... and The Times is not helping.
The MDC's withdrawal from the run-off election plays right into Mugabe's hands. He never really wanted the run-off to take place anyway. That's why he delayed it well beyond the 3 weeks required by the constitution, in order to give his thugs more time to intimidate the opposition and rig the poll in Zanu-PF's favour. Now he doesn't even have to steal the election: he'll just run it and declare victory, or he won't run it and blame the MDC for giving up on 'Zimbabwean democracy'. According to John Simpson who is -- miraculously -- still in Zimbabwe, most people there don't even know that the MDC has pulled out, such is the blanket news ban of the opposition.
Sure, there is international outrage and clamour and even South Africa is finally speaking up (though notably it's ANC leader Jacob Zuma, and not President Thabo Mbeki ). But that will last a few days, a week at most. Thabo Mbeki will be glad when the election tumult recedes and the situation returns to 'normal' -- 'normal' being the continued rapacious hollowing-out of Zimbabwe's economy, population and soul. The tragedy rolls on....
So, Zimbabwe is f***ed anyway you look at it. But if you read the headlines in The Times of London on any given day you would think that Gordon Brown is about to ride in on a white horse and lop off Mugabe's head. Few organs of public opinion have given Mugabe as much ammunition as The 'colonialist' Times. Here is a sample of front-page headlines from the past week, including today's:
- "Outrage Over Investment in Zimbabwe"
- "Call for Military Intervention in Zimbabwe"
- "War Crimes Warning to Mugabe"
The Times wears its heart in the right place, but it's ludicrous exaggerations play right into Mugabe's hands by strengthening his only remaining justification for power -- that he is single-handedly fending off Britain's aggression.
Outrage? The only people the Times could drum up to complain about Anglo-American's proposed £200m investment in a Zimbabwean mine are LibDem spokesman Ed Davey and Business and Regulatory Reform Select Committee chairman Peter Luff, plus some mildly condemnatory statements from has-beens like William Hague, Peter Hain and David Milliband.
Call for military intervention? What a great pipe-dream, but the only meat to that article was a quote from LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown that "military intervention in Zimbabwe would be justified." True, but not exactly the sign of an imminent invasion (though Mugabe will certainly have spun it that way).
And if there was indeed an inkling of hope that Thabo Mbeki could negotiate an agreed departure for Mugabe, with a compromise government to follow, surely that idea was put paid by The Times (and Newsnight and others) calling for Mugabe's head in a War Crimes trial. Giving dictators paid lifetime beach holidays under immunity from prosecution offends me deeply, but if it can stop the misery and save lives it should be considered.
The Times lives in a colonialist la-la land, and one Mugabe has exploited well. Moral crusades are not the same as the journalistic search for truth. In a blog post today, Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein rails against the BBC's John Simpson for reporting the facts from the ground: that Tsvangirai has been effectively outmaneouvred by Mugabe. I share Finkenstein's dismay over the stolen election, but I can't help but feel that in political terms Simpson is summing up the truth, whether we like it or not.
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