Karadzic and Mugabe murdered 8k and 30 k respectively yet only one was ever punished. By Nomusa Garikai

I have read two articles which have left me totally confused and angry in equal measure!

“More than two decades after the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, a U.N. tribunal in The Hague has convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The judges handed the 70-year-old Karadzic a 40-year sentence,” reported the BBC.

“When tribunal judges issued warrants for Karadzic and his top military commander, Ratko Mladic, in late 1995, they characterized their crimes as “truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of history.”

Compare this with the following quote from a Bulawayo 24 article.

 “Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is going to finish off President Robert Mugabe's term in office, amid top secret disclosures that, a cross-section of International players are reportedly embracing and endorsing Mnangagwa, behind the curtains to bring economic stimulus to Harare, Spotlight Zimbabwe, can reveal.”

So we have here the same “cross-section of international players”, rightly outraged by Karadzic and his henchmen’s crimes against humanity, would not rest until they saw to it that the “butcher of Bosnia” and his thugs faced justice. In Zimbabwe’s case President Mugabe and his regime have systematically murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish their de facto one-party dictatorship and the same international players never battered an eye lid and are instead queuing up to do business with Mugabe and his right-hand murder-man, Emmerson Mnangagwa!

Are the 8 000 Bosnians Karadzic murdered more human than the 30 000 Zimbabweans Mugabe and Mnangagwa murdered?  

When the Mugabe regime started its murderous mission in earnest with Gukurahundi in the mid-1980s the international community turned a blind eye whilst Mugabe murdered over 20 000, mainly PF Zapu supporters. PF Zapu finally capitulated, signed the Unity Accord and the party was swallowed up to the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. The political murders have continued with the last mass slaughter happening in 2008 where over 500 were killed in two months before the June 2008 presidential run-off vote.

The de facto one-party dictatorship has over time migrated to become a de facto one-man dictatorship.

When Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 it marked the end of our fight to end white colonial exploitation and oppression. But instead of independence bring the freedom, liberty, justice and human rights and dignity we had hoped for, the Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship has systematically denied us all these freedoms and rights.  Since 1980, Zimbabweans have been fighting to end the corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship.

We know the GNU offered the nation our best chance yet to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, we have put up our hands and accepted the corrupt and incompetent Morgan Tsvangirai and his gaggle MDC village idiots wasted the golden opportunity. It is understandable that the international community should be disappointed after all the effort and trust it had put in MDC doing the right thing. Hell, every thinking Zimbabwean who understood the enormity of the MDC sell-out is disappointed too.

What the international community should understand is that MDC’s betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe must not be used as an excuse for rolling out the red carpet and welcoming the Zanu PF regime in the international family of nations. Mugabe and Mnangagwa rigged the last elections and their hands are red with the blood of the innocent Zimbabweans they murdered.

Mugabe must be pressured to implement meaningful democratic reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections. Until Zimbabwe has a democratically elected government, the country must continue to be treated like a pariah state it is.

After the international community has turned its blind eye whilst Mugabe built his tyrannical one-man dictatorship on the broken bodies of over 30 000 murdered Zimbabweans the least the community can do now is stand with those fighting to end the dictatorship.

Zimbabweans are not asking the international community to arrest Mugabe, Mnangagwa and all the other murderous thugs and force them to face justice in The Hague; the international community has shown that it is not interested in even talking about it. All we are asking for is that the international community should not be propping up the dictatorship; that, surely, is not too much to ask!

When all is said and done the murder of the 8 000 Bosnians is as much “truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of history” to the international community just as the murder of 30 000 Zimbabweans by Mugabe’s thugs is “truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of history” to every Zimbabwean!