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Enablers of Tyranny

South Africa abdicates its regional responsibilities.

Apr 18, 2005, Vol. 10, No. 29 • By ROGER BATE
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FRESH FROM THE CHARADE OF his latest rigged reelection, Robert Mugabe, dictator of the disintegrating country of Zimbabwe, had the effrontery to show up in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Mugabe was raised a Catholic and still sometimes is seen at Mass, though his record as a political leader is anything but saintly.

The U.S. State Department called the March 31 election "seriously tainted," and European leaders joined in the condemnation. Crucially, however, the observer mission from the Southern African Development Community approved the result. The neighboring governments guilty of condoning this blatant fraud--foremost among them, South Africa--should be made to pay a price in their relationship with the United States.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), fearful of provoking a violent crackdown if it staged street protests and dubious of the value of a legal challenge, remains paralyzed in inaction. Ordinary Zimbabweans are furious. "We should have boycotted the elections. If we had maintained the boycott, [Mugabe's] ZANU-PF would have had no one to steal the election from," shouted mechanic Mafios Mukeudzei, as celebrating thugs from the ruling party drove past his garage a few days after the vote.

But higher-ups--Mugabe, the Southern African Development Community, and the larger African Union--all wanted the election so they could maintain the fiction that Zimbabwe is a democracy.

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