Press Statement by Morgan Tsvangirai
Saturday May 10th, 2008
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
On March 29th the people of Zimbabwe won an historic victory.
That historic and resounding victory should have heralded a new and joyful era for all Zimbabweans. Instead Zimbabweans have endured confusion, pain, death and despair as the result of a violent onslaught against the people by Zanu PF.
As is now well documented, my opponent in this race has decided to turn his thugs on the people. The former liberator has turned his back on the people of Zimbabwe and on the entire continent of Africa.
It is very, very sad for me to call Mugabe a former liberator. It is sad for me to say that he has turned his back on both his people and his continent. Mugabe was once my hero too. Because of his sacrifices, millions of our citizens are well educated and had great opportunities to grow and prosper.
But something happened to Mugabe on our long walk to freedom, something happened that hardened his heart. Something happened that made him abandon the very people he once fought to free.
He has unleashed violence on his own children, the people of Zimbabwe.
And for those carrying out the violence on the ground, the police, the militia, the army and the so called war veterans now is the time to give very serious thought to the implications of further attacks on innocent civilians. You are breaking Zimbabwean and international laws and the whole world is watching.
The time is now for our professional security services to follow their hearts and become professional again, rather than follow a former liberation hero on his path to destruction. You will be in Zimbabwe long after Mugabe is gone.
In view of the unfolding post-election tragedy, the leadership of the MDC, civil society, and all democratic forces have had a very difficult decision to make. We know the betrayal of ballots being followed by bullets. We know that another election may bring more violence, more gloom, more betrayal.
We know there should not be a runoff election there was only one reason the ZEC announced results before completing verification. We know the verified total would have revealed the full extent of the dictatorship's defeat and the full extent of the peoples' victory.
But we also know a runoff election could finally knock-out the dictator for good. A runoff election could be the final round in a very long fight to liberate ourselves from our former liberator.
We know that we have won, but do we nevertheless decide to contest a runoff election to hasten the end of this debacle? Or do we wait and hope for the political environment to improve, for mediation to start, for mediation to end--all the while the people continue to suffer?
