Zimbabwe Information Center in North America
A project of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (NACFREEZ)
MDC
By Stanford G. Mukasa
Letter from America
March 19, 2007
Countdown to Mugabe's end has begun?
Zimbabwe’s police brutal, savage and unwarranted assault on opposition leaders and supporters will be a watershed on Robert Mugabe’s brutal dictatorship on Zimbabweans. The latest assault on MDC information secretary Nelson Chamisa merely underscores the fact that Mugabe has peaked, and that it’s downhill for him now.
The March 11 cowardly and criminal use of deadly force against unarmed civilians will mark Day 1 of the beginning of the end of the Mugabe regime and era. Any pretense Mugabe may have had to the claim of the presidency of the country evaporated like morning dew with this arbitrary and maniacal use of force against citizens, none of whom had broken any law.
But if Mugabe’s plan in this physical assault on opposition leaders was either to intimidate or kill the MDC leadership it backfired badly. The only objective Mugabe may have achieved here was to dig his own grave.
Ironically, Mugabe provided the incentive and motive for the people to stand up at last and confront his regime. Every victim of the barbaric assault by Mugabe’s police thugs has vowed to continue protesting the regime’s dictatorship.
The ripple effect of the beatings and the callousness in which Mugabe’s regime handled the matter has spread far and wide. The event and pictures of badly mutilated victims were splashed in the international media across the length and breath of the international community. There has been an outpour of condemnations, even from Africa, notably the African Union as well as a belated mild rebuke from President Thabo Mbeki in South Africa.
Mugabe’s rogue police excessive and brutal use of force, and the subsequent denial of medical assistance for the victims who were lying in agony and clearly urgently in need of help , make this a clear and unambiguous case of attempted murder.
The victims’ condition was not helped by being piled in lice -infected jails, and being brought to courts where there was neither a magistrate nor a prosecutor, resulting in the victims waiting for a better part of three hours and unattended by doctors.
The incident showed what a confused and possibly mentally deranged the Mugabe regime has become – there was absolutely no logic or plausible explanation to their actions following their near murder of the MDC leader.
It was by sheer luck that Tsvangirayi and his colleagues survived this mayhem. Reports say the perpetrators of this criminal act were special commando units who had been drugged, making them immune to any sensitivity to what they were doing.
These attacks have been systematic and targeted.
MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirayi and Madhuku’s NCA have been targeted for all this brutal treatment, leaving the Mutambara faction virtually untouched! Moreover, there have hardly been any statements condemning this from Mutambara faction, except Mutambara himself. Mutambara is arrested and escorted to a police cell. Chamisa is arrested and his head is bashed against the tarmac cracking his skull! Tsvangirayi is heavily assaulted. Job Sikhala is released untouched! This is not to wish they should have been attacked as well. Of course no one should have been attacked. But it raises questions about who is playing what roles and Mugabe’s motives. Is Mugabe trying to destroy the REAL MDC and have it replaced by a pro senate group?
Ultimately all blood that has been shed by the MDC freedom fighters is tantamount to a badge of honor. Even Mugabe now recognizes where the people’s power lies in the so-called divided MDC.
Three key constituencies that could play a decisive role in ending Mugabe’s reign have had a rude awakening from this brutal and barbaric act.
The Zimbabweans are now reportedly angry, not mourning or afraid as has been their character in the past. Zimbabweans are now more openly talking of acts of civil disobedience than ever before.
At the regional level African leaders have, through the African Union, broken their silence on Mugabe. Both the African Union and SADC have started efforts to discuss with the Mugabe the Zimbabwean problem. Tanzania’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, recently held a reported five -hour discussion with Mugabe. Zimbabwe is now on the agenda of SADC and the African Union meetings. There is a possibility that Zimbabwe will be on the Security Council agenda.
To the extent that MDC leaders sustained such well publicized beatings and other inhumane acts at the hands of Mugabe’s brutal police the opposition movement may have succeed in drawing world attention and possibly action to the Zimbabwe problem.
Such international attention will undoubtedly inspire and stimulate greater participation and enthusiasm in acts of civil disobedience by the mass public in Zimbabwe. And for the first time in his life Mugabe faces a real mass uprising that, according to his own security chiefs, could unseat him.
But what do acts of civil disobedience involve? There is a wide variety of actions people could individually or in small groups do that could add up to a real mass uprising.
One potentially effective strategy in confronting Mugabe would be to instill fear in the police thugs and other members of Mugabe’s security network.
These are the people who physically assault innocent civilians. They are also involved in all kinds of crimes against humanity.
When Mugabe’s thugs engage in these brutal acts they do so in groups of fully armed police or soldiers or youth militia thugs. But at the end of the day they all retreat as individuals to their homes which are spread out among homes of the very same people they torture, kill, maim or rape.
Do the thugs’ families, relatives, friends or neighbors know that when these thugs are away from home they commit some of the most heinous crimes against innocent civilians ? Do they know that a member of their community or family nearly killed Tsvangirayi? Do they also know that as Tsvangirayi and his colleagues lay helpless and bleeding profusely the victims were denied medical assistance? Do they know that a member of their community or family killed an innocent young man in cold blood?
The strategy here for the citizens would be to identify the police officers and army thugs who perpetrated those crimes and expose them to their relatives, friends and community. Some of the brutal thugs are apprehensive about their activities being known to their relatives, families and community in which they live.
There is, of course, always the danger that, in naming and shaming them, some of these army and police thugs could fall victims to instant justices from the enraged public, exacerbating a new spiral of violence and revenge killings.
But there is a redeeming element in the objectives of naming and shaming. It could prove an effective deterrent to any other police or army thugs contemplating torturing innocent civilians. Naming and shaming could save hundreds of police and army individuals from what could happen to them once Mugabe becomes history, a reality that could happen any day.
It will give them a chance to atone, mend their ways and become the professional police officers and soldiers that the public expects them to be.
ENDS