A Mugabe Hell

Fire of Liberty

While I've been carrying on about Canada's Medicare system, educational freedom and the EU Constitutional referendum these past weeks, the people in Zimbabwe are suffering under the jack-boot of Robert "Dictator-for-Life" Mugabe. According to various sources in the UK, most notably The Times have been reporting on Zimbabwe's "Operation Clear Up The Trash," in which Mugabe has sent out his henchmen and bulldozers to destroy the various buildings and houses in the shanty-town Hatcliffe Extension, in the Harare North constituency, leaving some 200,000 people homeless and arresting some 20,000 money changers and small-business-men. Along with this, Mugabe also ordered the destruction of an AIDS clinic set up by the Dominican Order in 1992 thus leaving some 180 orphans stricken with AIDS homeless and thousands of others who are sick and hungry without a place to eat or get the much needed medicines. As these people continue to lose their homes and earthly possessions they are being forced to move out of the cities and into the country-side where their future is bleak. While this is obviously an example of Mugabe and his thugs from ZANU-PF just throwing their weight around and increasing their hold on Harare, Mugabe has continued to claim that it is a way to remove a clean-up disease and filth and destroy a habitat that thieves and lawbreakers endure in. Along with Hatcliffe Extension, Mugabe has sent his minions to Victoria Falls, Mutare, Mbare, Bulawayno and countless other cities in Zimbabwe. For anyone that believes "Uncle" Bob line of making the nation healthy for the people of Zimbabwe, I've got several bridges in New York and some ranches in Texas to sell you.

In fact this is one of Mugabe's many crack-downs on his political opponents to ensure there's not a massive amount of people roaming the streets of Harare and sparking a upsurge of popular discontent like in Georgia, Ukraine, or Lebanon. Thanks to the a commentary submitted by the Pro-Democracy group Sokwanele to the UK newspaper, The Guardian, we have a better picture of what Mugabe's actions are really meant to do:

With one brutal blow, Robert Mugabe set out to achieve multiple political objectives; most significantly, a pre-emptive strike against a restive urban population, a show of force designed to intimidate and subdue. By driving the poor into the impoverished rural areas, the urban population will be reduced, making future uprisings more manageable. And rural containment, with almost no access to modern communication systems, will make political resistance easier to control.

There is another objective too: with the Zimbabwean economy painfully on its knees, the destruction of informal businesses also represents a frantic attempt to force the informal sector to bring its foreign currency into the formal banking sector. The final Zanu PF objective - cruel retribution against an urban population that voted overwhelmingly for the opposition MDC - is a bonus.

Mr Mugabe's press laws make certain that the shivering, shocked faces of his defenceless victims will never appear on TV screens around the world. The police made doubly sure of that by carefully cordoning off areas where they were active to prevent cameras from recording the wreckage. Be assured, however, that the devastation cannot be overstated.

In a country where unemployment exceeds 75%, informal businesses help millions of Zimbabweans and their families to survive. Zanu PF's latest actions leave the poor with three remaining options: beg, steal or starve. Hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the elderly and the frail, have been rendered instantly homeless during Zimbabwe's cold winter months. The UN has estimated that as many as 3 million people - nearly a quarter of Zimbabwe's population - could eventually be affected by the police action.

While words are very powerful, they pale in comparison to the visuals below of Mugabe's terror


















It's really a crying shame that the MSM has decided to focus on Gitmo and leaders throughout Africa seem to look the other way, while Mugabe continues his rampage throughout Zimbabwe without anyone checking his power. One day the people will rise up but they need to know that the world is watching. Maybe President Bush and others should speak up before it's too late.