Rape in Zimbabwe

It seems the ZANU-PF have set up a series of camps around Zimbabwe that "provide a base from which to burn houses, displace people and beat, maim or kill opposition activists" on which, in addition, large numbers of women are being held captive as slaves and frequently raped.

The hopeful side of the LA Times's very bleak account is the suggestion that the government may actually be running out of the necessary cash to keep all its goon squads in operation. Still, even if something happens to force Mugabe from power, one has to think that a lot of these folks in his militias aren't necessarily going to give up their own appetite for robbery, rape, mayhem, etc. no matter what happens at the top.

Comments

The Washington Post reported this weekend that the military was behind the bases and the goons used in the recent violence, which surpasses the awful work done by Mugabe's thugs in the past. This makes me think that if they run out of money, they'll print more.

Posted by Tyrone Slothrop | July 7, 2008 1:57 PM

It could become very difficult for them to even print more money:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/will-sanctions.html

Posted by mike | July 7, 2008 2:13 PM

At least there's good news. Leaders have finally figured out that an obvious problem is a problem. Mugabe is going to receive a stern letter from the G-8. In boldface font.

Posted by Matthew | July 7, 2008 2:19 PM

Yeah it's bad but at least Mugabe's not as bad as Pol Pot.

Imagine if some compared Mugabe to Pol Pot, that would be scandalous!

As long as South Africa and China keep up their economic links, I don't see the militias running out of money. And sanctions would just make the wider populace even more miserable, as it did in Iraq.

Posted by Peter K. | July 7, 2008 2:19 PM

It could become very difficult for them to even print more money.

I keep forgetting which emoticon makes clear your tongue is in your cheek.

Chris Hedges' excellent book, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, is very good at explaining how many conflicts are driven by the interests of parties who stand to profit from the fighting, even though many more people stand to lose much more. I would surprised if there weren't influential people in Zimbabwe profiting from the misery there. And then there's the interest the military and others have in retaining power. The WaPo article I mentioned earlier starts by describing how the military insisted on holding power even when Mugabe was ready to step down:

President Robert Mugabe summoned his top security officials to a government training center near his rural home in central Zimbabwe on the afternoon of March 30. In a voice barely audible at first, he informed the leaders of the state security apparatus that had enforced his rule for 28 years that he had lost the presidential vote held the previous day.

Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up power in a televised speech to the nation the next day, according to the written notes of one participant that were corroborated by two other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

But Zimbabwe's military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.

Posted by Tyrone Slothrop | July 7, 2008 2:31 PM

For far too many years I had been hoping that old age would take Mugabe, but no, he's one of these monsters just too mean to die.

Posted by El Cid | July 7, 2008 2:57 PM

Inflation may starve his troops of money because the price of paper is becoming worth so much more than the actual money it becomes. However, that will probably just mean Zanu-PF thugs will just resort to stealing even more food from a starving populace. When it comes right down to it, the only real way to deal with it is probably to kill off Mugabe, but nobody wants to have that on their hands or have to clean up the mess.

Posted by Reality Man | July 7, 2008 3:35 PM

When it comes right down to it, the only real way to deal with it is probably to kill off Mugabe, but nobody wants to have that on their hands or have to clean up the mess.

Since the military is even less willing than Mugabe to cede power, killing Mugabe likely wouldn't change much.

Posted by Tyrone Slothrop | July 7, 2008 4:11 PM

Well, it shows just how pussified Euros have become and how impotent their "Soft Power" is. Their courts, the Human Rights Lawyer Community that is about half Euroweenie Leftist, half American Jewish Leftists - all useless.

The US now thoroughly sick of being the world's "rescuers" then pilloried for it and it's troops assaulted by pompous lawyers in craven, cowardly countries threatening to issue indictments.

So we are more or less OK with black Africans killing black Africans and doing nothing about it. Rwanda, Liberia, Sudan, Congo, Zimbabwe? Have a ball, savages!

Posted by chris ford | July 7, 2008 10:39 PM

I personally don't give a shit.

But if anybody wants to give me, oh, say, five hundred million in advance, I'll "arrange" for Mugabe and his military to drop dead.

No deal? Guess you don't care that much.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 7, 2008 11:04 PM

Chris Ford is right. Let's blow the sh*t out of 'em and see what happens, and if it happens to result in the collapse of the entire society and a refugee problem in the tens of millions within days to the neighbors, f*** 'em, we don't give a sh*t about consequences, let's just show 'em who's rootin' and tootin'! After all, it's been shown to be mathematically impossible to make an awful situation worse, so, what the hell, let's show them g** d*** Frenchified f***ots what we Confederates for Black African Rights can do!

Posted by El Cid | July 7, 2008 11:30 PM

Oh, and RSH, can you please maybe limit the "Hey, if y'all ain't willing to give me $$ XXX Million / Billion to perform Awesome Commando Task Z, you don't give a damn" to maybe twice a year?

Posted by El Cid | July 7, 2008 11:35 PM

El Cid: No.

The point is that Matt and the rest of you think there's some particular set of actions that have to be taken to deal with these sorts of circumstances. And that is, send in the US Army - or don't send in the US Army and let everybody die anyway.

Which is never true. It's merely a lack of imagination.

The other point is: why is Matt posting about this when nobody here OR in the US government OR the international community is going to do jack shit about it - unless there's some oil to be had or some other profit to be made? And Matt himself doesn't give a shit.

I'm merely pointing out that there are alternative solutions to these events if somebody is willing to pay for them.

And if you aren't willing to pay for them or consider them, then STFU. I really don't give a damn about "concern trolls" who don't give a damn themselves, but just want to establish themselves as "more moral" than me by posting anguished crap about various chimpanzees killing each other.

Either do something about it or shut up. To wit:

We've got another major fucking war - the biggest military disaster in US history - coming up in Iran - which is likely to cost the US trillions of dollars, thousands of dead US troops (far more than Iraq) and result in the deaths of perhaps millions of Iranians and other nations citizens and destabilize not just part of the Middle East, but ALL of it. And Matt can't be bothered to discuss the Iran blockade resolution. But he can be bothered to complain about how bad a bunch of tribal assholes are in Zimbabwe.

What's wrong with this picture?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 8, 2008 12:10 AM

I eagerly await the day that Mugabe's soldiers go on strike and refuse to do any more raping until they get paid.

Posted by Shochu John | July 8, 2008 12:15 AM

But if anybody wants to give me, oh, say, five hundred million in advance, I'll "arrange" for Mugabe and his military to drop dead.

No deal? Guess you don't care that much.

Why don't you do it anyway and ask for donations afterwards? I'm sure a lot of people would chip in. Lots of Zimbabweans, for a start.

No deal? Guess you don't care that much either.

Posted by ajay | July 8, 2008 5:44 AM