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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Zimbabwe needs rescuing</SPAN>
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>President Robert Mugabe, it seems, is intent on ensuring that Zimbabwe will be logged in history books as the biggest stain on Africa.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Indeed, Mr Mugabe never ceases to amaze us with his tyrannical behaviour and his total disregard for the welfare of his fellow Zimbabweans.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Last Saturday, Mr Mugabe threw a party to celebrate his 83rd birthday. The fact that he hosted the party would normally not have raised any eyebrows, except for the fact that the celebration cost his country a whopping US$1.2 million and that it was held in the face of deadly poverty and hyperinflation in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to survive on bread and water.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We have watched with disappointment Mr Mugabe's methodical destruction of this once vibrant country to the point where food, fuel and medication are in short supply.
According to a wire service report published in this week's Sunday Observer, "hyperinflation - running at near 1,600 per cent - that economists say soon will be represented by an upright line on a graph has the country in revolt. The number of Zimbabwe dollars that bought a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool and tennis court in 1990, today will buy one sole brick".<P class=StoryText align=justify>A lifetime public worker's monthly pension, we are told, can't buy a loaf of bread; charities have reported depression, suicide and malnutrition among retirees, including a type of vitamin deficiency affecting gums, bones and hair loss.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Doctors and nurses have been on strike since December and the rest of the civil service is threatening to join them, the report said, and the list of deserters on the walls of army barracks grows ever longer despite a 300 per cent pay raise in January.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Already, an estimated 70,000 Zimbabweans have died this year because of the shortage of drugs and the fact that medical equipment, like dialysis machines, are no longer functional.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We were therefore not surprised to learn that anger towards Mr Mugabe and his Government is mounting in the streets. In fact, our only surprise is that it took this long. For Mr Mugabe has been oppressing his people for many years now, cracking down on dissent and press freedom, jailing opponents, bulldozing people out of their homes, rigging elections, and confiscating the passports of critics of his Government.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Just last December three key arms of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party passed a resolution at the party's annual conference to have his term extended to 2010 by postponing presidential elections scheduled for 2008.<P class=StoryText align=justify>At the time, this newspaper strongly condemned that betrayal of the freedoms that Mr Mugabe, many of his countrymen and others across the world, including Jamaica, fought to secure from the racist government that once ruled that country when it was known as Rhodesia.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We had hoped that President Thabo MBeki of South Africa, who has been trying to effect change in Zimbabwe through diplomacy, would rethink that strategy.
We obviously expected too much.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now, however, it appears that the walls are closing in on Mr Mugabe as some of his own forces, we are told, are on the verge of revolt.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But given that armed rebellion usually results in innocent lives being taken, we do not wish for this to happen in Zimbabwe.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The African Union, we believe, should use its influence to ensure
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>President Robert Mugabe, it seems, is intent on ensuring that Zimbabwe will be logged in history books as the biggest stain on Africa.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Indeed, Mr Mugabe never ceases to amaze us with his tyrannical behaviour and his total disregard for the welfare of his fellow Zimbabweans.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Last Saturday, Mr Mugabe threw a party to celebrate his 83rd birthday. The fact that he hosted the party would normally not have raised any eyebrows, except for the fact that the celebration cost his country a whopping US$1.2 million and that it was held in the face of deadly poverty and hyperinflation in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to survive on bread and water.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We have watched with disappointment Mr Mugabe's methodical destruction of this once vibrant country to the point where food, fuel and medication are in short supply.
According to a wire service report published in this week's Sunday Observer, "hyperinflation - running at near 1,600 per cent - that economists say soon will be represented by an upright line on a graph has the country in revolt. The number of Zimbabwe dollars that bought a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool and tennis court in 1990, today will buy one sole brick".<P class=StoryText align=justify>A lifetime public worker's monthly pension, we are told, can't buy a loaf of bread; charities have reported depression, suicide and malnutrition among retirees, including a type of vitamin deficiency affecting gums, bones and hair loss.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Doctors and nurses have been on strike since December and the rest of the civil service is threatening to join them, the report said, and the list of deserters on the walls of army barracks grows ever longer despite a 300 per cent pay raise in January.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Already, an estimated 70,000 Zimbabweans have died this year because of the shortage of drugs and the fact that medical equipment, like dialysis machines, are no longer functional.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We were therefore not surprised to learn that anger towards Mr Mugabe and his Government is mounting in the streets. In fact, our only surprise is that it took this long. For Mr Mugabe has been oppressing his people for many years now, cracking down on dissent and press freedom, jailing opponents, bulldozing people out of their homes, rigging elections, and confiscating the passports of critics of his Government.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Just last December three key arms of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party passed a resolution at the party's annual conference to have his term extended to 2010 by postponing presidential elections scheduled for 2008.<P class=StoryText align=justify>At the time, this newspaper strongly condemned that betrayal of the freedoms that Mr Mugabe, many of his countrymen and others across the world, including Jamaica, fought to secure from the racist government that once ruled that country when it was known as Rhodesia.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We had hoped that President Thabo MBeki of South Africa, who has been trying to effect change in Zimbabwe through diplomacy, would rethink that strategy.
We obviously expected too much.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now, however, it appears that the walls are closing in on Mr Mugabe as some of his own forces, we are told, are on the verge of revolt.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But given that armed rebellion usually results in innocent lives being taken, we do not wish for this to happen in Zimbabwe.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The African Union, we believe, should use its influence to ensure
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