Zimbabwe is sinking.

[Jerrek]

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=159971

Zim war vets arm ahead of street protests

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is surreptitiously arming his war veterans and violent youth brigades with guns so that they can crush the planned street protests to topple his regime next week.

The street protests have been dubbed "the final push for freedom" by the opposition.

Army sources promised chaos and bloodshed on a scale never seen before, if protesters tried to march into Mugabe's official residence in Harare.

I don't know what Mugabe is trying to do, but he is sinking the country. Fast.

 

[EI_Sparks]

Pity they don't have oil or wasps, their problems would be solved in a month if they did.

It looks like it's going to get bad there, very fast - and still won't have caught up with the DRC even when it hits it's nadir

 

[Tiassa]

Companion topic

From Africa to Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has been a tough topic here. I hope it gets some attention this time around.

:m:,
Tiassa

 

[aghart]

The British Commonwealth should intervene using military force and bring this to an end.

 

[nico]

It's a shame to see Zimbabwe's current state, once known as the bread basket of Africa. And it used to grow under the name (Rhodesia) the country is now only a shadow of it's former self.

 

[EI_Sparks]

aghart,
The biggest thing the Commonwealth ever did to Zimbabwe was to chuck them out of the Commonwealth for a year - what makes you think that they'd bother going in there with force to ensure a fair election?

 

[aghart]

Originally posted by EI_Sparks
aghart,
The biggest thing the Commonwealth ever did to Zimbabwe was to chuck them out of the Commonwealth for a year - what makes you think that they'd bother going in there with force to ensure a fair election?

They wouldn't that's the problem. I suppose the point I was trying to make which you hinted at sparks was that here was or is a classic example of a situation when external involvement ( this includes military intervention) is " what is needed and is the right thing".

The talk has been all about Iraq and " is the war justified" when a military intervention aimed at getting rid of Mugabwe is clearly what is required.

problem is of course it would be seized upon by many as the "white colonial British" reconqering part of their lost empire.

 

[EI_Sparks]

Hold up there just a moment aghart - I did not say "go in with military force and get rid of Mugabe" - I said "going in there with force to ensure a fair election". There's a big difference, and therein lie the problems associated with the whole empire argument.

 

[guthrie]

We could always flood the country with observers and give them bodyguards. But as the record of several other african countries shows, they dont really need armed intervention by their neighbours, that only encourages corruption and resource theft. And it is obvious that us british going back in again would be more colonial in how it looks, so is to be encouraged. Yet within the country, there is an opposition, lots of people willing to vote against Mugabe, and re-do things, the only problem is getting them out on the streets. What it all needs is publicity, and means of preventing violence. for starters all arms imports should have been stopped ages ago. Possibly a UN force might be needed, Zimbabwe looks to have better cohesion as a country than Kosovo or Bosnia, so getting things back to normal afterwards might be easier.
And it might be time to look at our colonial legacy, which I for one am ashamed of. Any benefits by educating etc people have been nullified by events during and after colonialism.