugabe's supporters launched a deliberate campaign of state-sponsored violence against opposition leaders, supporters and their families. Mugabe then unsurprisingly won the run-off presidential election on June 27, with the opposition boycotting and the country in a state of fear.

In response to international pressure, Mugabe agreed to negotiations with the opposition under the mediation of South Africa. In September, after torturous delays, the parties signed a power-sharing agreement that paved the way for a unity government with Mugabe as President and Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, and control of the ministries split between the parties. Yet once again Mugabe turned to manipulation and backtracking on commitments including sharing control of key ministries and security agencies, which has created a crippling impasse.

While Robert Mugabe continues to stall and uses bullying tactics to avoid compromise, Zimbabwe has devolved into a full-fledged humanitarian crisis. A cholera outbreak has already killed more than 500 people and nearly half the country is facing starvation. The capital city of Harare is in disarray with hospitals and schools closed, soldiers looting, and union activists being beaten by police. If this deterioration continues, it could lead to a wider humanitarian disaster that costs many more innocent lives and spills into the surrounding countries.

To avoid such a catastrophe, leaders in the region and the international community must take action now to ensure that clean water, food and medication reach the most vulnerable populations in Zimbabwe, and to remove any barriers to the importation of these necessities. It is important that South Africa is sending a delegation to look at the humanitarian needs, but those efforts, while critically important, are only a stopgap measure to save lives. We cannot forget that Zimbabwe's humanitarian problems are the direct result of the lack of a legitimate government, for which Mugabe is responsible. Until he and his cohorts accept a negotiated solution that fully respects the will of the people, Zimbabwe's nightmare will continue.

The tide is beginning to turn against Mugabe; regional leaders' patience is wearing thin as this humanitarian crisis worsens. The challenge now, though, is to translate public criticism into concerted pressure that raises the stakes. Leaders in the region, working with the international community, should together put forth a comprehensive package of incentives and punitive measures to press Mugabe to step aside. This includes both new targeted sanctions and a specific economic recovery plan that will be put into motion as soon as Mugabe departs. We must finally put aside the distractions and divisions that have hindered united action in the past. And in doing so, we can make it clear to Mugabe once and for all that his time's up.

Follow Sen. Russ Feingold on Twitter: www.twitter.com/U.S. Senator fr

Comments

[fcsakes]

These 'leaders' do not exist without the blessing of gwb.

[Anciano]

We'd rather starve than live under colonialism!" And your second wish is?.....
Poor Rhodesia...we'll continue to call it that until the last whites leave and turn out the lights.

[Obiemad]

The unrelenting anti-Mugabe avalanche in the media is clearly an effort to conceal the West's complicity in Mugabe's murderous rule. Prominent individuals and institutions in the West once coddled the devil.

Following scattered incursions by apartheid South Africa-sponsored rebels in southern Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, Mugabe unleashed his ruthless, North Korea-trained 5th Brigade military unit. The unit exterminated 20,000 innocent villagers. Mass disappearances, beatings, gang rapes abound. Hundreds were burned alive. Some victims were forced to dig their own graves. Some were forced to sing songs praising Mugabe, before being executed.

The international community neither intervened nor chastised Mugabe. In 1984 Scotland's Edinburgh University awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law degree. In 1986 the University of Massachusetts awarded Mugabe the same honorary degree. Michigan State University honored Mugabe in 1990. In 1994, the dictator became the Knight Commander of the Order of Bath, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Zimbabwe's crimes grabbed global headlines only after the post-1999 killings, which claimed 300 lives from both MDC and Zanu PF. But now these killings included about a dozen white Zimbabweans. The dictator had also started repossessing white-owned farms to give to landless black peasants.

[Seldon]

Although I am happy that Sen. Feingold seems to be genuinely concerned, there is no concrete plan detailed in this post. Not that I am blaming anyone, but unless someone comes up with a genuine plan of action standing up and denouncing what is happening in Zimbabwe is just posturing.

Unfortunately, I am not sure there is much America or Europe CAN do about Zimbabwe. If we use military force we would simply be proving that Mugabe was right and we are just colonialists (looking at it from their perspective). Sanctions just hurt the people that are already starving, and the threat of economic retaliation appears to be wasted on this government.

The only people outside Zimbabwe who can really do something about it are the leaders of neighboring countries, particularly South Africa. The real tragedy of this whole story is the utter waste of oxygen that is Thabo Mbeki. Once these leaders are serious about ousting Mugabe then we can do something.

Until then, we can only watch and weep, and hope the old man dies.

[Horst]

Mbeki was useless...not certain Motlanthe is any better.

[muigwithania]

.Africans generally deplore what is going on in Zimbabwe. However, students of African history are equally aware that the seed of the crisis in Zimbabwe was planted by the British. Just as they equally know that when it comes to African affairs, the EU, Britain and the US has no credibility. Their sordid record in Rwanda, Kenya, the Congo, Angola and Namibia completely disqualify them to lecture African leaders on what is good for them.

[Stoyver]

Sadly, it is not in the American consumer's interest to help end suffering in countries that have few exploitable resources. Ouch that admission hurts! So who are the monsters really? I love America, but I despise some of the things it does (sorry my Republican friends, this last sentence requires nuanced interpretation for correct parsing).

[Repub4Obama]

Actually, Sudan has HUGE oil reserves, and is a major supplier to the Chinese. This supply is not even put on the world market like what we purchase - it is given from one government to another in exchange for money, the right to terrorize, and chinese-made weapons used to slaughter innocents.

Unfortunately, if we take on Sudan, we have to take on China, and that's where all our money comes from. Too bad, Darfur: you'll have to just endure the janjaweed while we contine to spend our country into bankruptcy because to do anything would stop our money supply...

[Horst]

South Africa could have shut down Mugabe years ago....but then Mugabe is revered by Africans for his anti-colinial bona fides. The fact that he is a horrible gangster doesn't seem to bother any of his fellow African leaders.

[darthdarcy]

Sometimes I wish American had, an Air Force...!

[Conejo]

My God! Does the whole country need to die before they get rid of yet another African monster? A S.W.A.T. team needs to fly in, grab the idiot and get him out of the country. The fact that the situation has been allowed to deteriorate this long is unimaginable. The difference between Mugabe and Idi Amin is that Idi agressively killed people while Mugabe simply lets them die from gross incompetence. There is no reasoning with a crazy person. He oblivious to the disaster unfolding around him. Get him out IMMEDIATELY before thousands more die. What the hell is wrong with Africa anyway? Don't they have any sense at all of unity, of pride, of humanity? South Africa could easily fly up a S.W.A.T. team and snatch him. The suffering that is going on is unconscionable. I blame S. Africa for not doing anything to get rid of him.

[decora]

Geez... I almost forgot the Republican Swat Team Failure to beat all Swat Team Failures.

Iraq, 2003, going in with Rumsfeld's "lean mean" Army, throwing the Powell doctrine in the garbage, and watching 2 million refugees storm out the nearest exit while hundreds of thousands die or turn terrorist.

You do know what the Powell doctrine was, right? Coz if you don't, I'm gonna sic Charlie Gibson on you, and his Glasses of Doom.

[Eyewideopen]

I just faved you. lol

[Obiemad]

Something doesn't add up!

Violence in Zimbabwe killed some 400 people since 1998. From the same year to date, some 5.4 million died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A significant number died of non-violent but war-related causes, including: malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition. Amnesty International suggests that 40 000 women were raped in the DRC in the last six years.

And here we are, posturing and pretending to uphold the sanctity of life by clammering for the ouster of the "world's worst dictator" in Africa in a long time, Robert Mugabe. Isn't dictatorship a failure of the rule of law? The rule of law guarantees innocent people's protection against violence and unnecessary deaths now happening every day in the DRC.

Both Zimbabwe and the DRC are perfect examples of the classic "failure of leadership", a situation calling for intervention by the international community to act in defense of the defenseless. But hey, the regime in Kinshasa was "democrtically elected" while Mugabe stole the last election. Better still, Mugabe's violence killed 13 white Zimbabweans while the fatalities in the DRC are all black.

[Mabila]

Africa has far too many buffoons masquereding as "Presidents".
Thanks to the Scrambe for Africa which now needs to be revisited.

[Sapphdia]

Are you freaking serious? The Scramble for Africa is the SOLE reason why all of these problems happened. And I have news for you, the Scramble for Africa is still going on, just in other conspicuous ways. Look at the Congo, for example. That whole thing is about coltan, a mineral used to produce cell phones and other electronics. 80% of the world's coltan can be found there. All of this fighting is funded by someone, outside of the country, who wants control.

[radical1]

I don't understand enough about what's been happening in Zimbabwe, but I do know Senator Russ Feingold can be trusted. I've learned from attending his listening sessions across Wisconsin and from his sometimes going against the grain of what some politicians do, that His words and intentions are as good as gold and he serves the people with the utmost honesty and good will.

[decora]

Well that's what a lot of people said about Mugabe in the 1980s and 1990s.

[RiderWithinHRPufinstuf]

sorry, but there is only one side to this story, and
it is the British reportage. tony Blair had pledged
to help with land reform, and he did not (just like
he didn't get rid of the hereditary peers).

it is really dysgusting, to see this media pile-on,
with no attempt to get at the truth, or to help.

thus:
*all* sources should be pursued, obviously including nuclear; look,
the whole world is going nuclear & to space, and
we are still stuck with '50s techniques in both areas: a)
lightwater reactors and b)
Eisenhower's Saturn 5 rockets.

renewable energy is partly a crock, because
of the oil cartel's ridiculous trademark, Fossilized Fuels,
like it has any thing to do with dinosaurs;
is it not just biomass?

thus:
well, Executive Order 12333. now,
I asked someone at KPFK to look into the legal aspect
of the Veep's Principals Cmte.

Give Trickier Dick's policy, of launching the 3rd British Invasion
of Sudan, a chance -- using American middleschooler bodies,
because of their own PC lobbying of their parents, because
a God-am insurance company paid for their curriculum
on Darfur.

thus:
I saw the LAtribcoTimes beat OJ up for the civil trial,
solemnizing the judge's decision to deny the forensic expert
to completely demolish the National Enquirer's "shoe pix,"
on the grounds that he was a money-grubbing JFK assassination researcher!

well, only 24 hours to impeach Trickier Dick Cheeny
from the Nixon Administration, metaphorically typing!

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

THORAZINE has been used to treat this kind of outpouring for over 50 years!

[Seldon]

Damn! I lost my decoder ring! Now I can't decipher your incredibly important post....

[Repub4Obama]

So *this* gets approved and some of my witty two-line barbs do not just because they have the phrase "cross burning" in them? Nice.

I feel oppressed.

[cjgnew]

I couldn't have put it better: his time's up! Perhaps it might make sense to offer him a couple of millions to have him leave the country ASAP in exchange of free passage out. This may sound unjust, but if this would save lives, I don't see why not. I'd rather see him free in exile instead of having a single innocent person die as a result of his incompetence.

[decora]

I was thinking, what they do in Colleges is take the guy, give him a 'promotion', to a job where it sounds like he wil have power, but he has none. What could they give him though? It has to be something so he can 'save face'. The new president can worry about justice, 10 years from now, after the people recover from Cholera, Malnutrition, homelessness, unemployment, thousand percent inflation, AIDS, political repression, government violence, etc.

[stell]

Senator Feingold, the elections were not illegitimate. Tsvangari's Western masters know that Mugabe is more popular among the people than he is depicted. I don't care if it's Obama, Hillary, Susan Rice or anyone else trying to give so-called "tough love" to Zimbabwe or Africa. I know the truth.

What the Western corporate media doesn't want you to know about the elections in Zimbabwe:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=805&Itemid=1

[Synoia]

Have you been there? Have you talked to the ex-employees of the white farmers who were kicked out of their homes? Do you know of the 5th brigade actions in Matabeleland? Why did Mugabe wait 20 years after gaining power before snatching land that was owned by productive farmes for decades? Why has Mugabe's police assulted many people who differed with him?

What you don't know about Africa is legion. By they way, what is Synoia? (Hint, the name is take from a town).

Kaunda, Nyerere, Mugabe, Nkrumah, all wonderful first generation post-colonial african leaders, whose passsing made their county's better.

And by the way, you web site is unreadable becuase the pictures overlay the text.

[stell]

"Why did Mugabe wait 20 years after gaining power before snatching land that was owned by productive farmes for decades?

He should have seized the land long time ago, he should have know his former colonizers (the masters of violence and deceit) weren't going to live up to their end of the bargain per the Lancaster Agreement. A thief will never respect you; if they did they wouldn't be a thief. He was probably just trying to benefit from their know-how until they knew enough to do it on their own.

Why were the white farmers productive? That's simple, they were the direct beneficiaries of a land grab, the arable land that they inherited was the prime land, and they were able to engage in large scale commercial farming.

Finally, I don't think you really tried going to the website, it's perfectly readable.

[susaw]

Thanks for an excellent post. This is a world problem and the world should deal with it. Mugabe reminds me of that wonderful story "The Emperor's New Clothes"; totally delusional. We simply cannot stand by and watch people starve and die of disease in the midst of the greatest natural resources on earth.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

His own people should have been EQUIPPED to assassinate this "nihilist" (c.f., Edi(?) Amin!) TEN YEARS AGO! Supporters of MUGABE missed their calling with the destruction of the WWII CONCENTRATION CAMPS! Their guards were both fanatical in their delusion as well as cruelty!