Tsvangirai+blood+could+save+Zimbabwe,+Editorial,+Sunday+Independent

Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, March 18, 2007 //Edition 1//
=Tsvangirai's blood could save Zimbabwe=


 * Editorial**

The brutal assault by Zimbabwean police on Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai may bring the country's crisis to a head and offer, ironically, an opportunity to resolve it.

In apparent retaliation, opposition supporters torched police barracks a few days later, seriously injuring two policemen. There are signs that the long-suffering Zimbabwean people have finally had enough of President Robert Mugabe.

He, though, is predictably defiant, ready to declare a state of emergency and to meet force with greater force. A downward spiral of violence looms.

Yet, Mugabe's violence is a sign of weakness. Inside the ruling Zanu-PF party there is growing resistance to his plans to extend his tenure beyond next year and even his fellow leaders in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are showing signs of impatience with him.

This may be their chance at last to use the decisive influence that they have conspicuously failed to exert for the past seven years.

Tanzania, Namibia and Lesotho, who constitute the troika of the SADC's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, which is responsible for maintaining regional security, have agreed to meet on March 26 and 27 in Dar es Salaam to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis.

The regional leaders must seize this opportunity to forge a truce between Mugabe and his opponents, and to insist they sit down and negotiate a way out of the crisis.

That will probably entail the two sides forming a broad-based government of national unity or some other impartial authority to prepare the country for free, fair and credible presidential and parliamentary elections - perhaps next year.

And, it almost goes without saying, Mugabe cannot be a candidate in those elections. He has become the central problem in the Zimbabwe mess and the first step on the road to recovery must be his retirement.

Only a multiparty authority will enjoy the internal and external confidence that is desperately needed to rescue the country. Without it, the internal opposition will become more violent and the external financial support that the country now desperately needs will stay away.

This week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu rightly condemned African leaders for their failure even to condemn, let alone influence, Mugabe. "We Africans should hang our heads in shame," he said.

The growing crisis in Zimbabwe has now presented those leaders - including, notably, President Thabo Mbeki - with an opportunity to redeem themselves. They must seize it or forever stand condemned as Bad Samaritans who crossed to the other side of the road and allowed Zimbabwe to die.


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3737104**

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