As the conditions worsen yet again in Zimbabwe, the United States and its colleagues across the globe continue to fail address the circumstances. The eerie similarities to American and world inaction during the crises in Rwanda and currently still in Darfur show a blatant lack of concern for the African continent, which has been exploited for over 500 years as nothing more than a quarry for human and natural resources. We've heard in the news about Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's harsh brutality, as well as his apparent attempts to initiate a unification conference. The following video I will show below the fold demonstrates that such an attempt is nothing more than empty words.
His name is Shepherd Yuda. His uncle was murdered by Mugabe's henchmen less than two months ago. His bravery is unquestionable.
Yuda, a prison officer at the Harare Central prison, a facility where political opposition leaders are mixed in with true criminals like rapists and murderers, decided he had enough of intimidation. So he embarked on a personal campaign to show how Mugabe was stealing the election. It was in all likelihood that the video would never even make it out of the conflict-torn nation, but through the courage and motivation of Shepherd Yuda, the video - and his family - has made it out of Zimbabwe safely.
**Video is fairly long - 10:38**
On April 13 this year, two weeks after the first round of the elections, Tapiwa Mobwandarika, was killed. He was a former prison officer but also an outspoken opponent of Mugabe. In the mopping-up operations conducted by Zanu-PF supporters, angry that Mugabe had lost the popular vote, he was stabbed to death. Mobwandarika was one of more than perhaps a hundred - no one knows the true figure - people murdered by Zanu-PF gangs or members of the police and military.
Thousands more have been severely beaten, many too frightened to go to hospital for treatment.
"I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda. "The impact has left a lot of orphans, it has left a lot of people displaced. You cannot expect that from your government. You expect that from a rebel group. How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?
Those in the western world have long seen Mugabe as a tyrant, but some perhaps truly believed he was faithful in his intentions to form a unification conference. Major turnarounds like this happen rarely, but have been seen in the past a few times, such as Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi. But what we have here is evidence that any such propositions from Mugabe's camp are false.
The true question, however, is:
Will anyone step up and do something about the conflict in Zimbabwe? Will neighboring African nations finally stand up to Mugabe and cronies? Will China, an emerging world power and large trade partner with Zimbabwe, step up and start to pressure Mugabe?
Or will we stand by and do nothing, watch "Hotel Zimbabwe" 15 years into the future, and wonder "how could this have happened? Why didn't we do anything about this?"
**Note** Embedded video is from youTube - original source is this link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...