Robert Mugabe plays the race card again

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MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) - People of Zimbabwe are not likely to learn in the near future about the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections, which were held on March 29.

The ruling African National Union of Zimbabwe - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has asked the election commission to suspend the publication of these results because they have to be double checked, and a re-vote has to be held in 16 districts.

The election commission has been fiddling with these results for more than a week, but has apparently failed to make them suit Mugabe. Under the Constitution, a run-off has to take place no later than 21 days after the first round. But now it is clear that the second round will not be held either in a month or in two months - instead it will be replaced with the parade of 84 year-old Mugabe, the last Big African Leader who has been ruling the country since the proclamation of independence in 1980.

Mugabe is the biggest problem for the former Rhodesia. Once a hero of national liberation from the racist regime of Ian Smith and British colonizers, he has put the economy on the verge of collapse. Considering his recent election moves, it does not even matter what results will be announced and when.

Incidentally, these lame ducks from the election commission will obviously be the first victims of this election farce. At first, the opposition lashed out at them for the deliberate delay in counting the votes, and dubbed them an "obedient instrument" of the ruling regime. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is convinced that its candidate Morgan Richard Tsvangirai received 50.3% of votes in the first round, and has been elected president.

The opposition tried to stage an Orange revolution, and Tsvangirai even mentioned its Ukrainian version, but it became clear by April 7 that it is a no-go in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The ruling party accused the election commission of bribery, and demanded a recount at the presidential and parliamentary elections. Apparently, there were honest people on this commission. In the meantime, the veterans of the war for liberation have again embarked on the path of war, and started seizing the lands of white farmers.

Zimbabwe's neighbors have got it right. Zambia was the first to react by moving more troops to the border with the country of which it had once been part. Now Zambia has decided to reinforce the border buffer for fear of another wave of refugees, which it will not be able to cope with. Botswana and Mozambique followed suit.

A new exodus from Zimbabwe is inevitable because another term for Mugabe means that all national problems will continue. Britain and the EU will not lift their sanctions against Harare, which were imposed in 2000 in response to the confiscation of lands belonging to white farmers. No investment will be made. Who will invest in the economy, if before the elections Mugabe issued a decree allowing blacks to occupy the white-owned idle businesses?

Mugabe is a classic example of what happens with the once popular leaders when they have to undergo the trial of power. "The last hero of the guerrilla war" - these are the only good words that can be said today about this village carpenter's son, a former school teacher who tried to carry out in the former British colony his own model of Marxist socialism with a Maoist and North Korean tinge. He is not Africa's worst evil, nor the most inveterate black racist, but the image of a fighter against racism has been so deeply imbedded in his mentality since the 1970s that he has been playing black all the time. To sum up, he has failed to resist the temptation of becoming a black dictator.

Now there are fewer than 300 white farms left out of almost 5,000. Once Zimbabwe supplied grain, tobacco, fruit, and wine to all its neighbors, Britain and the rest of Europe, but now it has been reduced to poverty. This happened not because its people failed without the whites. Mugabe confiscated the best lands, mines, and hunting grounds, and gave them to his yes-men, party high-rankers and the brass, thereby creating a black elite. Farmers were given only tiny plots. A country with huge mineral resources and incredible sights (which could thrive on tourism for decades), Zimbabwe has become the sickest patient in the south of Africa. Inflation has skyrocketed to such heights, that nobody is even shocked by it. In official estimate, at the start of this year it reached a ridiculous 100,580%.

Zimbabwe's whites have fled to save themselves. The majority of former Rhodesian farmers now live in Britain, Australia, or New Zealand. But who will save the country's blacks? Out of its 12 million people, more than four million have a status of economic or political refugees in neighboring African countries. Others have nowhere to go because these countries do not want to accept more poor people. It would be good if the black population does not resort to arms. All African conflicts show what happens when blacks fight blacks.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

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