Posted on 06/22/2008 6:41:07 AM PDT by Nextrush
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of Friday's presidential run-off, handing victory to President Robert Mugabe.
Mr. Tsvangrai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and and "the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself."
He called on the global community to step in to protect Zimbabweans.
The decision came after opposition supporters heading to a rally in the capital Harare came under attack.
The MDC says at least 70 supporters have been killed in recent months.
At a press conference Sunday, mr Tsvangirai said: "It is for the world to see there is no need to proceed with this so-called election if the outcome is determined by President Mugabe himself,"
"We will not play the game of Mugabe."
On Sunday, the opposition was due to stage a rally in the capital-the highlight of the campaign.
But supporters of Mr. Mugabe's Zanu-PF occupied the stadium venue and roads leading up to it.
Witnesses reported seeing hundreds of youths around the venue wielding sticks, some chanting slogans, and others circling the stadium crammed onto the backs of trucks.
They reportedly set upon opposition activists, leaving a number badly injured.
The MDC said African election monitors were also chased from the rally site.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Today Mugabe's brownshirts came out and did their brutal best again.
Western leaders say Africa needs "to take the lead" in fixing it.
Mbeki of South Africa has been the chief enabler of Mugabe and shows no signs publicly of backing away from Mugabe.
When will this travesty end?????????
When someone takes over for them. They can't govern themselves. Smart move by the opposition leader. Why get killed for a sham election. He doesn't need votes. He needs an army.
Mr. Tsvangrai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and and “the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself.”
This now leaves the door open for Jimmy Carter to certify the election as fair and democratic.
When these guys are called in...
(Blackwater USA. Please pick up the white courtesy phone)
Call Jimmah Carter, call Andrew Young, call the United Nations.
He may have to wait for the turmoil to subside a little, but Jimmy should soon be able to get in there and declare the elections free and open, and mugabe the winner. Then the rape and pillage of Zimbabwe can continue peacefully, and unabated.
Call Pizza Hut...which would be about as effective as the others.
I’m inclined to agree, but it would be “racist” and “colonialist” and god (Karl Marx) forbid that.
When will this travesty end?????????
When someone takes over for them. They can’t govern themselves. Smart move by the opposition leader. Why get killed for a sham election. He doesn’t need votes. He needs an army
***********************************
Well, we tried for the same outcome in Iraq and the world thinks the US is thugs. I will never understand the logic of thinking the dictator that rules by thugrule is more heralded than a nation that sacrifices to free the people from said thug dictatorship.
maybe "Executive Outcomes" could make a reunion tour...
Perhaps Charlize Theron could get her close friend Mandela in there to straighten this mess out. Just saw a clip on TV of her telling him (Mandela) how much she loves him.
It won't end.
In Africa, as in no other place on earth, there is no room for American intervention.
Neither the Dutch nor the Brits would be willing to go back to the area after the world wide 'anti-aparthied' campaigns [fully supported by past US administrations].
African states don't take action over simple matters such as starving or just murdering an entire population.
Nobody is going to provide arms to an opposition that wouldn't be able to put them to effective use if they had them.
And, SA is currently acting against refugees from Zim - not against the thugs causing the exodus.
The only end to this will come when Mugabe and his 'veterans' find there are no more sources of the food and goods they have been taking for themselves.
Too bad we won’t be seeing Hollywood and NYC liberals protesting in the streets to demand that Mugabe step down and respect the vote of the people...
...and no one will be wearing Tsvingari t-shirts, either.
The Marxist Hollywood crowd wouldn’t dream of it.
Volvo driving, SUV owning hypocrites.
Entertainers wanted, intelligence not required.
The Western media shouldn’t even bother reporting on it. All that does is arouse our feelings of horror, and the instinctive need to do something, anything--but everything has been tried before, and failed. Everything, of course, except self-reliance.
roger that...
Can Mugabe recall the mobs ? Is he still the puppetmaster or will it go on until he himself is overthrown by the army with the excuse of restoring order ?
That's why China will do the colonial intervention this time. This will be lauded as "one developing nation helping another."
“Can Mugabe recall the mobs ? Is he still the puppetmaster or will it go on until he himself is overthrown by the army with the excuse of restoring order ?”
From the looks of it, Mugabe is going to remain in power until he’s either assassinated, or dies of old age.
“That’s why China will do the colonial intervention this time. This will be lauded as “one developing nation helping another.”
Hmmm...a possible quagmire for China? Especially if rising fuel costs cause a sharp decrease in trade with the US. I’d be interesting to see them have to spend considerably more for oil, while getting less money from the US, and spending considerable resources fighting in Africa.
ping
“maybe “Executive Outcomes” could make a reunion tour... “
That would be nice. Though even the E.O. also was a double-edged sword in a way. Got used to assist the communist MPLA in Angola for the benefit of the oil interests.
No worries. If Obama wins the US Presidential election, I'm sure that he'll say something clever that will cause Mugabe to "see the light" and retire to the south of France/s
"A'm Jimmuh Carter, and Ah approved this almost election."
true... the definition of paid outcomes, but overall more good than bad. it'd make a great Tee-Shirt:
Executive Outcomes
08 Reunion Tour
with their current release
Settling Old Scores
featuring
We're Only in it for the Money!!!
Hollywood is not all bad.
Mia Farrow is continually writing op-eds in the Wall Street Journal about conditions in Darfur ... You can read one such recent article at http://www.miafarrow.org/editorials.html
They have it half right in Darfur at best.
They have identified a problem.
But are they willing to support solutions including a real anti-China attitude.
Since China has veto power in the UN, its obvious that real military action to clean up Darfur is impossible.
If I had the money like Hollywood, I would hire mercenaries to go in and start raising hell with the bad guys.
It looks like Chad is doing this right now with its rebels and Sudan responds by backing Chad rebels.
UN, schmoo N.
Humanism is powerless in the face of evil.
When will it end?
When Mugabe is killed, and every one of his supporters is killed.
Or,
The third nuclear device is used to eradicate populations.
HAHAHAHAHAH!
This is further evidence of the failure of the “United Nations” and the false belief that Africans are capable of a non-corrupt and non-murderous self governed democracy....
Enough money has been poured into Africa to have rebuilt the infrastructure of almost any modern nation..
Yet in Africa - is has been siphoned off into secret bank accounts or poured down a black hole in Africa...
Further activity in Africa would prove the insanity of the proponents...
A sure sign of insanity is to continue a failed action and expect a different result.
Black Ops is the answer.
I’m sure they are poping champagne over at the UN this evening. Another victory for them on the world stage. Up next will be Mugabe given a seat on the UN human rights council.
I like your tag line.
Wonder what B Hussein Obamo, the haffrican would do.
bump.
Hollywood only gets vocal about something when it falls into their extremely narrow vision on humanitarian issues.
Tibet, Sudan. Thats about it. And it only happens when its what appears as whites opressing minorities or some estabished government vs. hippie pacifist types.
They believe the only time the US military should get involved is when its humanitarian missions and simply to act as peace keepers. No firing of weapons allowed. They always expect that acting like some hippie between two armed forces spouting, “Hey man, won’t you like just give peace a chance?” will fix it.
They will get dead silent on issues like Zimbabwe, Rwanda, treatment of minority religions and women in islamic countries, simply because they know the only solution to the problem is use of force which they no intestinal fortitude to handle.
Mr. Tsvangrai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and and "the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself." He called on the global community to step in to protect Zimbabweans.Mugabe couldn't stay on top without being a client / proxy of the South African regime.
The "global community" is why Zimbabwe is in the shape it is now. They weren't satisfied to allow the whites who built the country run it. No, they had to endorse a crooked strong man because he was black. Well, tough nuggets. You got EXACTLY what you deserve.
Zimbabwe is “Atlas Shrugged” on a country wide scale.
Mugabe's General will take firm control when he dies. There is likely no hope. I say that as someone who has long hoped for improvement in Burma after 80% of the people voted those thugs out - when was that, 1990?
Except nobody is hanging out in the wings waiting to restore anything.
They’re on their own and the only cheering section is calling for failure.
De-colonization in Africa was such a good idea, ay. Ending the evils of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa worked a real treat. We sure showed ‘em how it’s done. And all that famine relief in Ethiopia and Somalia: we Live Aided ‘em good...
I think we in the West ought to leave Africa alone for a while: post-WW-II our judgment in what is best for that continent seems questionable at best: dodgy at least.
One thing that doesn’t help is their strong voice in the UN: that should cease immediately.
That won’t work. If Mugabe is removed there will simply be a power struggle between the various factions, maybe even as far as civil war, before someone else equally as corrupt and vicious emerges as the new leader.
I would like nothing better than to sort Mugabe and his clique out, but that won’t work either. How on earth can there be military intervention in Zimbabwe? There are no bases within thousands of miles. How would we get an army there? It’s a land-locked country - we couldn’t do a d-day type landing on the beaches. We’d need permission from one or more of the neighboring countries to move troops through them. That would take weeks to do, even if we could get them to agree to it. Mugabe would have all the time in the world to prepare, both his army and to yell “neo-colonialism” at the top of his voice, and there’s plenty of fools who would believe him. If we couldnt get permission to move through Botswana or Mozambique or wherever, it would have to be done by paratroops - the initial attacks would have to be anyway. But that would mean having to move all the troops, all their reinforcements, arms, ammunition, fuel, supplies by air, over thousands of miles. And we’d have to get permission to overfly half a dozen countries airspace. Supposing they refused? Supposing they agreed, but then, under pressure from Mugabe or the OAC, withdrew their permission half way through the operation? We could end up with a battlegroup stranded in the middle of Africa. It doesn’t bear thinking of.
The only ending I can see to this is if things continue to deteriorate in Zimbabwe, eventually folk will vote with their feet and leave. Once the problem begins to be exported to the neighboring nations, then they will have to take action.
De-colonialisation was their idea, not ours. It worked ok in Singapore and Hong Kong and Malaysia.
If Africa is screwed up, ok the west has to shoulder some of the blame, but the main problem lies with Africans themselves.
> De-colonialisation was their idea, not ours.
We certainly lent them alot of help in overthrowing the governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, thru trade embargoes and incredible international pressure.
Apartheid was replaced in South Africa at the insistence of the West. And white-only rule in Rhodesia, similarly. What replaced them was much worse, as we have now seen.
> It worked ok in Singapore and Hong Kong and Malaysia.
It did.
> If Africa is screwed up, ok the west has to shoulder some of the blame, but the main problem lies with Africans themselves.
I think the West shoulders most of the blame: we carved up Africa in a manner that made sense to us, ignoring their tribal political realities. And we got out of there without paying alot of attention to how we make sure that we leave behind stable governments with strong ties back to the “mother country”.
Of the lot, France did it best, and Belgium did it the worst, and Britain did a poor job. Nobody did it brilliantly.
Even New Zealand, Australia and Canada went thru a middle phase, when they were no longer “colonies” yet were not fully and functionally “independent” — that seemed to work well. We were “dominions”, and one-by-one our ties to the mother country were removed, when-and-as we became ready. It is a step that Africa, for the most part, missed.
I dunno how (if?) the West can fix what is there in Africa now, but I suspect it would be a thankless, dangerous and difficult task.
Seems to be the Pan-African way... Thugism or Communism. Then when it all goes to sh•t... they blame it on white-colonialism. When a country rich in recources can't feed its people because of a corrupt, jackbooted thug... the first line of business is to eliminate the thug and the swine who back him.
Should the thug have sufficient numbers to set off a civil war... then so be it.
With inflation running at over 1 million percent and the murder of political rivals’ families most would say that it is already a complete failure. However, the “global community” doesn’t want to hear the solution, return to rule by those most capable, i.e. the white settlers.
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