The Times of London buries the lede somewhat in their look at political violence in Zimbabwe. They start off by recounting a horrifying story of how the baby of an opposition leader got maimed by goons in the employ of Robert Mugabe, but wait until several paragraphs to report that minutes of high-level meetings show he was directly involved in the creation of militias to conduct this violence across the country. Mugabe and his henchmen wanted to avoid having the military attack civilians directly, and instead unleashed thugs in their stead:
Technically, this does not qualify as genocide as it is not based on ethnicity or religion, but operationally it amounts to the same thing. They wanted to make millions homeless as a threat or a consequence to political opposition, and they hired goons to do it. The minutes prove beyond any doubt that the wave of political violence didn’t come from the MDC as Mugabe alleges, nor as a grassroots movement from fringe Mugabe supporters, but as a deliberate campaign of mass murder and ruthless intimidation.Leaked minutes of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which has orchestrated the violence since Mugabe lost a first round of voting in March, revealed that it is willing to wipe out opposition supporters.
A 10,000-strong youth militia loyal to the Zanu-PF has been created to enforce its wishes in case regular army units refuse, according to Zimbabwean human rights agencies.
“It’s a deliberate nationwide strategy to reoccupy space so all space is occupied by the Zanu of Mugabe,” said Jon Stewart, a director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum.
Minutes of one JOC meeting show that supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, “will all be internally displaced. The target number is two million supporters”.
Small wonder, then, that Mugabe sought to distract attention from his role as murderer-in-chief by asking Morgan Tsvangirai to attend his inauguration, which the MDC leader quickly refused:
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai rejected an olive branch offered by President Robert Mugabe on Sunday after a widely condemned election which African observers said was scarred by violence and intimidation. …
Tsvangirai rejected the invitation and said the inauguration was meaningless after an illegitimate poll. He said he would ask the African Union not to recognize Mugabe’s re-election.
Mugabe spokesman George Charamba told Reuters the invitation was “done in the spirit of the president’s wish to reach out … It is a major step towards political engagement.”
A baby boy had both legs broken by
supporters of President Robert Mugabe to
punish his father for being an opposition
councillor in Zimbabwe.
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