Mugabe, again

Mugabe expels head of European Union observation team in the run-up to the forthcoming election.

As the tyrannical and dictatorial rule of the tin-pot autocrat Robert Mugabe draws to a close, he desperately clings to power through the issue of draconian measures to limit the freedom of action of the opposition and to keep his stranglehold on internal politics. The Swedish head of the EU observation team, Pierre Schori, has been expelled from Zimbabwe, accused of showing an “insulting and arrogant” attitude in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections on 9th and 10th March.

Schori’s two-week tourist visa was revoked by the authorities after he had given an interview to the press, although the visa expressly prohibited any public comments on the election process.

Pierre Schori declared that “The decision to take away my visa and to force me to leave the country was very unfortunate, bearing in mind the current differendum between Zimbabwe and the European Union”. He added that “My position as leader of the observers necessarily implied the making of public declarations to the media”.

The European Union is currently debating which sanctions will be imposed on Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, has accused the Southern African Development Community of supporting Robert Mugabe’s corrupt regime.

Supporters have been murdered, beaten, tortured and kidnapped while political leaders of the opposition are harassed almost daily. It is clear that Mugabe is trying to rig the election as he loses his grip on the country he has managed to bring to its knees in two decades of nepotism, incompetence, greed, arrogance, stupidity and evil.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru