Can Mugabe Survive Zimbabwe’s New Political Order? | Newsweek International

ZIMBABWE
‘Let’s Kill the Baby’
Rod Nordland 7/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
For five days, I've been looking everywhere for Blessing Mabhena, ever since I read newspaper reports about the child, a cute little one-year-old baby with big eyes and two stumpy little legs in casts, who had suffered the wrath of ruling party thugs who couldn't find the infant's parents. The baby could easily, I thought, be the poster child for this entire vicious election process and the waning years of Comrade Bob.
AFRICA
Iron Bars and Scalding Water
Rod Nordland 6/28/2008 12:00:00 AM
There's an open question whether Zimbabwe's election Friday would be valid even if it hadn't been marred by violence and intimidation, because it's pretty clear that a fairly small percentage of people actually turned out to vote. Some legal experts say that at least 50 percent of the registered voters would have needed to cast their ballots. No results have been released as yet officially (for what that's worth), but a sampling of a dozen polling places in Harare and the nearby town of Chitungwiza is pretty compelling.
AFRICA
Cry, Another Beloved Country
4/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
On Election Day Zimbabwe was peaceful. But then, it always is. Those of us who have covered this country for a long time know that it's what goes on quietly in the repressed rural areas during the run-up to the poll that really counts. This time, though, there was a brief moment of hope when it looked as if it could all be different. For a few days before and after our March 29 ballot it seemed that the combination of common sense, rampant inflation and concerns about his legacy had persuaded President Robert Mugabe, 84, to let democracy have its way. Sadly, we forgot to remember that Mugabe's democratic urges are never more than brief spasms. During our interlude of optimism, the authoritarian Mugabe—prodded by an earlier agreement with South African President Thabo Mbeki—allowed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to campaign in the rural strongholds of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF. Thousands turned out to see and hear MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the first time. In that respite, too, the foreign journalists who previously had to sneak into the country as tourists came out of hiding and stepped into Harare, the capital's disintegrating streets with their cameras and microphones. Agents from the country's feared Central Intelligence Organization watched unperturbed as a correspondent did a stand-upper outside our colonial matron, the Meikles Hotel; a Tsvangirai press conference drew a crush of elbowing journalists tripping over cords and plugs. The beatings and assaults, kidnapping and torture came later—when results posted outside 9,000 polling stations showed the extent of the losses by the country's rulers. ZANU-PF narrowly lost its parliamentary majority, and Mugabe, by all accounts, lost the presidential ballot to Tsvangirai. Mugabe's response: to hold off on releasing the results of the presidential race. Almost a month later he has yet to do so. Meanwhile, the postelection retribution continues. Mugabe, trying to intimidate voters into choosing him in the event of a runoff with Tsvangirai, ordered police and army to punish rural residents who had voted for the MDC. That involved beating residents within inches of their lives and burning their houses to force them out of their voting areas. The nation's few hundred remaining white farmers have been targeted too. At last count some 150 farms had been damaged in some way and many farm workers forced to quit their jobs and homes. Hundreds who remained have to attend all-night ZANU-PF propaganda sessions, called pungwes.
AFRICA
Mugabe’s Prisoner
Barrett Sheridan 4/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
Nearly three weeks have passed since Zimbabweans went to the polls to choose their president, and still no winner has been announced. Projections from an independent monitoring group indicate that incumbent Robert Mugabe lost to challenger Morgan Tsvangirai, but with the authoritarian leader refusing to concede defeat, the country remains in a state of tension and uncertainty. Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, an American with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), was working in Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the election. When he tried to leave the country April 3, he was arrested and interrogated by Zimbabwean authorities; he was released just last Wednesday, after six days of detention. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Barrett Sheridan about his ordeal and the situation in Zimbabwe. Excerpts:
AFRICA
Blunt Talk
Rod Nordland 4/16/2008 12:00:00 AM
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in his strongest remarks yet on Zimbabwe, all but accused President Robert Mugabe of stealing the country's disputed election. Addressing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the first day of his visit to the United States, Brown said bluntly that "no one thinks, having seen the results at polling stations, that Robert Mugabe has won this election. A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all." Brown made the remarks at a special Security Council session chaired by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who also heads the South African Development Conference (SADC), which is mediating the crisis in Zimbabwe on behalf of the region. Over the years Mbeki has come under fire for his failure to criticize the despotic Mugabe, still seen by many as an African hero for his role in overthrowing white minority rule in what was then Rhodesia. Although the session's agenda was limited to African peacekeeping problems, Brown and other leaders insisted on addressing Zimbabwe, in some of the least diplomatic tones yet.
WORLD NEWS
On Knife’s Edge
Karen MacGregor 4/2/2008 12:00:00 AM
After 28 years of ruling with an iron rod, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's grip on power has slipped. A surprise parliamentary victory for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)—unexpected only because it was widely assumed that the ruling ZANU-PF party would find a way to rig last weekend's poll in its favor—has delivered a change in government to this embattled southern African country for the first time since white rule ended in 1980.