Zimbabwe's Terror

Will no one act to stop Robert Mugabe's attack on his own people?

AS THE WORLD looks on, Robert Mugabe's campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe continues unchecked. On Thursday, The Post's Craig Timberg reported that gangs from Mr. Mugabe's ruling party beat 11 opposition activists to death on Monday in the town of Chiweshe, 90 miles north of the capital of Harare. The same day, at least five people were murdered by the president's thugs in the village of Dakudzwa, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times. Across the country, truckloads of men are pulling into rural villages and towns that voted against Mr. Mugabe in the March 29 elections, rounding up opposition supporters for beatings or worse and burning their homes and crops.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which won both the presidential and parliamentary elections, says that at least 32 of its supporters have been killed by the government offensive in the past two weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says about 700 people are known to have been treated for injuries. The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union says that as many as 40,000 farmworkers and their families have been driven from their homes.

Even observers sympathetic to the Mugabe regime have confirmed what is going on. "We have seen it, there are people in hospital who said they have been tortured, you have seen pictures, you have seen pictures of houses that have been destroyed and so on," said Kingsley Mamabolo, the leader of an eight-member South African fact-finding team, according to the Zimbabwe Guardian newspaper. Mr. Mamabolo's group was dispatched by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has emerged as the principal obstacle to international intervention in Zimbabwe's crisis.

Mr. Mbeki, who is supposed to be mediating on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has done nothing to stop the violence, despite rising outrage in his own country. Nor has he pressed Mr. Mugabe to accept the results of the elections. The 84-year-old president permitted his election commission to release the results of the presidential race only last Friday, more than a month after the vote. Officially the incumbent was awarded 43 percent of the ballots to 48 percent for challenger Morgan Tsvangirai, making a second round necessary. The opposition claims that Mr. Tsvangirai won with more than 50 percent of the vote. In any case, Mr. Mugabe's men are saying that they won't schedule the second round within the three-week time frame required by the constitution -- and may delay it by up to 12 months.

In the meantime, Mr. Mugabe clearly intends to terrorize the country into voting for him. Only intervention by Zimbabwe's neighbors or the United Nations is likely to stop him. It is past time for the SADC to relieve Mr. Mbeki of his duties and demand that Mr. Mugabe immediately end the violence. The U.N. Security Council, which was blocked by South Africa from formally considering the matter last month, is now chaired by Britain; it should urgently consider action, including a resolution ordering Mr. Mugabe to cease repression and allow international supervision of any second-round vote.