Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai Urges International Intervention
June 22, 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday accused President Robert Mugabe of declaring war on the people and called for international pressure to force the Zimbabwean leader to accept divergent political views.
Announcing his withdrawal from a June 27 presidential election run-off against Mugabe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said international bodies such as the African Union and the United Nations should intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis to prevent genocide from happening.
“On the 29th of March, we participated in an electoral process that we felt was reasonably free and fair. On the 27th of June, Mugabe has declared war and we will not be part of that,” Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare, the capital.
Mugabe has declared that he will not accept the results of the elections if Tsvangirai wins Friday’s polls.
Announcing his decision to pull out, Tsvangirai said on Sunday there was no use taking part in a poll whose outcome was pre-determined.
Mugabe’s supporters had earlier on Sunday disrupted an MDC campaign rally which was scheduled to be addressed by Tsvangirai in Harare.
Source African Press Agency
Everyone knows the absurdness of an Election where one candidate has possesion of guns and is free to use them, and another candidate who doesn’t. Yet, like watching a historical film or reading about it as though it happened a long time ago, those who do know can’t do anything about it.
In my opinion, this failure is a result of adhering to Sovereignship just because everyone is afraid that it might be used as a precedent for future invasions. Everyone is still hung-over the fact that Nations had gone to war because of the lack of respect for Sovereignship.
I deduce that because the international community is afraid, that one’s own nation muight suffer or another’s nation might profit, no one pushes forward for action. We are all so afraid of war, that we would rather that thousands who need Democracy the most, who still die of starvation and still lack the basic education that allows them to realise their Human rights, who are murdered day in and day out without any hope for justice that no one would write into policy, any type of sanction that deals with tyranny.
We won’t because we think we can’t, and we can’t not because we don’t know how, but rather because at the end of the day, it really is none of our business. But if we all close our eyes, and because we can imagine a scenario where the tables are turned, that we were the one’s who are in need, we would be horrified and immediately open an our eyes to seek shelter from the reality that we are the one’s with and they are without.