Military intervention kills off chances of democracy
Despite much rhetoric condemning violence, there seems to be no political will to deal with it
The Zimbabwean military’s move to end Robert Mugabe’s almost four-decade reign in 2017 sent jubilant crowds pouring into the streets of the capital hoping for better times after years of economic stagnation and repression. In the ensuing months, those dreams have been dashed. Since Emmerson Mnangagwa was installed as the new president, 18 people have been killed during protests, a dozen of them last week alone in demonstrations over the more than doubling of fuel prices to the highest in the world, according to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. “Mnangagwa promised change; nothing has changed,” said Boniface Tonderai, a vegetable vendor in the capital, Harare. “Now we aren’t being just chased and beaten — we’re being shot.” Gunshot wounds accounted for 78 of the nearly 360 injuries last week, the doctors’ association said. That compares to fewer than 20 bullet wounds out of 12,500 injuries during election violence in 2008, said a senior human rights activist, citi...
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