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Ear to the Ground

Africa Summit Plays Nice With Mugabe

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Posted on Jun 30, 2008
Mugabe
AP photo / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

In an inauguration on Sunday, Robert Mugabe is once again sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president.

If Zimbabwe’s Thug-for-Life Robert Mugabe had any worry about the reception he would face at the African Union summit at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort on Monday, he can exhale. Mugabe received a leader’s welcome and only modest challenge as he sailed through his first international meeting since being reinstalled as Zimbabwean president after a sham election.


Times Online:

... [P]rotest from African leaders at the summit was muted, even as Western leaders from France, the United States and Canada joined Britain in ratcheting up pressure on the AU to reject Mr Mugabe’s authority. ...

... African leaders gathering at the Egyptian Red Sea resort appeared reluctant to launch an outright challenge to Mr Mugabe’s rule for fear that it would propel the country into deeper turmoil.

There was also a sense that any criticism levelled by certain leaders would be dismissed, given the poor democratic track records of their own countries.

Read more

Update: Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called for Mugabe’s suspension until Zimbabweans are allowed a fair election.

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By jatihoon, July 1, 2008 at 12:35 pm #

What is common between, George Bush and Robert Mugabe,“THEY BOTH STOLE THE ELECTION.”

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By kath hussein cantarella, June 30, 2008 at 6:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Robert you are such a disappointment.

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By Dan, June 30, 2008 at 5:32 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Few leaders at the African Union summit would criticize Mugabe openly because they know the real deal. They know how hypocritical the western media are and the double standards of western leaders who say something in public while doing completely the opposite behind the curtains.

I will give you an example, Compared to Meles of Ethiopia Mugabe looks like an angel.

We did not hear the same outrage, when Meles stole the election in 2005 , his troops massacred 200 mainly students that tried to demonstrate their displeasure and arrested more that 30,000 people some of them later were sentenced to death. Instead the west withheld some of the huge aid temporarily, and it was resumed shortly after. He was allowed to keep his power and was rewarded handsomely and given diplomatic cover.

As Meles is our SOB who is fighting our proxy war with Somalia, he is even allowed to use aid money to buy massive amount of armaments from North Korea, breaking UN and US sanctions .

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/arms.php

When Mugabe tried to buy arms legally from China, the same western governments were outraged.

Another example is the recent Human Rights watch report, that accused US, UK and EU for funding the atrocities of what was called “worse dissaster that Darfur ” to the tune of $2 billion, while looking the other way when Ethiopian troops are massacring, torturing, raping civilians.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/12/ethiop19029.htm

http://tinyurl.com/ysmvtc

http://tinyurl.com/5aljl4

Despite the billions given to Ethiopia to feed his people, 12 Million people are being starved, as aid money is being pilfered and mismanaged.
Just this month, the military budget was increased by $50 Million while Meles’s minions were arguing with the donor communities, how many people are dying of starvation. To exacerbate the matter, the NY Times reported how the government is using food aid as a tool to control the people, and even redirecting the food meant for the starving to feed his own soldiers.

http://tinyurl.com/3p7vvr

http://tinyurl.com/53cc6m

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/47985/2008/01/27-164401-1.htm

Not to mention what Ethiopia is doing in the neighbouring countries.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWSuNtg8sIGBjTzDalP38Fz1wFBg

http://www.slate.com/id/2178793/

http://tinyurl.com/3u964k

Unless western governments do what they preach, and approach the leadership crisis even handedly, by condemning all murderous tyrants like Mugabe, Meles and many others, they can not expect African leaders who don’t have clean hands themselves to do the job.

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By dihey, June 30, 2008 at 2:47 pm #

I am nor surprised. After the entire “Western World” heaped tons of s**t on Mugabe, most Africans think and say “enough is enough, get lost you former colonialists!”

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By samosamo, June 30, 2008 at 2:32 pm #

Strange. This for all intents and purposes is pretty much a black version of w’s 2000 and 2004 elections(the elections, not how he was appointed and the criminal fraud the put him in office). Shouldn’t the U.N. instituted the same sanctions against the U.S.?

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