Britain: Zimbabwe's Mugabe no longer legitimate

[Elidor]

Source: AP

By JILL LAWLESS – 2 hours ago

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe should no longer be recognized as the country's legitimate leader, branding him the head of a regime holding power though violence.

Brown urged the United Nations, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to convene to resolve the country's difficulties. Britain was the former colonial ruler there.

<snip>

Brown said the European Union will impose travel bans and financial sanctions on the "inner circle of the criminal cabal running the regime."

"The current government, with no parliamentary majority, having lost the first round of the presidential elections and holding power only because of violence and intimidation, is a regime that should not be recognized by anyone," he said.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j5bO3sM99-gAtZnnCH2sKFblulpAD91G1KQO0

---

Situation deteriorating.

[magbana]

1. Gordon Brown, the BBC, and George Bush should . . .

shut up about Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangerai should consider himself incredibly lucky to not have been convicted of treason for having been caught on videotape a few years back taking money from "westerners" that would go to pay someone to assassinate Robert Mugabe. Former colonial powers just can't help behaving like, well, colonial powers!

[Spouting Horn]

2. Maybe Western countries

should mind their own business and stay the hell out of Africa...including aid money.

Mugabe should have been dismissed for the murderous property stealing thug he proved himself to be years ago.

[magbana]

8. Difficult to steal your own land, isn't it?

You need to read the Lancaster agreement -- google it!

[Elidor]

3. Colonial powers? Gee, that's one of Mugabe's talking points

No impartial bystander, you.

Obviously, the head of a government participating in the occupation of Iraq does not hold the moral high ground, but saying that Tsvangerai is just as much of a thug as Mugabe is rather beside the point: he's still a thug.

[magbana]

9. Colonial powers - I believe this is an accurate description

of Britain's former relationship with Zimbabwe.

I don't think Robert Mugabe is a thug, I think he is a freedom fighter. But,yes, , Tsvangerai is a thug, a traitor and totally on the payroll of the National Endowment for Democracy courtesy of your and my tax dollars.

[Rage for Order]

16. Freedom fighter? You are fu**ing delusional.

And a nutjob of the highest order. Are you related to Mugabe, or in his employ? I can't imagine anyone beyond that small group of people attempting to defend that shitbag.

[Posteritatis]

18. Remember, if someone dislikes "the West" they're a Glorious Hero Of The People these days. (nt)

[Nihil]

22. Well said! (n/t)

:crazy:

[conspirator]

27. I am delusional too. I think Zimbabwe is no business of UK.

Does Gordon Brown have the balls to say the same thing about china or north korea or pakistan???? No way jose. How many people are exterminated in china for political reasons. Are elections in china fair? Which western leader has said that china's government is not legitimate?
No one. Must be because of the nukes. These western leaders are so brave.

[Zynx]

34. Sometimes you have to pick the battles you can win.

Also, I don't subscribe to the idea that what goes on in a country is no business of the rest of the world. By the same standard, spousal abuse is no concern of the local community.

[Mike Daniels]

23. Oh goody. I so missed the mind bending logic of the Mugabe supporters on DU

Be honest, if Mugabe wasn't "sticking it to the man" you would probably be demanding that the UN get involved or asking the Hague to start clearing some space for the long-overdue human rights violation trial.

[BreweryYardRat]

29. Enjoy your place on my ignore list.

"Too many people do not realize that the enemy of their enemy is not necessarily a friend."

Buh-bye!

[Hugabear]

43. You gotta love it when idiots identify themselves - n/t

n/t

[Seeking Serenity]

30. Mugabe's a freedom fighter all right.

Fighting freedom at every turn.

(RIP George Carlin)

[LeftishBrit]

36. Mugabe was a freedom fighter over 30 years ago; now he's a thug.

Zimbabwe stopped being a British colony in the 70s. Mugabe is now the one who is oppressing and stealing from his own people.

'Tsvangirai is a traitor' - to whom? You think that opposing Mugabe is treason? I didn't think this was 'Dictators Underground!'

I think colonialism was a very evil and destructive thing; and helped to create the climate in which someone like Mugabe could flourish; but nonetheless HE has direct responsibility for his own evil actions.

[truebrit71]

45. ..and I think you're fucked in the head....

...he is a murdering fucking psychopath, and the fact that you are on DU defending him blows my fucking mind....

[Marrah_G]

48. Wow..... just wow............

I have no words to properly express what I feel about your post that would not end up deleted.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. don't try to reason with post-colonialists

The Democratic Underground Robert Mugabe Fan Club is as heart breaking an example of mental illness as can be found anywhere.

[rooboy]

5. An interesting spin on a discredited story...

there was NEVER any video of Tsvangerai planning to assassinate Mugabe. It was a pretty shabby attempt to frame him, and predictably Tsvangerai was exonerated and the charges against all the other accused were dropped.

[magbana]

11. That videotape was the real deal . .

and the money to pay the mercenaries to do the deed was, like most of the money given to the MDC, labeled for "civil society" and "opposition" all part of the democracy promotion programs from Britian and US.

[11cents]

20. Um, no. It wasn't. Doesn't matter how many times you insist otherwise.

I'm glad to see others here are more well-informed than you are.

Silliness is disgusting when it's in defense of the murder of innocents.

[Zynx]

33. What the hell went wrong in your head? You would have defended Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong

in the same way I bet.

[Nye Bevan]

10. Yes. Mugabe is a great guy. Everyone should "shut up" about stuff like this.

The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district. His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed.

An hour later they were back. They grabbed Mrs Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet. Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window.

The killing last Friday – one of the most grotesque atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe’s regime since independence in 1980 – was carried out on a wave of worsening brutality before the run-off presidential elections in just over two weeks. It echoed the activities of Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader in the Sierra Leone civil war that ended in 2002, whose trade-mark was to chop off hands and feet.

Mrs Chipiro, 45, a former pre-school teacher, was the second wife of a junior official of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) burnt alive last Friday by Zanu (PF) militiamen. Pamela Pasvani, the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare, did not suffer mutilation but died later of her burns; his six-year-old son perished in the flames.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4116638.ece

[magbana]

13. I agree with you . .

tell the whole story.

[Hugabear]

17. Why don't you enlighten us, since you obviously enjoy defending Mugabe so much

Tell us what a horrible person this Mrs. Chipirio was, that she deserved this treatment. Tell us what a traitor she was, how she was somehow conspiring with Western colonial powers, how she was planning to assassinate Mugabe.

Never did I think that I would see someone here on DU actually defending that piece of scum.

[Zynx]

31. It's easy to support Mugabe if you believe everything he says.

I hope you one day realize just how foolish you are.

[mainegreen]

35. Wrong.

Other's here have dealt with you.

Bye.

[Carnea]

41. Bob is that you... missed you at the wine tasting in Italy...

How are the rape camps going.... I talked to my friend and he said you need new stock every three days or the smell takes away from the pleasure.... He used to feed the old girls to the political prisoners but he always had that cannibalism fetish unlike you and that fire thing you like.... cutting off hands and setting on fire? While your a regular ANC footballer Bob....

Let me now when you visiting your savings in Geneva and we'll do lunch.

[truebrit71]

44. Wow...you're a fucking idiot...

...fuck robert mugabe and ANYONE that supports him...

You must be out of your tiny fucking mind to type stupid horsehit like that...

[bluesmail]

4. He really fucked up.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. And in other breaking news... the Monarch is a woman!

Crimeny, has Mugabe ever been anything but "head of a regime holding power through violence?" :eyes:

[DRoseDARs]

7. Thanks for joining us ... in the 1980's. Erm, duh? Mugabe's violence has been going for 30 years. nt

[magbana]

14. If you don't get it, you don't get it . . .

meanwhile, I gotta get back to the revolution. It's been fun!

[11cents]

21. We get it. You're a child.

Now it's time for you to free your hand from the keyboard and apply it elsewhere while imaging you were one of those mighty "cadres" who got to kill that woman. Happy revolutions!

[Zynx]

32. How about you go to Zimbabwe and tell Robert Mugabe in person things

aren't going well in his country? See what he does to you.

[Throd]

37. Are you a member of the Kim Jong Il fan club as well?

Kim is way cool 'cuz he, like, hates the West too.

[Nye Bevan]

39. Not sure about Kim Jong Il

But this poster refers to Castro as Comrade Fidel.

[Zynx]

42. They're probably some pampered pseudo-intellectual with a limited knowledge of history

but three bucket fulls of ideology.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

15. Considering Mugabe is 84 years old

it's incredible to me that he still has such a grip on power and can render such destruction and inhumanity in his remaining days which are hopefully numbered.

[Posteritatis]

19. He's got increasingly less to lose, I guess (nt)

[Nye Bevan]

24. "They took barbed wire and tied his genitals to a log"

Killed for Owning a Radio: the Death of Joseph Madzuramhende

The relatives of Joseph Madzuramhende, one of the three men who died on
May 5, told Human Rights Watch about how he was beaten and tortured.
According to relatives who witnessed the beating, when the six ZANU-PF
youth started beating Madzuramhende they made him lie on his stomach like
the others but later turned him onto his back, and stuffed a cloth in his mouth
to prevent him from shouting out. They allegedly said to him: “Your particular
crime is that you have a radio at your place and other villagers were coming to
your home to listen to Studio 7 (Voice of America program which airs in
Zimbabwe) and to listen to election results and this is your crime.”

They took barbed wire and tied his genitals and tied the other end of the wire
to a log. They said: “We will beat you until you move the log with your penis.”
He attempted to do so and the wire was cutting into his genitals as they
continued to beat him. They then took another log, put his genitals on the log
and begun to beat the genitals. Later they tied another wire around his
genitals and started dragging him until a part of his genitals came off. After
the beatings Madzuramhende’s relatives put him on an ox cart. He was still
talking. He died in his home at around 8 p.m. that night in a leaning position
because he couldn’t lie on his stomach or his back due to his injuries.

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/zimbabwe0608/zimbabwe0608web.pdf

[Hugabear]

25. Hey, the motherfucker probably deserved what he got

For all we know, he might have said something bad about Mugabe. :sarcasm:

How anyone here on DU can defend that monster is beyond me.

[Seeking Serenity]

26. Mugabe's anti-West, and for some people, that's good enough.

To me, that's merely the mirror image of people supporting right-wing thugs simply because they were anti-communist, irrespective of any other consideration.

[cobalt1999]

28. If the Republicans did a fraction of the this this guy does...

the exact same Mugabe defenders would be in a apoplectic fit of rage.

That's why I have no respect for any Mugabe defender.

[LeftishBrit]

38. I agree with you completely!

[LeftishBrit]

40. Mubabe is a psychopath and is destroying his country.

[FarrenH]

46. South African checking in

to the scum defending Mugabe:

Come tell your filthy lies to the 4 million Zimbabwean refugees in my country, or the million in neighbouring Botswana. Tell it to the desperate Zimbabwean handyman who's wife's medical bills I paid last month, as well as helping him out with some cash for a new place after his shack was burned down by xenophobic mobs of poor South Africans who can no longer cope with masses of refugees in their midst. Tell it to the many female children who were raped or abused in other ways during that violence, fleeing desperate conditions at home only to find South Africa almost as inhospitable, because our contemptable president thinks whispering sweet nothings in the ears of dictators is effective diplomacy.

Mugabe and his thugs lost the election. They lost an election in which close to 5 million anti-Mugabe Zimbaweans did not vote on account of not wanting to return to Zimbabwe. Zanu-PF are torturing, raping and killing their opponents in the most barbaric manner imaginable, on a grand scale. THEY ARE NOT EVEN A LEGITIMATELY ELECTED GOVERNMENT.

The large majority of Zimbabweans want the MDC to rule the country, a fact that was verified by the entirely ZANU-PF staffed Zimbabwean electoral commission, after lengthy delays and attempts at election rigging, as well as independent election monitors. There is no alternative view, no Western conspiracy, no foreign culpability in the present carnage (other than unconscionable political cover for Mugabe from my own government and military support from the Chinese).

There is only a reign of terror being conducted by power mad ZANU-PF scum who have lost a popular election and now simply refuse to give up power, happening in full view of the entire world.

How. Fucking. Dare you.

Calling the MDC thugs and praising Mugabe is no different from supporting Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot at this point in time. You are flat out lying about the democratically elected and legitimate government of Zimbabwe and shilling for an antidemocratic dictator, a mass murderer and torturer. You disgust me.

Its difficult for me to believe magbana is anything other than Mugabe's paid agent or a member of the dwindling ranks of racist pan-African black nationalists with a tenuous grasp of reality that lurk on the fringes of South African politics. If he/she is a nominally Democratic member of DU in good standing, I must suggest that he/she has crossed a line past which one can no longer be considered democratic at all (small d or big D), cannot possibly be considered liberal and can only claim the label "left" in the most Stalinist sense of the word. Skinner, please ban this person.

[dorkulon]

47. Well said.

I suppose he thinks Saddam was great guy too. Anyone who incurs the wrath of the evil West must be a hero of the oppressed, right?