Blood On Their Hands


Efforts to push through UN sanctions against Zimbabwe in the wake of massive abuses against those who had the courage to resist Robert Mugabe in the run-up to the June 27th presidential run-off election have failed. Here is the reason why:

Russia and China on Friday night vetoed United Nations sanctions against the Zimbabwe leadership, delivering a stinging blow to western efforts to turn the screw on President Robert Mugabe’s regime.

With their vetoes, they threw their weight behind the arguments of South Africa and a minority of council states that the political crisis should be resolved by African mediation between Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition.

A US-draft resolution had called for an arms embargo and travel and financial restrictions on Mr Mugabe and 13 other leaders of the regime. The resolution gained the requisite nine votes in the 15-member council but fell because two of the No votes came from veto-wielding Russia and China.

The collapse of the western-led initiative came after initial talks in South Africa between the ruling party, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and a breakaway faction of the MDC, hosted by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president.

Sanctions, of course can be an unreliable instrument of coercion and it is an open question as to how effective sanctions will be against a regime like Mugabe’s, which is so far into the economic gutter right now as to defy belief. But they nevertheless represented an opportunity to send as strong a signal as could be sent absent the introduction of troops that the world is outraged and appalled by what is currently going on in Zimbabwe.

So much for that opportunity. I hope that the Chinese and Russian leadership classes are proud of themselves. They have likely given Mugabe every indication that the world will be forced to turn a blind eye to his depredations.

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7 Comments Leave a comment

New faces, same old game

kowalski Sunday, July 13th at 6:26PM EDT (link)

And the fact that it is the same old game doesn’t make it any less brutal or murderous than it ever has been, and taking the Chinese and Russian leadership classes to task is a bit like urinating into the wind: this kind of thing has always been fun for them.

The real culpability in the United States should begin and end with some of the people who posted in the New York Times’ thread about the election in Zimbabwe before the opposition decided that it didn’t want to die to the last man, woman and child: their “get soft” recommendation for Mugabe had the predictable effect and emboldened him.

So what do you do with a guy like that? Sean Penn will get up and say that the United States should do something: unfortunately Sean Penn’s friends from Ridgemont High have already spoken, and the blood has already been spilled.

 

Give the current economic conditions

mbecker908 Sunday, July 13th at 6:26PM EDT (link)

in Zimbabwe, what possible difference could economic sanctions make. The UN is an utter joke, it is incapable of dealing with anything but the members zest for expensive NYC food, housing and hookers.

The solution to Mugabe costs less than $2.00. A match 308. There is no other solution, save doing nothing and watching the people of Zimbabwe alternately murder one another and starve to death.

 

What we should be doing

kowalski Sunday, July 13th at 6:30PM EDT (link)

In addition to articles like this, is hosting comments from Zimbabwe expatriates who would like to tell the world what a horror show their country has become under the leadership of Robert Mugabe and his friends in Russia and China.

Perhaps they should post a few comments to the New York Times, if they think they can pierce the ideological veil that surrounds the place when anyone discusses Zimbabwe.

Marxism is thicker than blood, always has been.

 

Of course, what has McCain said

kowalski Sunday, July 13th at 6:38PM EDT (link)

You can read what John McCain has said about Zimbabwe here:

The Robert Mugabe regime and its armed forces have created a vicious climate of fear in order to defy the will of the people and manipulate the outcome of the June 27 presidential run-off. I fully support the decision of Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to withdraw from the elections. I agree with the assessment of UN Secretary General Moon that “conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now.

That is an understatement. Human rights monitors have documents the killing of more than sixty opposition political activists, the beating and torture of 2,000 others, the displacement of tens of thousands, and the suspension of nongovernmental aid programs that provide nutrition to an already vulnerable population. These are the actions of a desperate regime that has lost all legitimacy.

I believe the international community must act to impose sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies and thereby hasten the end of that regime. We should consider expelling Mugabe’s diplomats from Washington and explore options with our friends in Africa and beyond, including suspending Zimbabwe’s participation in regional organizations as long a Mugabe clings to power. The results of the March 29 election must form the basis of a post-Mugabe resolution in Zimbabwe.

The “post-Mugabe resolution” will never occur until another few hundred thousand people get hacked to pieces, if the people I read in the New York Times have their way, and even then it’ll be an outside chance.

Those Africans, you know: their lives are WORTHLESS. Astonishing how the Left in this country toes the line.

 

/nod

MetaCosm Sunday, July 13th at 8:39PM EDT (link)

/nod

~ MetaCosm

Rhodesia

RedViper Monday, July 14th at 12:42AM EDT (link)

Back in the day when Zimbabwe had a different name, it was no secret that Mugabe and his allie, Joshua Nkomo (who would later die a nasty death by lead poisoning..)were proxies of the USSR. Their eventual “victory” was brought about the use of East German advisors, Soviet aid, and a dipstick West that viewed the conflict in terms of apatheid. So, its no surprise that Putin, et al, back Mugabe. If, after all, the Russian bear is missing its empire, it must support the failed states it helped create.

/nod

MetaCosm Wednesday, August 13th at 4:21AM EDT (link)

/nod

~ MetaCosm

 
 
 

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