Mr. Mugabe's Violence

THE EVIDENCE is now overwhelming that the Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe is engaged in a massive, orchestrated and brutal campaign to punish and terrorize its opponents.
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n some areas, torture camps have been established where victims are taken and beaten while their homes are looted and burned.
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. While the bureaucrats drag their feet, Mr. Mugabe's campaign of terror continues in the countryside -- and virtually ensures that if a presidential runoff is held it will not be free or fair. "What we are witnessing constitutes a form of rigging," said the chairman of the human rights association.
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In few places in the world could such a brazen operation proceed without triggering intervention by neighbors or the United Nations. Sadly, Zimbabwe remains one of those places, largely because the president of its most powerful neighbor, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, has chosen to shield Mr. Mugabe from pressure. Though the U.N. Security Council finally met to consider the Zimbabwean situation yesterday, it did so in private and issued no statement -- because its current chairman happens to be from South Africa. The Southern African Development Community has been similarly stymied, even though its chairman, Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, has courageously stood up against Mr. Mugabe.