Zimbabwe's continuing descent

■"Zimbabwe Takes Harsh Steps in Major Cities to Counter Unrest," by Michael Wines, New York Times, 2 June 2005, p. A4.

If the end of the Mugabe regime isn't near, then we're witnessing the beginning of the end for a significant portion of Zimbabwe's people:

Facing rising unrest over a collapsing economy, Zimbabwe's authoritarian government has apparently adopted a scorched-earth policy toward potential enemies, detaining thousands of people, burning homes and street kiosks and routing large numbers of people from makeshift homes in major cities.

The numbers here are staggering, if true. Zimbabwe has only 10-11 million people, and some observers estimate over 1 million people have been displacedóperhaps as many as 1.5 million. As one source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution put it: "I don't think anyone has any idea of the scaleóit's big."

Experts on the situation believe that Robert Mugabe's regime is effectively waging a preemptive war against his own people, before all the economic deprivation drives them to unrest. This is the classic African Big Man phenomenon at its worst: better that 1 and a half million should hit the streets, with some godawful percentage suffering premature death as a result, than Robert Mugabe's regime suffer any potential loss of power. It doesn't matter how many of his people will die, Mugabe must rule.

Tell me this isn't a politically bankrupt state that needs a regime change now. Tell me you would like to see an international system arise, populated by rich and powerful states with the military and financial resources necessary to remove the regime from power and begin rebuilding this shattered economy.

Or do we just sit back and watch several hundred thousand more deaths get added to the African Holocaust of the last ten years?

Get ready for your grandkids asking you someday "What did you do, Daddy, during the African Holocaust?" And yes, in our indifference and in its purposeful killing, it is exactly the moral equivalent of the Jewish Holocaust.

Then again, maybe a nice museum on the Mall 50 years from now will do the trick. I can't wait!