Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Agenzia Fides) – It is not so much the requests from leaders of various important nations (including in Africa) that he let go of the reigns, as it is the alarming signs coming from the army, that worry Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
The Presidents of the United States (George W. Bush) and France (Nicolas Sarkozy), and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain (Gordon Brown) and Kenya (Raila Odinga) have all asked Mugabe to step down, in order for the country to recover from its grave economic, political, social, and health crisis that is worsening every day. The Kenyan Premier has even proposed sending in UN and African Union troops to Zimbabwe, to aid the population suffering from a cholera epidemic.
The Information Minister of Zimbabwe, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, has rejected Odinga's proposal and has stated that “the cholera situation is under control” because the country has chemical means for purifying the water and the money to buy new water tubing systems.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of deaths has been at least 746 and the cases of those infected with the virus is at 15,572. The WHO affirms that if the epidemic is not soon placed under control, the number of victims could reach 60,000, in Zimbabwe alone. The epidemic is also threatening to spread to the neighboring countries, from South Africa to Mozambique, and even Malawi.
It is a dramatic situation that does not seem to make President Mugabe and his cohorts backdown, although they are concerned for the troubling signs coming from the army. After the violence that was carried out by hundreds of soldiers in downtown Harare (see Fides 2/12/2008), the regime is wondering how to face the growing discontent seen in the army, the police, and the security forces, the three organisms that serve as the main pillar of the regime, along with the presidential party ZANU-PF. In the absence of a formal government (as the executive branch of national union with the opposition, called for in the accords signed on September 15 was not well-balanced, for example in the case of the Interior Minister), Mugabe governs with the help of the Joint Operations Command (a group made up of high-ranking officials of the military, the police, and the secret service) and the Politburo ZANU-PF. However, there has been division within the JOC as to how to respond to the discontent of the military. According to the local press, there are two main sides: one is that held by the head of the Central Intelligence Organization, which proposes the line of dialogue with the soldiers involved in the most recent fighting; and the other, is a hardliner attitude held by people such as the Commander of the Armed Forces.
In the meantime, acts of intimidation and violence continue to take place against the opposition. Gandhi Mudzingwa, former personal assistant to Zimbabwean MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was kidnapped on December 8 by a group of armed men while he was driving in his car on the way to Harare. He is the 19th member of the opposition party to be kidnapped in mysterious circumstances in recent weeks. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 10/12/2008)
