Looking for background to the ongoing Zimbabwe tragedy? Try Samantha Power’s 2003 article How to kill a country, which holds up very well five years later. Here’s Power’s prediction — if these are the alternatives, Zimbabwe is still on the brink:
If he [Mugabe] hangs on, and if other African leaders don’t force him out, Zimbabwe may go in one of two directions. Its destitute citizens might be so preoccupied with finding food and staying alive that they will increasingly tune politics out. Over time their memory of-and sense of entitlement to-a better life will give way, and they will docilely submit to authorities whose power will only increase as the crisis deepens. Or the country’s appalling conditions might stir a domestic revolution, a fourth chimurenga [war of liberation], which will bring down Mugabe and his ruling party.
UPDATE (for Norwegian readers): A good report (text and video) about Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa at Dagbladet.no.
Great link, and to someone who has followed zimbabwean politics for some years it appears to be well-researced (I visited the country in 1997, back when Mugabe still had a semblance of sanity). Seen in this context, Jan Egeland’s comments yesterday seem quite bizarre, asking European countries – and Britain in particular – to shut up, as “the British created the despicable Rhodesia Mugabe fought against”. Apart from condoning Mugabes “blame the colonialists” line, his view of history is creative, to say the least: Wikipedia on Rhodesia.
Yes, Egeland (and also another Norwegian commentator, who says the British should “lie very low”) seems to be in line with Mugabe’s spokesman: “They can go and hang a thousand times, they have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwe politics at all,” spokesman George Charamba said in answer to a question about Western criticism of Mugabe’s violence-marred election.”
Let’s see now: the British Empire encompassed a huge part of the world, so by the same reasoning Gordon Brown should refrain from commenting on the politics of half of Africa, as well as countries such as India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Israel and the USA. Oh wait – commenting on the policies of Israel and the US is probably OK in Rønning’s and Egelands book…