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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Polls show despot loser if
vote fair
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Zimbabwe begins voting today in an election that almost everyone believes has been rigged to keep President Robert Mugabe in power.
The 78-year-old despot, who has ruled the African nation for all 22 years of its independence from Britain, wants yet another six-year term to last him through his 84th birthday -- even if it means becoming an international pariah.
Rampant political violence and new election laws have made it nearly impossible for the vote to be free and fair, according to human rights groups and the few foreign observers allowed into the country.
More than 150 people have been killed, thousands tortured and up to 100,000 black farmworkers have been rendered homeless by government seizure of white-owned farms over the past two years. Mugabe's supporters have attacked his opponents with the assistance of police and army units, making much of Zimbabwe a "no-go" area for opposition candidates.
The Human Rights Forum, a consortium of Zimbabwean rights groups, says security forces are behind 90 percent of the intimidation. It has accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF party of setting up 22 militia bases around the country to torture supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and gather for attacks on MDC strongholds.
The MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's main challenger, has been charged with treason for allegedly plotting to have Mugabe assassinated. And the army's top brass has openly warned that it will not accept a Tsvangirai victory.
Walter Kansteiner, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, has advised Congress that "the campaign of repression orchestrated by the government of Zimbabwe has been too profound and too pervasive to allow for an untainted election."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair calls it "an outrage." And the European Union says it "contradicts the international standards for free and fair elections."
The United States and European governments have sought to punish Mugabe and his cronies with travel bans and threatened asset seizures, but there is very little else they can do short of outright military intervention. Foreign aid was cut off long ago and broader sanctions, such as a trade embargo, would only collapse the economy and increase the suffering of Zimbabwe's 13 million people.
The country already is on its knees. Inflation is running at 117 percent. The Zimbabwean dollar, officially pegged at 55 to the U.S. dollar, changes hands at four times that rate on the black market. Unemployment is 60 percent and 75 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Drought and farm seizures have slashed the staple maize crop in half. The World Food Program is now distributing emergency relief supplies in a country that used to be self-sufficient in food. Refugees fleeing hunger and political violence are braving crocodiles, barbed wire fences and South African army patrols in a desperate bid to escape across the southern border.
Seemingly unfazed by this looming disaster, Mugabe says many of these problems have been "manufactured" by Britain and Zimbabwe's tiny white minority of 70,000. He accuses Tsvangirai and the MDC of being stooges of the whites, intent on returning the colonial era.
Tsvangirai, a former union leader, responds with one simple question: "Why is a country that was once the bread basket of Africa now a basket case?"
Two recent polls, one by the independent Financial Gazette newspaper and the other by a private institute headed by one of Zimbabwe's leading political analysts, show that Mugabe's popularity has plummeted and Tsvangirai would easily win a fair election.
But Mugabe's rubber-stamp parliament has rushed through electoral amendments forbidding civic and religious organizations from monitoring the poll. Military officers have been appointed to the election commission and only civil servants -- dependent on government jobs -- will be there to guard against irregularities.
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court struck down some of the amendments last week but Mugabe simply reinstated them by presidential decree. Opposition spokesmen say that's an open invitation to ballot stuffing.
South Africa's Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who once admired Mugage, says he has "gone bonkers in a big way."
March 9, 2002
Send your questions to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2002 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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