Pressuring Mugabe

According to the Mail & Guardian the United States has issued a statement from its embassy in Harare welcoming former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa's mediation in Zimbabwe's crisis. However, The US is only interested in Mkapa's involvement if it will not be a charade. Mkapa's intervention will only be useful if he is able to convince President Robert Mugabe to accept responsibility for his country's crisis and to encourage Mugabe to accept "sweeping political and economic reforms necessary to rescue Zimbabwe from its problems."

One can already envision Mugabe's response. He will condemn the United States as imperialists. He will point out America's involvemnent in Iraq as evidence, and will likely gibe the Bush administration for how swimmingly that intervention is going (a sort of ripple effect of the incompetence emanating from the White House, Foggy Bottom, and the Pentagon). He will stand firm and likely will vocalize his own conditions. Mkapa's intervention, like the rumors of Kofi Annan's before it will likely founder.

Mugabe is a madman. Any pressure that we, or especially the South Africans, can apply is welcome, but the reality is that Mugabe is highly unlikely to yield to outside pressure. Still, it is good that the American government is tired of the tomfoolery and that we only want to support actions that will lead to progress in battered Zimbabwe. At this point there is no sense expecting a cogent or sane or humane answer from the man many southern Africans call "Crazy Bob."