Intimidation

The run-up to the presidential elections has been as horrendous as many people feared it would be. Zanu are using the most brutal intimidation to hold on to power. Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe is parading peacock-like in the Rome meeting utterly defiant in his incompetence. He has become a brutal monster. Now 4 million people rely on food aid in Zimbabwe. Yet Mugabe keeps on with the tired old rhetoric about the UK and our co-conspirators doing evil to Zimbabwe.

Today has brought three conversations on Zimbabwe:

The first was with a Zimbabwean national now working in the UK. I will call him 'Tsingi' (that is not his real name). Tsingi believes that the only way out of the crisis is by military intervention to ensure that free and fair elections are held. That is the minimum option in his view. But there seems very little prospect of that materialising either by concerned action by local nations, or by concerted action by the UN. To those liberals in the UK who are squeamish about military intervention I would simply point out that this is his view, and he is a well educated professional man working in the UK in a respected role. Personally I doubt whether the UK have sufficient military resources to mount this kind of enterprise. It would be an unthinkable operation without the support of South Africa. South Africa are as quiet as ever.

The second was with a friend. He had heard that an MDC supporter has had his tongue cut out, his eyes gouged out and finally he has been beaten to death for his opposition to Zanu. If so, let no-one be in any doubt about the true character of Zanu.

One interesting development may come from the backlash for the beating of UK and US diplomats on the road out of Harare. I doubt the UK will do much about that, but I heard on Friday that Condoleeza Rice is seeking to make representations to the UN in New York about that incident. I personally doubt that was done on the orders of Robert Mugabe, but it is possible it may be an event that he yet will come to regret.