http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070305&s=kirchick030807" target="_blank" class="articlelink" rel="nofollow">suffered under the yoke of Robert Mugabe without much resistance. And yesterday's violent government crackdown on a public prayer meeting was no exception. According to the organizers of the protest, the leader of the political opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai fainted three times while being beaten by police officers. His exact fate remains unknown. Police also shot and killed a protestor. The United States has condemned the brutality, while Mugabe used the occasion to announce that, never fear, he will "run" for reelection next time around (even if he fails in his attempt to extend his current term by two years by altering the constitution). While Mugabe's sadism knows no bounds, there are still those who defend him (and defended him many years ago, when his brutality was no less known that it is today). I was looking over some old newspaper articles yesterday and came across this interview from the London Times with Andrew Young, Jimmy Carter's U.N. Ambassador from May, 1978:

Does Mr. Mugabe strike you as a violent man?"
Young: Not at all, he's a very gentle man. In fact, one of the ironies of the whole struggle is that I can't imagine Joshua Nkomo, or Robert Mugabe, ever pulling the trigger on a gun to kill anyone. ... The only thing that frustrates me about Robert Mugabe is that he is so damned incorruptible.

Of course, just months later, Nkomo's men "pulled the trigger" on a civilian airliner, killing 38 instantly and murdering 10 others at point blank range on the ground after the crash. Another telling--and typical--example is a blind man in Zimbabwe last year who was beaten by Mugabe's thugs simply for expressing discontent with the state of Zimbabwean cricket on the radio. Meanwhile, South Africa does nothing. --James Kirchick