The New African Genocide
This column was written by James Kirchick.
Less than ten miles from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's mansion in Harare — the largest private residence on the African continent — Cleophus Masxigora digs for mice. On a good day, he told me, he can find 100 to 200. To capture the vermin, he burns brush to immobilize them, then kills them with several thumps of a shovel. This practice has become so widespread in Zimbabwe that, as a Zimbabwean journalist informed me, state-run television has broadcast warnings against citizens setting brush fires. Masxigora began hunting mice to support (and feed) his wife and three children soon after Mugabe began confiscating thousands of productive, white-owned farms in 2000, a policy that has since led to mass starvation. Not long ago, Zimbabwe, the "breadbasket of Africa," exported meat and produced what was widely considered to be Africa's finest livestock. Today, Masxigora tells me that each mouse nets $30 Zim dollars, about 12 cents, which makes him a wealthy man in Zimbabwe. "This is beef to us," he told me in August.
The conditions Mugabe rendered in Zimbabwe do not merely stem from idealistic economic and social policies gone awry. He has undertaken a campaign of violence and starvation against political opponents, the fallout of which is killing tens of thousands, if not more, every year. In 2005, there were roughly 4,000 more deaths each week than births, a rate that the famine has surely increased. This is worse than brutality. The United Nations says that "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" constitutes genocide, and that is exactly what Robert Mugabe has wrought.
The genocide in Zimbabwe is not as stark as others. There are no cattle cars and gas chambers. There are no machete-wielding gangs roaming the countryside. There are no helicopter gunships or Janjaweed. The killing in Zimbabwe is slow, oftentimes indirect, and not particularly bloody. But Mugabe's campaign of mass murder against those who oppose him has been no less deliberate than any of the other genocides in human history.
It all began with Mugabe's land seizures in 2000, in which he booted white farmers from the property they owned and replaced them with political hacks who have no interest in agriculture. The results were disastrous. Zimbabwe annually requires 1.8 million metric tons of maize. Yet, in 2006, for instance, it faced an 850,000 metric ton deficit — of which planned imports would cover just 60 percent, with only 28 percent of that delivered by December. The country also requires 400,000 tons of wheat annually, yet, last year, it produced only 218,000 tons by the government's count — meaning the true total was likely far less. As early as 2002, the BBC was reporting that people in Matabeleland, the southern region of the country where the minority Ndebele tribe lives, were starving. That same year, on the eve of a massive drought, the Minister of Zimbabwean State Security said, "We would be better off with only six million people — with our own who support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people." Today, according to the World Food Program, 38 percent of Zimbabweans are malnourished.
The New Republic Less than ten miles from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's mansion in Harare — the largest private residence on the African continent — Cleophus Masxigora digs for mice. On a good day, he told me, he can find 100 to 200. To capture the vermin, he burns brush to immobilize them, then kills them with several thumps of a shovel. This practice has become so widespread in Zimbabwe that, as a Zimbabwean journalist informed me, state-run television has broadcast warnings against citizens setting brush fires. Masxigora began hunting mice to support (and feed) his wife and three children soon after Mugabe began confiscating thousands of productive, white-owned farms in 2000, a policy that has since led to mass starvation. Not long ago, Zimbabwe, the "breadbasket of Africa," exported meat and produced what was widely considered to be Africa's finest livestock. Today, Masxigora tells me that each mouse nets $30 Zim dollars, about 12 cents, which makes him a wealthy man in Zimbabwe. "This is beef to us," he told me in August.
The conditions Mugabe rendered in Zimbabwe do not merely stem from idealistic economic and social policies gone awry. He has undertaken a campaign of violence and starvation against political opponents, the fallout of which is killing tens of thousands, if not more, every year. In 2005, there were roughly 4,000 more deaths each week than births, a rate that the famine has surely increased. This is worse than brutality. The United Nations says that "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" constitutes genocide, and that is exactly what Robert Mugabe has wrought.
The genocide in Zimbabwe is not as stark as others. There are no cattle cars and gas chambers. There are no machete-wielding gangs roaming the countryside. There are no helicopter gunships or Janjaweed. The killing in Zimbabwe is slow, oftentimes indirect, and not particularly bloody. But Mugabe's campaign of mass murder against those who oppose him has been no less deliberate than any of the other genocides in human history.
It all began with Mugabe's land seizures in 2000, in which he booted white farmers from the property they owned and replaced them with political hacks who have no interest in agriculture. The results were disastrous. Zimbabwe annually requires 1.8 million metric tons of maize. Yet, in 2006, for instance, it faced an 850,000 metric ton deficit — of which planned imports would cover just 60 percent, with only 28 percent of that delivered by December. The country also requires 400,000 tons of wheat annually, yet, last year, it produced only 218,000 tons by the government's count — meaning the true total was likely far less. As early as 2002, the BBC was reporting that people in Matabeleland, the southern region of the country where the minority Ndebele tribe lives, were starving. That same year, on the eve of a massive drought, the Minister of Zimbabwean State Security said, "We would be better off with only six million people — with our own who support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people." Today, according to the World Food Program, 38 percent of Zimbabweans are malnourished.
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Last quoted in late January this year. Also, it is definitely not the fault of any western nation that Mugabe has stayed in power for the past 27 years, or that Britain refused to honor a unilaterally amended Lancaster Act which demanded $222 million pounds. It will also not be in there best interest if he stays in power until 2010, which will likely cause an additional 3 million Zimbabweans to flee to their countries without a cent to their names. What are they to do turn Zimbabwe into Iraq? (and yes, many Zimbabweans would actually prefer that to their present situation.)
This also shows allot of things that would be racist to say. Any black American that even thinks they want to align with any country in Africa needs to read this article.
Let's not send them any help, why encourage a country to be racist agains whites, when it is against the law in our country for any race, or rather it should be, it is okay for blacks and hispanics to discriminate against whites in America. The Federal court condones this behavior, look at Adversity.com and see for yourself how much is going on.
Example Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage. Besides all that hypocrisy when will the focus be on a persons content of their character instead of their race? I HOPE THIS PHRASE IS FAMILIAR! People make money by keeping Race in the forefront of the news. I myself will not accept the hate, guilt, or be held accountable for the transgressions of people who claimed to be wronged by people before my Grandfather was born. Do not push your opinions on the rest of us. If you want to that is on you but do not expect me or millions of others to accept your guilt trip. Make your way in life based on your abilities if you can, not clinging to the sorrows of hundreds of years past in hopes of explaining your own weaknesses, failures, and shortcomings!
"The farms are better off to be run by the white farmers" is essentially what they are saying. They the Klansmen of New Republic obviously wants the land return to the "rightful owners" - eg. the white folks - former slave masters. The rhetorics they use are equal to "these dumb n*ggers don't know how to farm they are better off to just return their land to their white masters".
Robert Mugabe has done a great deal for his people. He has free his country from white rule, and return the land to the rightful owner of the land - the black africans. Whether they know how to farm efficiently or not, these are just transitional phases. They are figuring out how to do it little by little. Mugabe should be applauded for his decisive policy to return those land to his people, and now, he just need to figure out a way to be more efficient in land reform to silence those racist republicans from imperial america.
Americans have been pumping millions into Africa for decades.
Mugabe might be one generation away from witch doctors, living in huts, and cannabalism or tribal warfare as a regular way of life. What was his grandfather like? maybe Mugabe still goes for tribal warfare, he just happens to wear a fancy suit now.