Letters

EDITOR – The international community and Zimbabweans must bear in mind that if they allow Mugabe to stand, what stops this from happening every five years? Now that they see that the UN, AU and SADC produce only empty rhetoric, they will perfect this

system. They will force people to vote for Zanu (PF) candidates, there will be pungwes

before each election, women will be raped and AIDS and HIV will spread.

Each time they lose an election, they will order their puppet ZEC to doctor results. Tsvangirai won an absolute majority on March 29. Then ZESN’s attempt to be professional in a non-professional environment gave the military a way out. They

took the lower margin of ZESN and publicised it to make the world believe that Tsvangirai polled less than 51 percent. They did not mention the upper projection of 51 percent. ZESN should have known better. They provided the military with a tool to

kill democracy.

If the SADC, AU and UN let this coup succeed, it will set an example to other despots in Africa and other developing countries. It will prolong Zimbabweans suffering. The time to act is now, to say enough is enough. We want justice, if not then give us guns to free ourselves. I am one of the real war veterans ready to go back to the bush to liberate the people this time against a brutal black African regime. If this is what the UN wants, let it say so. That is what Thabo Mbeki wants, that we take up guns like ZANLA did. – ROPA REPANYADZONYA, by e-mail

We are doomed

EDITOR – The situation in this country is becoming worse and worse. I walked into a shop to buy bread and the shop was empty. What is to become of this country? We are being beaten or threatened that if we don’t vote, our homes will be seized. We need the UN security Council to impose sanctions. – CHALOOVA, by e-mail

Will Mbeki allow this?

EDITOR – Oh yes he will, indeed he has by endorsing the so-called `election`. RSA is marching swiftly & determinedly behind Zimbabwe, down the same slippery slope to destruction of the entire African continent. – ANON. by e-mail

 

Mandela is too late

EDITOR – Nelson Mandela, in his honorary doctorate acceptance speech at Galway University, spoke of not shirking from our responsibility to criticise our friends when they are making mistakes or involved in wrongdoing. In keeping with this principle, he condemned the war in Iraq, despite the assistance George Bush had given African leaders in setting up Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

Mandela expanded vociferously on these sentiments in the international media while maintaining complete silence about the disintegration of democracy and human rights under Mugabe’s regime. His brief reference in London last week to the violence in Zimbabwe and its “tragic failure of leadership” was shamefully restrained and belated. – LIAM QUAIDE, by e-mail

Time to get Tough

EDITOR – We are setting dangerous precedents. Zimbabwe has been through a questionable process of electing its president, which most see as a fraud. Many have suggested they will not recognise the election, the European Union will not rule out sanctions, and there is a lot of condemnation echoing around the corridors of foreign power.

Nobody is actually doing anything. Everyone seems to be resigned to an African solution. Even Morgan Tsvangirai is suggesting the need for AU intervention, but he should well know that Africa is weak. It is divided between the ‘dirty fingered’ hawks of African oppression and the few doves of African democracy.

The general consensus appears to be negotiations. It is difficult to perceive how the opposing parties can negotiate. Of course Mugabe can guarantee to negotiate; now he is back on the throne.

Tsvangirai is capitulating by suggesting that Mugabe could possibly stay on as ‘titular’ head of state. This would, of course, be a ‘copy cat’ of the Kenyan solution. Most might not want to remember, of course, that Zimbabwe is an innovator of national unity. We all know what happened to the Mugabe/Nkomo unity accord – Nkomo was duped politically and 20,000 of his supporters were eventually slaughtered on the killing fields of Matabeleland.

Regrettably, to ensure free and fair elections, we will first need physical intervention, a political and trade embargo by SADC and the AU, followed by peace keeper intervention.

It’s time to get tough, to create a landmark in African history, and ensure democracy has a prominent home in Africa. – ANON., by e-mail

Never free and fair

EDITOR – Can we recognise June 27 presidential election as free and fair? People voted to protect themselves from torture. Some of the youths don’t even have a national identity card. Now the elections are over tavakunotenga ma bar esipo tese nema 80 billion. Those who used them to beat other fellow Zimbos are now seated in comfortable pews enjoying themselves ivo vachitamba nhamo. – ADEGREE MURWIRA, by e-mail