Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 25. April 2007 / Time Line April 25, 2007
Version 3.024. April 2007, 26. April 2007
04/25/2007
Zimbabwe Army's deserters underscore country's troubles
Christian Science Monitor
They are the missing regiment: 1,500 men deserting from the Zimbabwean
Defense Forces across the South African border, sometimes in groups of
two or three, and sometimes in whole platoons. The loss of a regiment,
talked about in hushed tones at Army headquarters in the early part of
this year, is no small matter in a country as poor as Zimbabwe.
But for
the regime of President Robert Mugabe, an anticolonial commander who has
always found his staunchest supporters among the military, it could be
fatal. If he can't rely on his own security forces to maintain control,
one year ahead of crucial presidential elections, how much control does
he really have? "This is the breakdown of Mugabe's most trusted sector;
he banked on the military and the security forces," says Sikhumbuzo
Ndiweni, a retired Zimbabwe Defense Forces lieutenant colonel and now a
commentator on Zimbabwean affairs. Mr. Ndiweni himself fled Zimbabwe in
November 2003 because of what he called continual harassment by police.
"This spells doom and a painful end, [in the same vein as] Mengistu, Idi
Amin, and Charles Taylor," he says, referring to the former dictators of
Ethiopia, Uganda, and Liberia, respectively. One of them, Mengistu Haile
Mariam, is living in exile in Zimbabwe...
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