Mugabe’s Silent Partners

The African Union summit passed up a golden opportunity Tuesday to confront Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe face to face about his odious crackdown on shantytowns that has made hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Leaders of the world’s most prosperous nations should not be so reticent; they should use their summit in Scotland beginning today to again condemn the man who has presided over the increasing impoverishment of his country.

Mugabe insisted at the gathering of African leaders in Sirte, Libya, that the destruction of shacks across Zimbabwe was a civic “cleanup operation” similar to those that other nations conduct, not a demolition campaign. But nearly two months of Operation Murambatsvina -- “clean out the filth” -- has pushed hordes of city dwellers to the countryside, without shelter.

Mugabe’s foes noted that those uprooted were largely supporters of Mugabe’s opposition. They have fruitlessly urged Thabo Mbeki, president of neighboring South Africa, and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, current head of the African Union, to chastise Mugabe. At this week’s AU meeting, Zimbabwe’s “cleanup” was not even on the agenda, and nations stuck to their policy of noninterference with other countries’ internal affairs.

The deliberate creation of hundreds of thousands of internal refugees deserves condemnation, which would be more effective from others on the continent than from leaders of the largely white countries (including former colonial powers) meeting in Scotland. African silence makes it easier for Mugabe to repeat his denunciation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush as racists.

Blair, host of the Scotland gathering, has put aid to Africa at the top of the G-8 summit agenda. But he worried aloud last week, without naming names, that some nations could use African inaction on Zimbabwe as an excuse to spend less on aid to the continent. The two should not be linked, despite the disappointing silence of the AU nations.

Blair is asking that the U.N. Security Council declare the demolitions a human rights abuse, and the U.N. is investigating Mugabe’s campaign. Anna Tibaijuka, special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is on an inspection tour of the country. Tibaijuka met Mugabe last week, but even her presence did not stop the demolitions. If her inspection report details the same conditions reporters and foreign aid workers have seen, with hundreds of thousands fleeing and some dying, a Security Council denunciation might finally prod African nations to denounce Mugabe.