Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe spent this week at a United Nations summit in Rome on how to end hunger. If you follow what has been happening in Zimbabwe, that’s enough to make you retch.
This man has turned his country from Africa’s breadbasket into a regional beggar. Hundreds of thousands of his people are at risk of starving.
When he was in Rome, Mugabe accused the West of using food as a political weapon. He has ordered several outside agencies to suspend their efforts to deliver food to his people and claimed that the West is working to bring about “illegal regime change” in Zimbabwe. What Mugabe thinks of as “illegal regime change” is what the rest of the world neatly calls an “election.” Mugabe faces one on June 27, and he could lose.
While Mugabe was trying to hobnob in Rome, his thugs back in Zimbabwe were doing what they do best: ratcheting up an intimidation campaign.
On Wednesday, police arrested Morgan Tsvangirai, who is running against Mugabe in the presidential election. Tsvangirai and about 14 of his associates were held without cause for eight hours and then released.
On Thursday, police, military officers and other Mugabe cronies detained 11 U.S. and British diplomats for six hours.
Mugabe is ensuring that only his allies can dole out food, another intimidation tactic in a poor land. By suspending the work of aid organizations, he has sidelined people who might bear witness to the government’s violent crackdown against opposition supporters. At least 50 people have been killed in the crackdown.
Inflation in Zimbabwe runs at more than 165,000 percent a month. Life expectancy has plunged to 35. Land that could be used to grow much-needed food lies fallow. And Mugabe insists that Zimbabwe’s problems stem from the nefarious interference of the West.
On Tuesday night in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi co-hosted, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, a state dinner for leaders attending the food conference. Mugabe was left off the guest list, an intentional snub.
But how do you shame a man as shameless as Mugabe? You don’t. You beat him.
An election in Zimbabwe doesn’t have much direct impact on us in Chicago. It doesn’t affect the price of gas. It doesn’t put the Cubs or Sox closer to the World Series.
Nevertheless, what’s going on there should tear your heart. Hope and pray for regime change on June 27.
