Let them know they're not alone

Zimbabweans who have voted for a new government have once again been let down by their most powerful potential ally. All of us who have looked to our Congressional representatives for help in resisting the creeping dictatorship in this country can identify with the feelings of democratic activists in Zimbabwe working to throw off an entrenched dictatorship:

I’m struggling to write this because I am angry, I feel sick, and yes, I am crying over my keyboard.

[South African President Thabo] Mbeki, after going to Harare to see Mugabe, says today that there is “no crisis”…

I cannot believe I am so upset - again - because whenever I know Thabo Mbeki is about to meet to discuss anything to do with the Zimbabwean crisis, I steel myself for extreme disappointment. He never fails to deliver, so why do I stupidly, even when I expect it, feel dumbfounded when it comes?!

A general strike has been called for next Tuesday to demand the publication of the election results. Meanwhile, the houses of opposition candidates are being burned, and supporters are being beaten. Follow the news at Action for Southern Africa.

Human solidarity is what the people of Zimbabwe need now. Despite Mbeki's disgraceful, apparently unshakable support of Mugabe, continue to pressure the governments of Southern Africa, individually and through their regional body SADC, to back the demand that election results be released. To his credit, Jacob Zuma, African National Congress candidate to succeed Mbeki as president of South Africa, has joined this call.

Via Thomas Nephew at Newsrack. Image from Sokwanele blog of burned-out house in western Zimbabwe.