The UN Security Council was deeply divided when it met yesterday to discuss Zimbabwe’s ongoing election crisis. Though the issue was discussed in a closed meeting, sources say that South Africa, the current president of the UNSC, led efforts to block the appointment of a special UN envoy and fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Needless to say, Zimbabwe was quite happy with the results of the meeting. Britain takes over the presidency on May 1, and will likely raise the issue again. However, any UN action on Zimbabwe will still need to overcome the vetoes of China and Russia, who joined in South Africa’s dissent. (So predictable.)
Zimbabwe’s chief of police blames the opposition for both election fraud and the post-election violence, though the government did admit to the death of an opposition supporter at the hands of state security forces. The verification/recount/rigging/whatever of the ballots in the presidential election is set to begin tomorrow, after being postponed numerous times.
BBC published excerpts from a diary kept by a Harare resident describing the difficulties of daily life—the result of an economy run into the ground by nearly 3 decades of Mugabe’s senseless and destructive policies, and only made worse by the recent chaos over the elections. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate is the highest in the world—over 100,000%—and average life expectancy has dropped below 40. Mugabe and ZANU-PF have completely devastated the country, and it’s quite simply time for them to go.
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