Creepimg Genocide

Is it not amazing that the world is still standing by, wringing it's hands and actually doing nothing.. whilst people in Zimbabwe are slowly being "eliminated"?

The MDC are quite correct in their stance to hold out over real power sharing. And they need to have control of the Police. Sadly, still now, relatively little pressure is being applied to Mugabe and ZANU-pf. And all the while that they are prevaricating, people (particularly the ruling MDC supporters) are starving to death or dying from cholera and many other things besides.

I often take news headlines with a pinch of salt - for instance, whilst they report widely on the deaths from causes such as starvation and disease brought on by infrastructural collapse, what about the people who are being turned away from hospitals and dying from "normal" diseases, because there are no doctors or drugs? What about people who are injured in road/domestic/occupational accidents? I would imagine that, in a pure statistical format, the number of these deaths is far greater than the cholera deaths and starvation deaths.. at the moment anyway. Of course, whilst Mugabe continues to cling desperately to power the situation will continue to deteriorate.. and more people will die.

And where does the blame for all this lie? It will take the setting up of a special section of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to concentrate solely on investigating all the murders, assaults, rapes, ZANU-pf sanctioned thefts, corruption and many other abuses of office and derelictions of duty. And it would take this section a not inconsiderable time to investigate all of this. And external help will be needed. Whilst much of modern day forensic work originated in Zimbabwe (A surprising but true fact - read CRIME SCIENTIST by John Thompson) - I would doubt that the current forensic labs will have the capability to recover and analyse DNA evidence.. or much else. And many experts who used to serve, particularly in Ballistics, will have to be recalled for service again. A very sad state of affairs, but like everything else, the ZANU-pf government inherited these institutions when they were cutting edge (the FBI used the ballistics lab in Harare on occasion because of their renowned expertise).

And at the end of the day, how much actual prosecution will be actually achieved as, with the passage of time, much factual evidence will be lost. Also, it begs the question.. who was behind it all? Was it Mugabe himself? Was it the JOC? was it individuals? Or was it all of them?

It will take one massive and intricate investigation and, I suspect, when this investigation takes place, vast fortunes will be recovered, which they must be and the money used for redevelopment and infrastructural repair. It will be interesting to see the reaction of those who have stolen so much when they lose it all!

And it will take a very organised prosecutor who is extremely diligent and thorough to bring these cases successfully to court. And the judiciary will need to be purged of political elements (although this may be easily achieved as most of them are accused persons themselves!).

Make no error, the task before everyone is gargantuan. But certainly worth doing. It is time though, for Mugabe and ZANU-pf, to be put under sufficient pressure to adhere to the terms and spirit of the agreement. They are holding out desperately because they know that once the power sharing agreement takes effect and the balance of power shifts out of their hands and into the hands of Zimbabweans.. the end will be at hand. So I do not expect them to go easily or quietly, but go they must. And the sooner the better and it is high time that the international community started putting real pressure on the African heads of state and the SADC to make it happen quickly.

Later.