Terrorism bill aimed at MDC

nternational terrorists, we would all applaud it.

But Zimbabwe, which has documented ties with leading Al-quaeda members, is not serious about international terrorism. In fact, the government itself has been involved in committing acts of terror by bombing the premises of independent media organisations. No serious attempt to bring the culprits to book has ever been made.

Countless supporters of the opposition have been beaten, tortured and killed by government agents and party cadres and nothing has happened to the perpetrators of these crimes. Indeed, most of them continue to serve in the security forces where they enjoy official protection.

The real intention of this new law, as we see it, is to hamstring the political opposition in the country. The government is obviously alarmed at the growing anger among the people and the opposition MDC’s determination to commence widespread mass action to remove it once and for all.

Zimbabwe is not under threat from terrorists anywhere. No foreign armies are poised to attack Zimbabwe – despite the aging tyrant’s hallucinations about an imminent British invasion, which have seen him presiding over a ‘war cabinet’ since 2003.

The only ‘wars’ in which Zimbabwean soldiers have been involved since Independence have been the genocide in Matabeleland and various misadventures in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that the Zanu (PF) regime does not accept normal political contest. Instead of curbing its excesses and working on viable strategies to improve the lot of the people, the reigning geriatric oligarchy desperately tries to put an ever-heavier lid on the boiling pot.

This may have worked until now, but as every dictatorship in the past can testify – it does not work forever.