Poor Zim

I can't express how disappointed I am with the situation in Zimbabwe. There seemed for a brief moment in December the possibility that Zim would get a fresh start and a new leader. While it isn't surprising that Mugabe and company are holding onto power, something I expect they'll try even after he dies, it is so disheartening to see how poorly Mbeki, president of South Africa and mediator for this process, is handling it. For so long, African nations have sought to solve their own problems. Often, it is African Union troops on peacekeeping missions, and leaders from Africa are chosen as mediators. With the history of colonization, I completely understand this desire.

While I support empowerment, with it comes responsibility. If you want the role of fixing the problems in your family, you need to show that you can actually do it. Of course there will be times when it turns out that the African Union will not have the resources to have a peacekeeping mission that meets the needs of the situation. In those instances, the African Union can ask for UN support (as in Darfur). But this is wholly different.

What Mbeki is showing, by his refusal to criticize Mugabe, is that Africa will not stand up against dictators, that it does not support the rule of law or full democratic rights. And worse, he is showing that he, the president of the most powerful country in Africa, is unable to solve problems that arise in Africa. He is making it that much harder for the next person to claim that Africa can and should solve its own problems. (Although it is good to see Mwanawasa in Zambia taking a stand against Mugabe.)

True, to be fair, I should also get into the debate about the limits of sovereignty. The answer though is that there are limits to sovereignty. And those limits need to be when human rights or the rule of law are violated. Otherwise, one shouldn't pretend that they live by those standards. Those standards have to rise above all else.

I have no hope that this situation will resolve itself in any satisfactory way. Mugabe has no incentive to give anything up. He can resist the international community and Mbeki is preventing strong reactions form inside Africa. The worst part of this is that the people of Zimbabwe aren't just suffering from lack of suffrage, but their economy is a complete mess with high unemployment and inflation. They need new leadership now more than ever.