South Africa's Unseemly Alliance

A commentary from the L. A. Times:

The tendency to compare contemporary political events to the Third Reich is called reducto ad Hitlerum, so facile are the alleged similarities and so often is this tactic employed. With that caveat, when I saw a photograph Friday of smiling, garland-laden South African President Thabo Mbeki holding the hand of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, I couldn't resist drawing a mental parallel: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 waving his copy of the Munich treaty before a crowd of thousands, boasting that he had achieved "peace for our time."

That Mbeki, who last month insisted there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe, continues to glad-hand Mugabe represents a complete abandonment of moral responsibility. As he provides diplomatic cover, Mugabe's armed thugs roam Zimbabwe's countryside threatening, torturing and killing people believed to have voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The MDC claims 25 of its supporters have been murdered and 40,000 people have been displaced since the March 29 parliamentary and presidential election. The regime has detained journalists and trade union leaders as well as members of the country's electoral commission, the body that verifies election results.

Read more ....

Update: Zimbabwe violence could reach crisis levels: UN -- Yahoo News

My Comment: More people have been killed, displaced, or put into a position of suffering that pales in comparison to the suffering that occurred during the wars of "independence" and "liberation".

The silence of governments and leaders such as South Africa's Mbeki, almost all of the liberal left of (Europe, Canada, Australia, and the U.S.), and the silence from former leaders such as Nelson Mandela .... puts all of these people and their supporters to shame.

In the end, this suffering will only breed more violence and the beginning of arm conflicts. I know if I was there I would be doing everything in my power to get rid of these tyrants and there supporters..