No Aid Until Mugabe Shapes Up

Violence against political opponents and white farmers in Zimbabwe, inflamed by the speeches of President Robert Mugabe, is spiraling out of control. A general election scheduled for this month has been postponed until May at the earliest. There is growing fear that Mugabe, facing strong opposition for the first time in his 20 years in power, is fomenting racism to stave off electoral defeat. The international community must not stand by in silence as the southern Africa country slides into despotism. The time has come to isolate Mugabe diplomatically and deny him financial assistance until free elections are held.

Zimbabwe’s independence leader knows he is struggling for survival. In a humiliating defeat, Zimbabweans last February turned down his proposed new constitution, which would have retained him in office and in effect legalized confiscation of land from white farmers.

The ensuing violence, carried out by supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, is calculated to intimidate the growing opposition. Squatters, fed and financed by Mugabe’s cronies, have occupied hundreds of white-owned farms and attacked opposition rallies. Since last weekend, several farmers, farm workers and opposition activists have been murdered by thugs backed by ZANU-PF. Mugabe meanwhile continues to defy a court order to evict the squatters and blames white farmers for the country’s severe economic problems.

Clearly, in a country where whites--just 1% of the population--own half of the arable land, land reform is necessary. But the state-organized chaos has little to do with land reform. Most Zimbabweans, white or black, simply do not trust Mugabe anymore. They have seen more than a million acres bought from white farmers for resettlement purposes handed over to a few dozen of his friends. An additional 2 million acres of farmland owned by the state lie fallow.

The white farmers are not the target of the rising political discontent. On the contrary, they have formed an alliance with the black opposition Movement for Democratic Change to unseat Mugabe’s corrupt regime.

The president has squandered the trust of the international community as well as of his countrymen and deserves no support. International financial institutions and individual governments are awaiting a cessation of violence before they send any more financial aid to Mugabe’s treasury and should withhold support pending the outcome of May’s scheduled elections.