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Zimbabwe Update, Violence Still on the Rise |
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This morning the NY Times reports that reports of violence streaming out of Zimbabwe are on the rise:
Farmers from Masvingo, Mashonaland East and Manicaland Provinces who worked on behalf of the opposition and were interviewed by telephone in the past week described a pattern of ruling-party gangs visiting under the cover of darkness to beat and evict them….
A three-person team from the American Embassy in Harare drove to Manicaland Province on April 19-20 and captured images of the burned and demolished homes in the settlement where [some of the farmers] lived. The photographs and videos focus on the more than 200 people made homeless in that campaign to terrorize those who voted for the opposition….
As the wait for the outcome of Zimbabwe’s presidential election has dragged on for weeks, postponed in part to accommodate a partial recount of the parliamentary election held the same day, many opposition officials and leaders of civic groups have come to believe the delays were meant to buy time for ZANU-PF, the governing party, to carry out a campaign to intimidate the opposition ahead of a runoff.
Meanwhile, a Chinese tanker full of arms and originally destined for Zimbabwe was recalled to China, but not before being granted permission to dock in Angola over the weekend. An optimistic take (again from the NY Times):
Angola’s decision — it said it had allowed the ship to unload cargo meant for Angola, just not the weapons — brought the latest and the most surprising evidence of success in the international pressure campaign against the Zimbabwean government….
Angola has long been seen as one of President Robert Mugabe’s staunchest allies, and its decision to block the arms is a fresh sign that the region’s traditional solidarity with Mr. Mugabe, the hero of Zimbabwe’s liberation from white rule in 1980, is weakening.
It is mildly disconcerting that anyone should be “surprised” when international pressure does actually make a difference. If the arms do make it back to China without ever being unloaded (and we are not in the clear yet) the international community should let this be a positive lesson — that not letting up on its diplomatic, economic, journalistic intervention — can indeed save Zimbabwean lives.
