The lack of leadership in Africa

Arnold Tsunga:

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"We got full backing; not even one [SADC leader] criticized our actions," Mugabe boasted after the summit.

Zimbabweans were left to wonder how neighboring governments can continue claiming to support the brutalizer and the brutalized at the same time.

As Mugabe's government continues its assault on the media, its political opponents, civil activists and human rights defenders, the danger to the population is growing. Nearly two years after the government's program of mass evictions and demolitions -- Operation Murambatsvina, or "Clear the Filth" -- hundreds of thousands continue to suffer catastrophic consequences.

In hindsight, we can see that this scheme was just the beginning. Mugabe sought to destabilize the population by arbitrarily destroying people's homes and property without notice, process or compensation; and by displacing thousands into rural areas, where they lack basic services such as health care, schools and clean water. Today, HIV-AIDS is rampant in my country, and there are acute food shortages. Young Zimbabweans have no meaningful educational opportunities, and Mugabe has wrecked the country's economy through macroeconomic chaos, endemic corruption and political patronage. Millions of black Zimbabweans who love their country have been forced to migrate out of this insecurity and hopelessness to live as second-class citizens in foreign lands.

Last month, Human Rights Watch documented how police forces in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare have beaten Zimbabweans in the streets, in shopping malls and in bars. The terror has prompted many families in those areas to obey a self-imposed curfew after dark.

Mugabe is stronger than ever, though removed from the fact that Zimbabweans want to be liberated from oppression. Of course, a weakened and terrified population cannot fight back.

With Mugabe poised to rig five more catastrophic years in office, it is time for regional leaders to recognize that his campaigns of oppression make apartheid Rhodesia and South Africa look like amateurs. As Bishop Desmond Tutu has said, we as Africans must hang our heads in shame at our failure to make a difference to the suffering men, women and children of Zimbabwe.

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Mugabe's enablers are an embarrassment to a whole continent as he is. He is living proof of the failure of multilaterism in dealing with despots who abuse their own people. Mugabe is pursuing a course of genocide on the cheap as he starves and makes homeless millions. While African leaders have ignored their plight, the UN has also done nothing of significance to aid them.