OPPOSITION LEADERS ASSAULTED BY POLICE!

OPPOSITION LEADERS ASSAULTED BY POLICE!

(The hypocrisy of the International Community)

Morgan Tsvangirai after being released by Zimbabwe police.

The news this week that Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters were badly assaulted last Sunday during a peaceful protest against President Robert Mugabe’s government, did not surprise many people. Especially here in Seychelles. It is in fact a mirror image of what took place here in our country only six months ago, on the 3rd October, 2006, at the National Assembly in Victoria.

Can we allow ourselves to hope for real change in Zimbabwe’s and Seychelles’ political arena in the wake of the top leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Seychelles National Party (SNP) being beaten up by police forces and in the case of Zimbabwe thrown in jail?

Some observers might be tempted to conclude that such a display of violence is an indication that political malaise is poised finally to destroy the top echelons of the ruling Zanu (PF) and similarly its counterpart here the SPPF. They might conclude that the parties, Zanu (PF) and the SPPF are on the brink of collapse and that their latest show of force in response to peaceful gatherings is a clear sign of the beginning of the end for Robert Mugabe’s and the Rene/Michel’s regimes.

Perhaps. After all, repression, the banning of public political meetings and of press freedom, arbitrary arrests and police brutality often provide the ingredients to an explosive cocktail that can trigger civil uprisings that climax in the ousting of autocratic leaders.

In many African countries, and that include Seychelles, there is just no counterweight in the political structure, specifically in the form of a modern civil society. The emerging body of evidence, however, indicates that when the organs of civil society do gain a foothold and push for regime change, that change is likely to take place no matter the extent of the oppression.

The incident in Zimbabwe has highlighted the hypocritical nature of the International Community. The event in Zimbabwe which is similar to what took place in Seychelles on October, 3rd, 2007, in more ways than one - received widespread international coverage by all respected news agencies, CNN, BBC, Reuters and others.

The United Nation, the European Union, the US Government, the British Government, the French Government all condemned very strongly the actions of the Zimbabwean government. Something they should have done about the incident in Seychelles on the 3rd of October last year too. It would have sent out a strong message that these kinds of state sponsored violence have no place in the twentieth century. It might, just might have prevented what took place in Zimbabwe last Sunday.

In the final analysis it goes to show that if autocratic leaders like the ones in Seychelles, Zimbabwe and elsewhere do not challenge the direct interest of the European Union, the United Nation, the US Government, the British Government, and the French Government, they can murder, kill, harass, oppress freedom and democratic rule for as long as they can and the ‘West’ will turn a blind eye! Former President Rene was allowed to get away with a fourteen year oppressive brutal “one party state” system just because he did not pose a threat to ‘Western’ interests and influences in the region. Michel to a lesser extent is getting away with murder, so to speak, and our freedom, democracy loving ‘Western’ friends are looking the other way.