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Mugabe makes new "amendment"

and CNN thinks this sham means something, even though there are no details


IOL in South Africa reports that the plan is for new elections if the MDC doesn't approve of the powersharing amendment written by Mugabe.'

Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling party said on Saturday that it could call new elections if the opposition fails to support a proposed constitutional amendment meant to pave the way for a unity government.

The draft amendment will be published Saturday in the government gazette, the first step toward bringing it to parliament for approval, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in the state-run Herald newspaper.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won control of parliament for the first time in March elections, but does not have enough seats to approve the amendment on its own.

"In the event that the collaboration that we envisage is not forthcoming, then that will necessitate fresh harmonised elections at some point in time," Chinamasa said in the paper.


The implication is more terror for the people of Zimbabwe so that they vote correctly...

LA Times editorial blasts South Africa for it's failure to pressure Mugabe

from the LATimes


In one of his most strongly worded statements directed at the government of Zimbabwe to date, President Bush recently joined a chorus of international leaders and statesmen in calling for its monstrous president, Robert Mugabe, to step down. As he has done since the United States first started imposing targeted sanctions against his country in 2002, Mugabe shrugged and blamed Western interference for Zimbabwe's problems. Memo to Bush et al: This strategy is not working.

Mugabe's tyrannous rule and refusal to cede power have turned Zimbabwe from a relatively prosperous country into a sinkhole of poverty and disease whose populace, lately suffering from cholera, is fleeing in droves and threatening the stability of its neighbors. The situation is so bad that even African leaders who are ordinarily reluctant to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations are calling for military intervention; Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu have both recently pleaded for international troops...

Zimbabwe is deeply reliant on South Africa, its key trading partner and the source of much of its imported energy, food, machinery and other goods. Some say that cutting off these resources would only harm Zimbabwe's poor, yet in a country with inflation running at 231,000,000%, it's hard to imagine how they could be any worse off; meanwhile, without Pretoria's support, Mugabe would be unable to pay the military and police forces he needs to prop up his regime. Yet South Africa has refused to exercise its vast leverage, paralyzed by fears of angering a domestic contingency that still sees Mugabe as a hero who liberated his country from its racist white rulers....