MUGABE TAKES OUT THE TRASH

As most of you are aware, Mugabe's thugs have been very active recently:

In a long-planned operation codenamed Operation Murambatsvina - Shona for Operation Drive Out Trash - Zimbabwe's police have used sledgehammers and bulldozers to reduce brick homes to rubble, and they have torched flimsy shacks. At the same time, thousands of informal businesses have been destroyed, with more than 20,000 traders arrested, their possessions smashed or irretrievably confiscated by those entrusted to uphold the law.

So, what was the ultimate objective? Easy, eradicate the political opposition by attacking its roots:

With one brutal blow, Robert Mugabe set out to achieve multiple political objectives; most significantly, a pre-emptive strike against a restive urban population, a show of force designed to intimidate and subdue. By driving the poor into the impoverished rural areas, the urban population will be reduced, making future uprisings more manageable. And rural containment, with almost no access to modern communication systems, will make political resistance easier to control.

There is another objective too: with the Zimbabwean economy painfully on its knees, the destruction of informal businesses also represents a frantic attempt to force the informal sector to bring its foreign currency into the formal banking sector. The final Zanu PF objective - cruel retribution against an urban population that voted overwhelmingly for the opposition MDC - is a bonus.

Mr Mugabe's press laws make certain that the shivering, shocked faces of his defenceless victims will never appear on TV screens around the world. The police made doubly sure of that by carefully cordoning off areas where they were active to prevent cameras from recording the wreckage. Be assured, however, that the devastation cannot be overstated.

In a country where unemployment exceeds 75%, informal businesses help millions of Zimbabweans and their families to survive. Zanu PF's latest actions leave the poor with three remaining options: beg, steal or starve. Hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the elderly and the frail, have been rendered instantly homeless during Zimbabwe's cold winter months. The UN has estimated that as many as 3 million people - nearly a quarter of Zimbabwe's population - could eventually be affected by the police action.

Enough of that, let's get back to what's really important, book mishandling at GITMO.