Mugabe Turns a Deaf Ear to Critics

Robert Mugabe has been condemned by everyone from Nelson Mandela to the queen of England over his conduct in Zimbabwe’s runoff election, but he plans to go ahead with the contest even though the opposition has dropped out.

New York Times:

On Wednesday, officials from Swaziland, Angola and Tanzania — the so-called troika empowered to speak for the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of 14 nations — called on Zimbabwe to put off the voting because the current crisis would undermine its legitimacy.

Among the most damning voices raised in criticism was that of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, who, at a dinner in London, condemned a “tragic failure of leadership in Zimbabwe.” He did not identify the object of his criticism by name.

Taking a different tack, Queen Elizabeth II stripped Robert Mugabe, the country’s president for nearly 30 years, of his honorary knighthood as a “mark of revulsion” at the human rights abuses and “abject disregard” for democracy over which he is presiding, the British Foreign Office said Wednesday.

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