Mugabe and the United Nations
July 26, 2005
The Washington Times
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050725-085710-8948r

    Last week, a scathing U.N. report on Zimbabwe illustrated why the government of that southern African country so deserves its status as a pariah. In late May, the beginning of winter in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's government embarked on something called Operation Murambatsvina, or Operation Restore Order, ostensibly a military and police campaign to dismantle illegal vending sites and illegally constructed dwellings in urban areas. It quickly turned into something much worse. The U.N. report shows in excruciating detail how the government wrecked the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in less than two months without any reason. 

    The homes or livelihoods of 700,000 poor Zimbabweans have been destroyed since the campaign began in May, the United Nations concluded. It's not clear precisely why, though many claim it was retribution against poor voters who supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Party in recent elections. What's clearer is that the Zimbabwean government has behaved with its usual criminality. 

    On May 19, Sekesai Makwavarara, chair of the government-appointed Harare Commission, announced the operation in a speech in the mayor's offices in the capital of Harare. Then, without additional notice, well before the announced move-out deadline of June 20 and certainly before any poor Zimbabweans would have heard, on May 25 police and military forces began destroying flea markets, vendor stations, shanty homes and other illegal commercial structures that have sprung up to fill in the gaps left by Zimbabwe's moribund state-run economy. The destruction quickly spread throughout the country. In the first week, 20,000 vendors around the country were arrested for illegal commercial activity. Those who resisted were beaten by police. 

    The U.N. report labels the campaign disastrous and indiscriminate, and calls for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. What it doesn't do is blame the suffering on Zimbabwe's thuggish dictator Robert Mugabe. In words that should go down as spineless even by U.N. standards, U.N. investigator Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka spoiled her otherwise fine report by saying that Mr. Mugabe's advisors -- not Mr. Mugabe -- are responsible. I suggest the people who gave him bad advice should be held accountable, Ms. Tibaijuka told reporters in New York last week. 

    About the only bad advice here is the idea that only Mugabe's henchmen should go. Mr. Mugabe has been Zimbabwe's dictator for 25 years. During that time he has caused untold misery for his people. Ms. Tibaijuka should know better, and the United Nations should be ashamed of itself for trying to downplay his role.