Mugabe: Last of the ‘Big Men’
The flickering hope that elections would force Robert Mugabe from power died this weekend in a campaign of state-organized terror that forced opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai out of this Friday’s runoff. So an African dinosaur – the tyrant willing to destroy his country in the service of his vanity – will live on in Zimbabwe.
How much longer only God or, perhaps, Zimbabwe’s neighbors know. Mr. Mugabe may be a dying breed, but he is all too able to kill and harass the democratic opposition. Outside intervention, preferably by the Africans themselves, now appears the one remaining way to end this nightmare.
Mr. Tsvangirai won the first election round in late March – even by the regime’s own tally – and another strong showing would have put the Mugabe regime on the spot. Mr. Mugabe will now “win” by default, extending his 28-year rule. Mr. Tsvangirai explained that he couldn’t rally his supporters to the polls when “that vote will cost them their lives.” At least 86 opposition activists and voters have been killed and thousands injured by Mugabe goon squads. In this atmosphere, Friday’s poll was, as Mr. Tsvangirai said, a “violent illegitimate sham.”