To restore order to Rhodesia, white people will have to return, take control and put things in their proper place. The blacks are just too childlike, incompetent and inept to maintain any government. Look at any nation in africa or any city in America with a black mayor. If Barack Obama gets elected, the USA will probably go the route of Rhodesia as well.

George Manuelian
Atherton CA

Your article is published in the wrong newspaper. Last I checked America, and most of the Western Powers were doing everything they can short of mililtary intervention to assist the people of Zimbabwe. Ofcourse "everything we can" is severely limited by Zimbabwe's neighbors, who seem to have no interest in fighting political and economic oppression as long as the oppressor wears an acceptable color of skin.

Personally I would favor some kind of military intervention. Because in my opinion it is for the likes of Robert Mugabe that war was invented. But that is a distinctly minority view post-Iraq. So I suggest you solicit your article to the prominent newspapers of any SADC country. It is a message that they, not we, urgently need to hear.

Your article is published in the wrong newspaper. Last I checked America, and most of the Western Powers were doing everything they can short of mililtary intervention to assist the people of Zimbabwe. Ofcourse "everything we can" is severely limited by Zimbabwe's neighbors, who seem to have no interest in fighting political and economic oppression as long as the oppressor wears an acceptable color of skin.

Personally I would favor some kind of military intervention. Because in my opinion it is for the likes of Robert Mugabe that war was invented. But that is a distinctly minority view post-Iraq. So I suggest you solicit your article to the prominent newspapers of any SADC country. It is a message that they, not we, urgently need to hear.

amengeo, what planet u from?
Carter put Mugabe in power.
Big Bob sure hurts some black folks too, heh? No? U like wheelbarrows for wallets?

great, gun nuts jump in...
stay out of Rhodesia; we might be called colonizers again!

The real outcome of what would happen in an American context:

1. Electorial College declares a winner
2. Ruling group refuses to leave
3. Moving van shows up at White House
4. Movers load stuff - backed up by SS, police, and citizens of all parties
5. Inauguration happens on steps of Capital
6. Attempts by the few bitter ender nuts end in shoot outs with police and citizens (a key point being that citizens are armed, and the power is not in the hands of the government-controlling group only - Go 2nd Amendment)
7. New president moves in.

The people of Zimbawe are going to have to take charge and use those dastardly private firearms that they should have to create a balance of power the trumpts government-only use of force.

Morgan Tsvingarai is a farcical buffoon. He runs about like a little schoolboy crying how unfair the world is and how bad people who do not agree with him are. He is obviously in the pay of the West who jerk his strings anytime they think they have Mugabe on the ropes. This man is not fit to rule anywhere. What are his plans? What are his economic, political goals? Why does he always run to the West if not for instructions in how to betray his people? The West has been trying for ever so long to unseat Mugabe because he had the testicular fortitude to TAKE back what was stolen from Africans. This has happened nowhere in the formerly colonized world and is seen as setting a bad precedent, therefore he had to be disciplined. White people were involved and if we can forget for a moment the politically correct nonsense we will realize that white resentment of black assertiveness is involved here, no matter how they couch it in terms about ‘democracy’ and ‘the rule of law.’ Where was the rule of law when apartheid ended and none of the white war criminals were brought to book for their crimes against humanity? Let us get real. Mugabe gets a standing ovation wherever he goes in Africa because the common people know he is right. Whatever happens, the reclaimed land will not be returned so the bitter ex-Rhodies and their peanut gallery can forget about it.

No this will not turn into another Rwanda beacuse the violence is not drawn on tribal lines but rather political parties. I believe both Mugabe and Tsvangarai are both Shonas.

What I am appalled with is the shamelessness of the whole thing. Broad daylight refusal to leave power -- and even have a few fat cows from the nation's armed forces be in it with Mugabe.

This is what happens when we refuse to see the humanity of others.

Zimbabwe is important. So are Somalia and W. Sahara, which don't have functioning Governments. The USA hasn't been paying enough attention. If nothing else, resources are a major issue. The political problems are extremely challenging because of tribal factions. We can't play Big Brother to the world, but can't stand idle while China and Russia play at neocolonialism.

Mr Wachai,

That is a splendid, well written and bold piece of work. It's a beauty the way you have brought the issue home in a way that Americans can understand and relate with.

However 'only Africans can solve African problems', involving the West in the debacles that are facing Africa does little to nurture local democracy. The solutions have to be cooked in African pots. It would also help for us to look at issues from the African's point of view, for example, look at the issue of Land Ownership in Zimbabwe from a former squatter, or from a white settler born in Zimbabwe.

Let us also desist from attacking those brave and eloquent enough to bring the issues out into the open.

I can’t help but to sometimes entertain notion that may be Africa is cursed! It pains me to see endless civil wars, famines, corruptions, dictatorships torpedo the continent. Africa is getting left behind by the rest of the world! The source of its plight is bad governance. The World needs to stand up to this despicable dictator, Mugabi. However, I am afraid the challenger fella, Morgan(?), may turnout just another power hungry dictator, if he replaces Mugabi as we have seen through out Africa. I hope he’s the exception. Without building strong democratic foundations and institutions, Africa will always be susceptible to this vicious cycle.

Down with dictators.

'Force this man to sober up'?

I think we're a little past that. Everything this fist-in-the-air column demands has already transpired. To no avail.

When even the Chinese turn a ship full of arms around, you know the world community has taken a stand.

One thing this author is right about....the dismal failure...again... of South Africa's President to take a forceful, leadership role in showing Robert Mugabe to the door of history. Thabo Mbeki, President of Africa's greatest triumph, still retains some troublesome traits common to some of Africa's most shoddily run banana republics....a 'what me worry?' approach to real danger....and a habit of discounting world opinion mixed with the tinge of racial indignation....hinting that only a black African can truly figure out Robert Mugabe and his 'eccentricies'.

The man is not eccentric, he's a thug.

mugabe should be put out of his misery by Britain, since he is their child.

While Zimbawe continues to be ruled by a tyrant, while Burma refuses to accept outside assistance, whilte atrocities conintue in the Sudan, what is the UN doing? Send a representative to study racism in the US. We should close down the UN in New York and send those sanctimomius, pompous asses back to their own countries and deal with their own problems. The UN is a paper tiger!

Why wshoud Zimbabwe be an exception. Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia stole the election, accused the entire oppotion of genocide and treason and locked them up and killed 200 unarmed protestors and interned 50,000 youth in malaria infested concentration camps where many died?

Mughabe is a saint compared to Zenawi but Zenawi is comfortable seated on the so called anti- terrorism bandwagon

koki

Stop living in a dream world you NEOLIB cabal members! Bush won 2000. The Supreme Court put an end to algores attempt to steal the election. Algore is the equivolent to the dictator. Algore only gave up when recounts were threatened in Wisconsin and Illinois (Cook County where "democrats vote early and often. and the dead vote deomcrat.") Stop believing the lies NBC and moveon shovel down your throats, sheep!

Don't worry, I'm sure your Socialist-Liberation-Marxist brothers in the ANC will stand up for the people of Zimbabwe. What? No?

I agree Mugabe is a source of instability not just for Zimbabwe but for all of Southern Africa as well (see anti-foreigner riots in South Africa). But please tell me, what do you want the international community to do?

Let Zimbabwe fail. It unscores the proof that Socialism doesn't work. Free Markets work. Govt run markets create shortages, inflation, and oppression.

Mr. Wachai,
Yes Mugabe must go. We all know that. But, you sir are the sort of disingenuous intellectual that allows a dictator to flourish with essays and treatises that excuse them as they consolidate their power. Talk about the log in one's eye- check that- talk about the lumber mill in your eye.

You wrote two articles on the Kenyan election, none of which called on the west to force Kibaki out, and none of which directly dealt with the malpractices that caused the Kenyan situation.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2008/01/dont_balkanize_kenya.html
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2008/01/unfit_for_peace.html

When it was your fellow tribesman Kibaki stealing the Kenyan election, you put the blame on both the opposition and the Kibaki government when the direct cause of the mayhem was the electoral malpractice. You recognized its significance only in the last paragraph of your article by saying, "Without seeming to justify electoral malpractices that touched off the violence, I must remind all and sundry that this isn’t the first time Kenya has witnessed electoral fraud – and it will not be the last. It’s inexcusable, however, for politicians in Kenya to continue exploiting tribal divisions to settle political scores."
So in Kenya's situation, an opposition that was refusing to allow an election to be stolen was just "politicians exploiting tribal divisions to settle political scores."
In Kenya's situation, there was no call for "Coercive measures, including punitive sanctions for companies and countries propping up the regime, might force this man to sober up"
You did not even bother to mention the muzzling of the Kenyan media by the government.
Of course, Kibaki using the police and the army was not dictatorial, since you failed to mention that in your article on Kenya. I suppose it was of minor importance. Nor did you bother to educate the readers about the invasion of the electoral tallying centers by armed security men. That to you is a normal thing; no need to mention it either.
You do correctly point out that a majority of African leaders are apathetic; a majority of them remain complicit simply due to a lack of moral authority. You see, when a wife beater goes to the neighbors house to stop a domestic quarrel, his first question is directed to the woman of the house: "and what did you do wrong? Why don't you just keep this thing quiet?" The Kenyan president whom you chose not to castigate on this pages when you had the chance is a prime example. What is he to tell Mugabe when he is a beneficiary of the very same tactics?
In Kenya's case, there were those leaders who chose to try and negotiate the Kenyan situation. Of course they understood their hands are not clean; but they also understood the promise and vision that Kenya has held for other African
countries. People like Omar Bashir, Mkapa, Gaddaffi and even Museveni understood it. You were quick to come out with an article questioning their moral authority in that situation and saying they have no business being peacemakers. In that article too, there was little mention of the electoral malpractices of the the Kibaki government. Nor did you choose to focus on other African leaders, Kuffor of Ghana, Desmond Tutu and Ketumile Masire who also recognized the situation in Kenya must be rectified. It could be that an article on conscientious African leaders is of no interest to Fareed Zakaria and David Ignatius.The more likely explanation is that an article on those leaders would require you to mention that a majority felt the presidential election in Kenya was a complete travesty.
Not all African leaders have remained silent on Zimbabwe. There are many real democrats and opposition figures who have spoken out even as their governments have remained silent. You must have heard that Jacob Zuma, the president of the South African ruling party, the ANC (Thabo Mbeki's party) has addressed the situation. In Kenya, former opposition leader and now Prime minister Raila Odinga's first comment on foreign policy was a call for concerted African action against Mugabe. This is information you already know- or you should know. Strangely, the prime minister of your country speaks out on Zimbabwe, but you choose not to mention it while chiding African leaders for not speaking up. The president of your country, your tribesman, turns a blind eye on Zimbabwe and he does not warrant a mention in this article?

Mr Wachai, you seem to have ready access to the postglobal forum whenever there is an African issue. Yet when your own illegitimate president's (Kibaki) government was violently dispersing the women demonstrators led by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, you did not see it as important enough to warrant a commentary On this forum. There is an appearance of inherent hypocrisy when you do not come out strongly against the sins of your own government, the very same sins that put your "extended family" in harms way, and then pop up a few months later asking the world community (beloved Kenyan cliché inserted here) to leave no stone unturned until Mugabe is removed.
Watch the history channel's "Ax Men" program. There is good information there on logging machines and how to move lumber.

It takes great courage and a clear mind to stand up for Zimbabwe.

The country has been economically asphyxiated. Its access to international finance cut for over 9 years now.

Massive prpaganda against its founding father and current president are gallow in the international press.

Yet, the last election showed us that MORE people voted for Mugabe's party than Tsvangirai's (even though the seats distribution ended in MDC's favor).

The last election also showed that, inspite of a 300 000% inflation rate, 44% of the population STILL voted for Mugabe. They clearly understood that their economic mess in not because of this man, but was being engineered by those that claimed to love the Zimbabwean Blackman the most (the same people that went to war to deny these same Africans the right to self-rule!!)

Here, we have a Kenyan man, not too different from his now Prime Minister, Odinga, shouting at the top of his voice about "justice" in Zimbabwe!

I cannot believe the chutzpah!

A child of the most murderous politicians this side of 2008, now boldly pretending the mess in his home country resolved, thus allowing time to soapbox on Zimbabwe!

Either way, his title is quite apt!

Stand up for Zimbabwe, indeed!

Stand together with its population as it refuses to give in to the "international" financial blackmail.
Stand with it as it tries to fight for its indegenes' right to their own national assets!

It appears that, given that 10% of Mugabe's support went with the breakaway Makoni, the run-off looks much more likely to go Mugabe's way.

It takes mighty strong people to make such a bold choice. A choice they know will cause continued anger, therefore more economic punishment from the west.

However, it appears that the long-term benefits to the Zimbabwean indegene is well worth the current prosecution! Eventually, they will be able to proudly declare, "This Zimbabwe, we own it, we will shape it in every which way WE, the citizens of it, please, even if that means failure at times!"

Lets be serious. This is not about Mugabe. This is about Europeans trying to get back in control of an African country. Do you really think that people will forget colonialism? Who is funding Morgan Tsvangirai anyway? Is he not a puppet of the West? White farmers were forced out of an African nation. This was long over due. This is what this is about. This is why the U.S. and Great Brittian are so angry. What if Africans ruled England and allowed Whites in that country to live of only 15% of the land?

Lets talk about the dictator in Equatorial Guinea and other corrupt African countries. We can't do that because we are getting so much oil from them.

Unfortunately, 99% of the people who post on this type of website, and it looks like ALL of the "newsmen" whose job is to draw up some analysis from the world events are interested in fighting the problem. I have coined the phrase:
"The greatest fame and the most fortune comes NOT from SOLVING problems but from FIGHTING those problems--while spreading Hate, Hypocrisy, Lies and Fear in the aftermath of those unresolved issues."

Too many fortunes have been made and too many people have become famous for the above not to be true. Besides, if you solve the problem, your money stops coming in and you have to fire people and your fame and power wanes. That is the reason some projects take on a life all their own.

With Africa--especially black Africa--no one wants to recognize the real problem. Too many people make too much money to make sure the real problems are not recognized. If you even come close to pointing out the problems, you are to be described by all media outlets as a racist or a religious nut or an insane person.

When the whites ruled South Africa and Rhodesia, they exported food and were relatively safe. Today, the IMPORT food and are not safe. If fact, they have less rights than under whites. No one wants a recognize a hidden and extremely wealthy cabal that wants and needs Africa and the Middle East to be in turmoil. As long as those places are in flux, they hold the upper hand.

The situation in Zimbabwe is horrible and the interference by the Chinese and foreign interests are definitely not helpful. But isn't it sad that we see parallels with our 2000 election in this 250 year old democracy. If we were not bogged down in 2 2 wars perhaps we could have offered some assistance either financial or military to the opposition forces there to help them wrest their freedom from that tyrant. Bush came in on a pledge against nation building. George kept it too. He just went about it destroying a sovereign nation.

As I understand it a candidate must receive 51% of the vote to win the presidency of Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai did NOT get 51% of the vote. Just because the MDC says he did, does not make it true. Personally, I believe the MDC know it did not receive 51% of the vote.

Morgan Tsvangirai is not a leader. Running around begging, pleading for someone to make Mugabe play fair, Sounds like something from the school yard. Also, I do not believe anyone has threaten Tsvangirai's life. What type of leader would stay in South Africa as his people is beaten and killed in Zimbabwe, if you believe the MDC's account? This is no leader people. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a prison. He never ran like Tsvangirai.

If Tsvangirai is the best Zimbabwe have to challenge Mugabe, then Mugabe should be the choice.

"The American electoral system is rife with laws that are passed to make it difficult for minorities and elderly people to cast their votes."

Give examples of these laws. Let me help:

1) Checking a state-issued ID. Because proving who you are or that you're a resident of the district in which you vote is disenfranchisement. The opposite, letting anyone vote without proof, is obviously a much better alternative.

2) Discounting ballots filled out improperly. Because people that can't fill out a bubble form or worse, vote for two presidential candidates when only one is allowed, is disenfranchisement. Having a load of incomplete or confusing ballots is obviously a much better alternative.

3) Ballots in one language. Oh, wait, this is not law but many states have ballots in multiple languages for the convienience. Having ballots in one language is obviously an attempt to disenfranchise people.

4) Voting days are not state or federal holidays. Never mind that the polls are open longer than standard workshifts and if you knew you'd be unavailable you could get a mail-in ballot. Having polls open for a week or giving people a holiday to vote is obviously a much better alternative.

5) Propaganda for parties is limited to a given distance from a polling place. Because, you know should should still be undecided right up to the point of punching the ballot. Having party propaganda in the voting booth is obviously a much better alternative.

By the logic that alarmists like this person uses, ballots in general discriminate and therefore disenfranchise the illiterate. Polling places discriminate and therefore disenfranchise the immobile. Checking ID and proof of residency discriminate and therefore disenfranchise the illegal alien or legal resident non-citizen.

The undereducated's vote counts, even if they don't really know what they are voting for. If you screw up a ballot, you can ask for another! Polls are open for 12 hours, maybe longer, and may be mailed in advance if requested.

The fact that alarmists like this have never read the U.S. Constitution and still blame the courts for siding with the 12th Amendment because of the reasons described above shows a general willingness to believe the hype-filled media as opposed to reading and asking questions themselves.

It's a minor concern in the U.S., but people who are willing to believe the worst are easily led down the path of the absurd.

Mr. Wachai:

Nobody has to imagine a situation similar to Zimbabwe's happening in the US. It already happened in 2000 when the US Supreme Court was instrumental in an extremely controversial ruling that practically decided the 2000 US presidential election in George Bush's favour.

The American electoral system is rife with laws that are passed to make it difficult for minorities and elderly people to cast their votes. These measures are taken in the guise of improving security at the polling booth but, are covert measures to prevent mostly democratic party constituents from casting their votes. Also, the influence of lobbyists and stealth third parties aimed at defeating reformist candidates and platforms, goes to show that for all their talk, Americans are as corrupt as anyone else when it comes to winning elections.

There's this news now about a 'plot' to assassinate Tsivangirai, so he's delaying his return to Zimbabwe.

Now, let's get serious. Nobody said that politics is a choirboys' event. There had been scores of attempts on the life of Yasser Arafat, many by Israel's Mossad, others by dissident groups among Palestinians; yet for long years, the 'free world' that is crying wolf about a purported 'plot' by Mugabe's henchmen portrayed Arafat as the terrorist (and now Bush portrays Hamas as 'the Nazis' and reproches the Indians for eating well!!) while condoning the crimes against humanity committed by Israel. Within Southern Africa itself, 'people's doctor' Abubakar Asvat was murdered by supposedly sympathetic anti-apartheid groups because the immensely decent and humane doctor had treated Stompy Sempei and countless others from Steve Biko to Yusuf Seedat were 'made to slip over a piece of soap in their shower' or 'made to throw themselves from the fourteenth floor of the apartheid regime's interrogation quarters in Johannesburg' and died.

No, no and no! If the Electoral Commission in Zimbabwe was given enough free rein to declare the MDC the winner of the Parliamentary elections and, later, Tsivangirai himself the winner of a plurality (but not majority) of votes for the Presidential elections, no earthly power in Zimbabwe would dare to assassinate Tsivangirai.

Intimidation? Of course! Had there not been three assassination attempts on Musharraf? Had Benazir Bhutto not been actually assassinated? Yet, the 'free world' expects Pakistan to do their dirty work of 'war on terror' when it was THEY who instrumentalised the Taliban to wage a savage war adainst the Soviets when the latter had invaded Afghanistan in late 1979.

Yes, in Southern Africa we are still living the sequels of the monstrous racist/apartheid regime that crusehd the region's people for several decades until not so long ago, just as, in Central Asia, the good Pakistani people are living the sequels of the nightmares unleashed on their region three decades ago.

Those who want to lead will have to rise to the occasion and not expect a choirboy-type of 'cakewalk' to leadership of their country. And let not the war criminals of yesteryear purport to teach lessons of morality to those who have suffered so much and wil still have to make their part of the world livable for future generations and contribute to world peace and progress in a way that allows them to assert their diginity more credibly than those who now call themselves 'the free world'.

I get confused with the term DEMOCRACY, what is it really? When does democratic election becomes democratic? Here we have a situation in Zimbabwe were the armies under the DEFEATED DICTATOR(Robert Mugabe) terrorise people for "democratically" having chosen their rightful presidential candidate. This armies had publically beaten up Morgan Tsvangarai, arrested and detained foreign journalist, forbade SADCC human Right Society to assess human right abuse reports and recently tormented and detained foreign diplomats for assessing allegations of human right abuses. The Addis Ababa, Gabororne and New York-based AU, SADCC and UN respectively are yet to send in delegations to assess the situation . What else do we need to know before these institutions make decisions? Nost of the information that came out was taken undercover and these journalists had to take extra-extra care otherwise could easily be killed. Where all instruments that are put in at UN,AU and SADCC. Mugabe had bend them all but yet none of these institutions dare to react. Is it because Mugabe's acts are really serious for these bodies to intervene or simply ignorance. I think it is time to act, are we waiting for the magnitude of Hitler, Sadam and all the others beofre anyone actually say enough is enough. The people who are supporting Mugabe are not known for good human right track record but yet the Olympic is going to be held in the home ground. What does this actually imply on international political arena?

Mr. Njoroge Wachai,

Is this not what happened in Kenya after 12/27/07? Is it not true that 1000+ poor Kenyans whose only crime was to cast their votes lost their lives?
Is that not what happened in USA in 2000 when the supreme court of the United States handed the presidency to George W. Bush after Al Gore won?

If African youths do not get together and charter their destiny, the west and the chinese will be controlling their lives for a long, long time. The people who are using Africans ethnic diversity to cause trouble are the same people who did not want Zimbabwe to become independent. They are the same people who did South Africa to become independent. They are the same people who did not want Kenya to become independent. They are the same people who brutally murdered Patrice Lumumba. They are the same people who are controlling the lives of Africa poor.

They are still ruling Africa using proxies, who happen to African elites. These proxies are very good at brutalizing their own kind using arms given to them by their foreign masters.

I do not believe in a supreme leader. Mugambe should not be in power at the age of 80+ because I do not believe there is any valid short term memory left for him to compete with The British Foreign Secretary who is 43 years old. Mugambe must spend whatever is left of his life to pass his life wisdom and torch to the younger Zimbabweans. These young people nust also know that the West or Chinese who pop them up are only after Africa's natural resources and they do not want to share these resources with poor Africans!

Many, if not all, African interllectuals have become foreign agents and many of them are participating in the selling African vast land and resources to foreigners the same way Mobutu sold DR Congo. These Africans are so blinded with their own individual greed that they do not see that the resources leaving Africa are more than enough to build good roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructures which can enable interstate trade. Africa has become a continent where Africans are being driven from their land so that UN World Food Program can feed them in refugee camps where they linger until they die. The people who are driving tem there happen to be African elites who are knowingly/unknowingly collaborating with Chinese and the West. It looks like these African elites are clearing Africans from their ancestral land to give way to the Chinese and the West!!!

We are all going back to vote for Morgan.Its good he has extended the dates.All those who were turned away as unregistered voters can now go & cross check with the register general& make sure their names apper on the ballot paper get the registraton card.Also the wounds of those who have been victimised would have been healed in two months time& they can mobilise their relatives to vote against this vampire.We live in an enviroment of extended families where if i find out that my relative has been killed or victimised for supporting the opposition I would definitely stop supporting Zanu PF.Not everbody within the family support one team Manchester United or Arsenal.We must be allowed freedom of choice & expression.
WHY cant Mugabe & his cronnies accept defeat?

The people are suffering in Zimbabwe & the protection bodies SADC& AU are turning deaf ears& dancing to Mugabes tune.WHY?Do they want to wait until civil war breaks out?Dont they think prevention is better than cure?Why do they allow Mugabe to cheat or hold on to the election results until he manipulates the results to go his way?Why dont they voice first?Only to be outdone by UK& US?
Its a real SHAME on these two Motherbodies who are meant to maintain peace within the region.
SHAME ON MBEKI no wonder why his people in SA no longer want him.He is also a crook.

Mr. Arjayi raises very pertinent and erudite points; unfortunately, the most important point is the following rhetorical question: " If the proofs of Crimes against Humanity exist for the Zesuru and its elite rulers, why is the government of Zimbabwe considered legitimate by other people at all? "

Mr. Arjayi should address the following very important points and corollaries of his reasoning:

(i) do legally sustainable proofs of Crime Against Humanity actually exists in the case of Mugabe? Geoffrey Robertson, in his erudite book "Crimes Against Humanity" (third edition 2006, page 295) reports that writs were served to the doorman of the New York hotel where Mugabe was staying during the UN's millenium meeting, but, on that same page, he broaches the cases of Karadzic and Mladic who still remain at large. Everyone also remembers the cases lodged against Rumsfeld and Laurent Gbagbo in Belgium, the one against Rumsfeld made obsolete by the last minute recall of Parliament to rescind the law in order to avoid an American threat to have NATO Headquarters moved from Brussels. A case prompting one to comment, in Arjayi's language : as if the law is "the ‘property’ of whoever has enough force to become an imperial ruler of any group" such as NATO.

(ii) even if such justiceable proofs existed, would not the international organisations -- the IMF, the WB, AfDB, SADC, etc. -- have to wait for the International Crminal Court to pronounce its sentence before deciding to refuse legitimate recongnition to a Government of Zimbabwe ked by Mugabe? And if the major international institutions are so constrained, what right would 'other people' have to refuse such recognition?

(iii) beyong legal points about fairness that Mugabe's lawyers would no doubt raise should the justiceability factor become actionable and 'actioned', Mr. Arjayi could inform curious POSTGLOBAL readers what is his own take on the fact that Maldic and Karadzic and Ramsfeld and Gbagbo (and so many others) are still at large while we seem to want to condemn Mugabe even without delivering the writs that would bring him to trial.

This comparison of a ‘Seven Days in May’ takeover of the US constituted democracy with an unconsituted tribal oligarchy is a bit far-fetched, even by political fantasy literature standards. Hopefully, the analogy is intended to describe to Americans what can happen to governments in which power is considered the ‘property’ of whoever has enough force to become an imperial ruler of any group. The last person who thought he had enough power to usurp the US Constitution by force was one Democrat name G. B. McClellan in 1863 as commander of the Union army. Unfortunately, he could not get any of his subordinates to carry out the necessary orders. And a good number of those positions named in this article wouldn’t follow a Presidential order for usurpation of the Constitution. So much for far left conspiracies about far right take-overs of the US, even with acts of contempt for the Constitution by the left and right while in power.

The real problem with the “government” of Zimbabwe is that it follows the same process of all single party states (Baathist Iraq, Baathist Syria, Myanmar, Sudan, Cuba, Belorussia) in that having acquired political power over many others, they come to the conclusion that their elite is the permanent owner of that power and something they can pass on to the children of the elite. Mugabe does not even represent the Shona tribes, let alone Ntebele tribes. He is an elitist chieftain of the Zesuru who has carried out systematic democide and genocide against peoples within Zimbabwe for the protection and wealth acquisition of his Zesuru tribesmen.

The Rome Statute has defined many forms of genocide (extermination for ethnic reasons), democide (extermination by a government for political reasons) and apdicide (killing for sociopathic reasons) as Crimes against Humanity. If the proofs of Crimes against Humanity exist for the Zesuru and its elite rulers, why is the government of Zimbabwe considered legitimate by other people at all? Shouldn’t the absence of Crimes against Humanity in any of its forms be one of the principal tests of political legitimacy rather than possession of power making the elite legitimate?

Mr. Wachai,

Truthfully, I don't like to see Mugabe staying in power any longer. I think he should have gone in 1997 already, but at least in 2002. That year, partly under my initiative, the African Development Bank went out on a limb that year trying to adapt the common 'rules of engagement' binding it with the IMF and the World Bank to help Zimbabwe implement an Economic Reform/Structural Adjustment Programme-cum-orderly land reform that would have released hundreds of millions of US dollars and averted the then-oncoming economic meltdown. But, Mugabe's regime was stubborn, and the country and its people experienced the years of misery they have endured for so long.

That much said, though, about the frustrations I have experienced with Mugabe's blind post-1992 self-destructuveness while trying to help (which contrasts with your easy criticisms, combined with unconscionable defence of grave excesses by Mwai Kibaki in your own country, Kenya), I have the right counter your continuing cheap demonisation of Mugabe. You write : " ... the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has just pummeled the GOP’s John McCain ..." as if you were equating that putative outcome with the actual outcome of the Mugane/Tsvangirai presidential contest. By his own reckoning, Tsivangirai won 50.3% of the vote. 'Pummeling', Mr. Wachai? Do you understand what you write?

When it is held in a few weeks' time, Tsivangirai will likely win the run-off presidential election in Zimbabwe. But he will win it by a lower margin than he would have won it had he not, in the first place, arrogantly brushed aside the idea of a run-off, only to eating his own words in several replays of Mugabe's finetuning to his advantage the conditions under which the runoff will be conducted. Maybe Mugabe will be doing so unfairly. But Tsivangirai has now learnt that he has lost credibility by having been overly dismissive of a run-off in the first place, while Mugabe's devious ways is sadly getting greater grudging acceptance because, everybody is now agreed, "power corrupts" and wil, soon enough, corrupt Tsivangarai as well.

Sad, very, very sad. That is why my profession, especially the specialty known as Development Economics, is known as 'the dismal science'.

If "Good" equates with human freedom of action, property rights, economic and social opportunity and the safety of law and order, the state of affairs under Colonial rule was Good. Those who cried the loudest for "liberation" failed to appreciate the depths of human capacity for rapine and evil, when unrestrained by law and order, which, at least, Colonial powers maintained, in some measure. Now, those same people pray for the same Colonial powers to "pressure" RM. Theirs is, in essence, a prayer for the very thing that their fathers rejected as Colonial "oppression" in the days when the rule of law existed there. In fact, his symbolic opposition to the myth of Colonial "evil" keeps RM in power today.

Nothing demonstrates pure hatred more than apathy for suffering people. Sadly, the only acceptable solution will be the death of a million or more, and that may not even change the outcome.

Hate the "western world" all you want. Supporting Mugabe only serves Mugabe and a few fortunate cronies. It doesn't serve Zimbabwe's people, who have vote for change.

The western world has been rendered diplomatically impotent because of now out-of-date anti-colonial sentiment.

Sadly, all Zimbabwe has to offer is large amounts of farmland. No oil, no luck.

Fortunately, Mugabe is old and is not long for this world. He has much to answer for in the next one.

Unfortunately, be prepared for another Rwanda, Uganda, Darfur, Liberia, Angola....