Zimbabwe's opposition leader arrested

Filed under: Africa ~ Zimbabwe

A thin red line exists between what we morally can and cannot do. Such a line exists for all people, except for Robert Mugabe. His line is the horizon -- no matter how much he pushes the boundaries, it moves further and further away. He has systematically turned Zimbabwe into hell on earth, but even most tyrants will allow their opposition to exist in name while restricting their activities. Not Mugabe. He thinks that he's God himself. So I guess it should be no surprise that he has taken his rule one step further by arresting opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Police stormed the main opposition party headquarters Wednesday and arrested its leader shortly before President Robert Mugabe left for an emergency meeting of southern African leaders about the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Morgan Tsvangirai and other Mugabe opponents were taken into custody hours before the opposition leader planned to talk to reporters about a wave of political violence that left him briefly hospitalized.

Police sealed off approaches to the Movement for Democratic Change headquarters and fired tear gas to drive away onlookers before taking Tsvangirai and the others away in a bus, said Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, an aide to Tsvangirai.

"We don't know their whereabouts. We don't know if they have been charged," he said.

Zimpundit says that this shows that Mugabe is willing to do anything to crush the opposition and remain in power. Certainly so. In the moment, one would find it impossible to believe that genocide in Rwanda and Sudan could actually happen until it is well underway, regardless of the plentiful signs pointing in that direction well ahead of time.

Meanwhile, the world stands by idly interpreting events and, rather than acting on that analysis, hopes that the horizon will eventually end. A cartoon posted by Sokwanele sums it up: