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Miss Modular Miss Modular is offline
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Old Jul 1st, 2008, 01:23 PM        Robert Mugabe: "GO HANG!!!"
...Okay, not quite, but is anyone following this story? One of his former supporters, Morgan Tsvangirai, tried to run for President against him. Tsvangirai actually did well against Mugabe, but Mugabe basically scared Tsvangirai out of further campaigning (and that's the story in short...I'll admit my knowledge of this is sketchy), as well as having a farce of a run-off election. Mugabe had his "inauguration" a few days ago, and now people are telling him to step down.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/...union_zimbabwe

Zimbabwe president's spokesman to West: 'Go hang'
By ANNA JOHNSON and PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press WritersTue Jul 1, 6:55 AM ET



Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will not step down and Western critics who called the country's recent election a sham can "go hang," the longtime ruler's spokesman said Tuesday.

Mugabe was attending an African Union summit in this Red Sea resort after claiming victory Sunday in a runoff election that his opponent withdrew from, citing violence against supporters.

Leaders at the AU summit have been unwilling to publicly criticize Mugabe, and instead are gently pushing behind the scenes that he accept some sort of power-sharing agreement with Zimbabwe's opposition.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba sounded resistant to proposals about sharing power. Some African leaders have expressed frustration that more was not being done to pressure Mugabe.

Charamba told reporters that Mugabe would not step down.

"Isn't that an odd question. He's a few days into office and you expect him to retire, do you? ... Five days have expired, not even a week after. ... Why is the issue of the retirement of the president of Zimbabwe such an obsession for the West?" he said.

"He has come here as president of Zimbabwe and he will go home as president of Zimbabwe, and when you visit Zimbabwe he will be there as the president of all the people of Zimbabwe," Charamba told reporters.

The United States, Britain and other European countries have widely condemned the runoff. The U.S. is pushing for more financial and travel sanctions against Mugabe supporters and is urging the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the African Union to reject the result of the runoff, and France says it considers Mugabe's government "illegitimate."

Charamba had harsh words for Western pressure: "They can go hang. They can go and hang a thousand times."

He also demanded that Zimbabwe be left to determine its own future.

"The way out is the way defined by the Zimbabwe people free from outside interference, and that is exactly what will resolve the matter," he said.

During public speeches at the summit's opening Monday, most AU leaders spoke of the "challenges" Zimbabwe is facing and none said anything harsh about Mugabe.

But Jendayi Frazer, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for African affairs, said she believed that in private, the leaders were going to "have very, very strong words for him."

Key African leaders have long had close ties to Mugabe, renowned as a campaigner against white rule and colonialism and Zimbabwe's ruler since its independence in 1980. They are also reluctant to be seen as backing the West — former colonial rulers — against a fellow African.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security ramped up restrictions Tuesday on journalists covering the summit after a British TV crew got into a verbal exchange with Mugabe the previous day. Many reporters were not allowed to leave the press area.

The confrontation began when British network ITN approached Mugabe outside the conference hall and asked how he could regard himself as president. The Zimbabwean leader responded that it was on the same basis as Brown's being the British prime minister.

Mugabe then said the reporter asked "stupid questions." TV footage showed Mugabe's guards pushing the reporter away.
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Old Jul 1st, 2008, 01:51 PM       
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Originally Posted by Miss Modular View Post
...Okay, not quite, but is anyone following this story? One of his former supporters, Morgan Tsvangirai, tried to run for President against him. Tsvangirai actually did well against Mugabe, but Mugabe basically scared Tsvangirai out of further campaigning (and that's the story in short...I'll admit my knowledge of this is sketchy), as well as having a farce of a run-off election. Mugabe had his "inauguration" a few days ago, and now people are telling him to step down.
This is kinda a big story outside of the US that has been running all year. Tsvangirai did very well in the original election as he won it, but the Mugabe regime refused to release the vote count. Mugabe scared Tsvangirai into pulling out of the race? Family, friends and supporters of the MDC party were murdered, tortured and imprisoned. As well as noting that the election couldn't be free or fair, Tsvangirai hoped to end the attacks, but such violence continues even after the 'declared' end to elections. The calls for external interference came from Tsvangirai, who I personally view as the true democraticaly elected leader of Zimbabwe. Of course, I think the same of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.

The irony is that former Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith was right that black rule wouldn't help the plight of it's people.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 06:00 AM       
I almost get used to watching the drama play out on the news every day. Will he give in to popular vote? Will he share power? No, of course not.

On a lighter note, well done the ICC.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 09:35 AM       
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This is kinda a big story outside of the US that has been running all year. Tsvangirai did very well in the original election as he won it, but the Mugabe regime refused to release the vote count.
See, I'm late to the party, and this fills in a lot for me. Thanks!
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 11:40 AM       
All you've really missed is the sham elections. I don't think anyone has a clue what he was running on, the only thing that mattered was that it wasn't Mugabe. We were constantly told that Tsvangirai (copy paste) would win easily, and that he deserved to win, and then nothing. I feel that the media is giving of a silently annoyed vibe, but they don't really plan to remind us on too many occasions how Tsvangirai should have won.

If anything interesting was going to happen, it would probably happen soon, since the majority of people are bound to realise that voting sure as hell doesn't get things done in Zimbabwe.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 01:00 PM       
Wasn't Tsvangirai one of Mugabe's former cronies? What role did he play?

Why do we like him better than Mugabe?
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 01:26 PM       
He is the one calling for an end to the violence and "free and fair" elections.

As for being a crony, Ol' Morgan joined Mugabe's Zanu-PF party back around the time that the country gained independence from colonial rule. At that time Robbo Mugabe was considered the good guy, and the evil white land owners that refused to give blacks the vote were the villains. Mugabe has long liked to use violence to quash perceived rebellion, while Tsvangirai claims to have voiced regret for the many times the government of Zimbabwe has massacred it's people. It was after a spate of such actions that Tsvangirai and some others broke away to form an opposition party.

Tsvangirai is also a trade unionist, which while bad in US, out here in the Commie-lands means a vote in his favour.

Oh and anecdotally, the people I've met from Zimbabwe living in exile like Tsvangirai better, what with not seeing him as the guy that drove them from their homes and family.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 02:30 PM       
Trade unions are actually powerful here.

Other than that, ok. Just wanted to make sure people weren't supporting some guy that is opposing Mugabe because he didn't get promoted to Secretary of Ethnic Cleansing fast enough.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 02:59 PM       
NOT TOPIC-PERTINENT, BUT:

Blanco, I really like that you're here and I enjoy reading your takes on things. I was talking to my flatmate last night about how heart-warming it is when people of totally separate vantage points can agree on an ultimate conclusion, and you're good as gold for this. Honestly, sincerely. But you have this thing about throwing out "Socratic Irony" very thickly and it makes it hard to read your actual intent because Socratic Irony is only legitimate in life settings where you can't open a separate tab on your browser to set to a wikipedia article. I'm okay with your general tone, I really am! But you strike me as the type of person who can know a lot about anything but is free to admit that you don't know everything... so I honestly get confused by some things you say.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 03:30 PM       
Ya, I can be hard to read at times. Thats why I'm such a good card player.

I was being honest here. I truly am not too familiar with the opposition to Mugabe and was just too lazy to do my own research.

I'm well aware that Mugabe rode into office on a tide of well justified anti-colonialism. Tsvangirai apparently was one of his supporters who had his people's welfare at heart and simply made a bad judgment call.

The Secretary of Ethnic Cleansing remark was because...well we've been down that road before.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2008, 05:39 PM       
you know when things get tough, Britain pulls out the big stick.

"wait! not...not my honorary knighthood!"

My favourite bit is: "the rebuke showed the extent of international frustration...". You know, as if they'd run out of other options. "Your majesty...are you sure?". Plus it kind of begs the question: what was he doing with a knighthood in the first place? I'm not too hot on Zimbabwean politics, but i'm guessing it was back when everyone thought he was a swell dude. Anyway, he does have some of the most awesome shirts i've ever seen.

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Old Jul 4th, 2008, 11:50 AM       
You can get knighted for shirts.
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Old Jul 8th, 2008, 05:52 PM       
Is that a pic of Flava Flave's dad?
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