Harper silent about Tsvangirai

Edmund Burke once said something to the effect that "all it takes for evil to take hold, is for good men to sit by and do nothing."

So will someone please explain why PMS has still not said a single word about the events of this past weekend in Zimbabwe -- the ZANU-PF government sponsored assassination attempt (and there is no other way to describe it) on Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the increasingly repressed opposition Movement for Democratic Change in what has become the basket case of Africa. Any claims by ZANU-PF that it was the opposition that started the violence is simply not credible -- it's crap.

The European Union and its leaders have spoken strongly about Robert Mugabe's latest attempts to crush his chief rival and anyone else who might be tempted to try an overthrow of him. So too has the United States, Australia and a number of other leading democracies. So why not Canada? Yes, Peter Mackay has said something, but that's not good enough -- we need a response from our Prime Minister. Could the silence be because there isn't as great a diaspora of people from the former Rhodesia as, say, South Africa? Or perhaps it's because Zimbabwe doesn't have that much oil?

All this on top of the fact that Mugabe's policies of consolidation have been a miserable failure, to the point the inflation rate now runs at 1,730% per year. Consider that Canada's CPI runs at only 1.2%. Many of us are young enough to remember inflation of 15% a year and punitive wage and price controls. Now imagine living in a country where one can't even afford a loaf of bread even on a week's wages.

It's important to remember that the comprehensive sanctions against Zimbabwe only apply to the country's top officials -- and even then there are loopholes; such as when Mugabe was able to go to the Vatican for Pope John Paul's funeral a couple of years ago despite an EU travel ban (because Italy is required to grant free passage to the Vatican even though the latter is not an EU member). So the crisis is entirely Mugabe's making.

Some say the solution will only come when ZANU-PF gets its senses and dumps its leader. Frankly, I think there's a much easier way. I support regime change in those limited circumstances where human rights abuses are so cumulative that no other option is available. This is the case with places like Burma and Libya. The same applies to Zimbabwe. If the rumour is true that every Prime Minister gets three secret assassinations, Harper should use one of them on Mugabe. Short of that, he should recall our Ambassador there, Roxanne Dubé, and say that she will not be back until Mugabe either throws in the towel or releases Tsvangirai unconditionally. There is no middle road here.

One cannot claim to push for human rights in China while saying nothing about them in Zimbabwe. To say nothing is to support the oppression.

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