Zimbabwe's rigged election

 



  The election this week in Zimbabwe was an ugly travesty from 
which all of southern Africa will suffer. Voters lined up for 
hours at polling stations, many of them in vain. Supporters of 
the main opposition candidate were intimidated and beaten. Then 
the long-serving, increasingly tyrannical president, Robert 
Mugabe, was declared the winner. International observers called 
the process deeply flawed, and the Bush administration has 
refused to recognize the declared results.

  Unfortunately, some leading African countries like South Africa 
and Nigeria have compounded the problem by accepting Mugabe's 
victory despite earlier assertions that they would not recognize 
the results of a rigged election. By failing to hold firm they 
not only damage their diplomatic credibility, but also ignore 
the consequences for nearby African states of Mugabe's misrule. 
These include explosive political frustration, a swelling tide 
of desperate refugees and a growing reluctance by foreign 
companies and donors to invest in the region. Washington and 
other Western governments may now strengthen the current mild 
sanctions against Zimbabwe. These steps would be far more 
effective if they were joined by major African states.

  Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe's liberation struggle against white 
minority rule in the late 1970's, has systematically wrecked his 
country's economy and its freedoms to prolong his 22-year-old 
hold on power. Zimbabwe should be an economic beacon, not a 
basket case. It is blessed with fertile agricultural land, and 
during the first dozen years of Mugabe's rule it was relatively 
prosperous and free.

  That picture changed radically in the mid-1990's when Mugabe 
shifted onto a highly destructive course. He incited violent 
land seizures that have taken a disastrous toll on agricultural 
investment and production and launched a broad assault on 
journalistic freedom and judicial independence. This campaign 
has been carried out with help from a small but loyal core of 
former liberation fighters turned thugs. Thugs and fraud cannot 
keep the 78-year-old Mugabe in power forever. Zimbabwe's 
recovery will have to wait for his departure.


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