Mugabe taunts the world as Zimbabwe lurches into chaos

published 24 December 2008

Zimbabwe's president is "losing his mind", says Jendayi Frazer, the top US envoy for Africa this week. Over 1,000 of Robert Mugabe's countrymen are dead from cholera, 21,000 more are infected, and those not getting emergency food aid are digging up roots and foraging for berries. Yet the 82-year-old independence hero remains as defiant as ever. "I will never, never, never surrender... Zimbabwe is mine," he said on Friday.

"Mugabe had a chance to redeem his image" several months ago, says Kenya's Business Daily, by building an effective power-sharing regime with Morgan Tsvangari of the opposition MDC. Instead, he has refused to compromise, holding on to the most powerful ministries including security and persisting with a relentless campaign of intimidation against his foes. Over the past six weeks, over 40 opposition officials have disappeared. Meanwhile, Harare's two main hospitals are closed, school attendance is down to 30%, and unpaid soldiers are running amok on the streets. In short, "the Zimbabwean state itself is steadily disintegrating", says David Blair in Harare, on his Daily Telegraph blog.

Yet somehow Mugabe remains "indifferent to suffering and impervious to pressure", says The Times, and "now parades his megalomania as a taunt to the outside world". He blames Britain for the cholera outbreak and has accused Botswana of preparing a ground invasion of the country. "These fictions would be laughable", says the Toronto Star, but for the fact that Mugabe "may be about to declare a state of emergency". Then he could crack down on challengers, and cement his position. It is time for Britain to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and authorise armed intervention, says The Times. "The world can take his despairing country from him. And it must."