Crackdown Begins

Posted on April 3rd, 2008 Daniel Adams 1 comment  Print This Post

The Washington Post recently posted a story detailing what appears to be the beginnings of Mugabe’s post-election crackdown. The money quotes from the lede:

President Robert Mugabe’s government raided the offices of the main opposition movement and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous indication that he may use intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.

Police raided a hotel used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists, and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.

It looks like it is on. Although it seemed that there may have been some small hope about Mugabe walking away given the latest reports, that hope was always fleeting. It isn’t in Mugabe’s character to be strong armed out of a country. To stay and fight, he must be fairly confident that he has enough of the security apparatus behind him to force the result he wants.

At this point, there is little the U.S. or many countries besides those that surround Zimbabwe can do. If there is hope for a transition, moves must come from either South Africa and part of the Zimbabwean security services. If there is not a split in the regime, there is almost no hope for a peaceful end to this. Good luck to everyone inside Zimbabwe – may this struggle soon be over and your country cleansed of Mugabe.