Feature

Blame for Zimbabwe's suffering

Are other African leaders doing enough to confront Robert Mugabe?

"President Robert Mugabe is responsible for much of Zimbabwe's terrible suffering," said The New York Times in an editorial. But other African leaders have failed to push the strongman into sharing power with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. As long as Mugabe's neighbors let him "bully them into silence—with phony claims of anti-colonialism and national sovereignty—they are fully complicit."

Maybe, but power-sharing isn't the answer, either, said Rich Mkhondo in The Star, a South African daily. Mugabe lost the election, so insisting on some kind of unity government "is making a mockery" of democracy. Letting Mugabe continue to call the shots only shows "how a single twerp can cause instability around an entire region and get away with it."

It's ridiculous to pin all of Zimbabwe's problems on one man, said Zimbabwe's government newspaper, The Herald, in an editorial. Take Harare's cholera outbreak. The Ministry of Health has issued several alerts, but the city's elected leaders have done nothing to protect the people. "What has happened to all the glittering election promises?

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