Zimbabwe falls further

Zimbabwe has been well on its way to becoming a failed state for quite some time. However, as the article below shows, the deterioration in the last year has been incredibly rapid. Mugabe has managed to drive his "beloved" country into ruin, all the more terrible a crime given how stable and successful Zimbabwe had been before he "saved" it.

It is quite likely that we will see either widespread violence, or a completely failed state such as Somalia emerge from the wreckage that is Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Declares Cholera Emergency

By BARRY BEARAK

JOHANNESBURG — The Zimbabwean health minister, David Parirenyatwa, has declared the nation’s cholera outbreak a national emergency and appealed for outside help, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. The epidemic has claimed more than 560 lives.

The news emerged a day after riot police officers brandishing batons charged into a group of 100 doctors and nurses on Wednesday in Harare, the capital, breaking up a demonstration for better pay and working conditions in a nation suffering from both the cholera outbreak and an economy in free fall.

The health workers, many dressed in uniform, fled as the police approached. Nearby, teachers and other union members tried to join the protest but were clubbed by yet more police officers, and at least 15 were arrested.

Earlier in the day, armed men identifying themselves as the police officers took a human rights activist, Jestina Mukoko, from her home in what Amnesty International called “part of an established pattern of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders.” Ms. Mukoko, whose whereabouts are unknown, is director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, an organization that has been documenting rights abuses.

The cholera epidemic and the new crackdown on dissent come in a country already mired in desperation. The government is paralyzed by a stalemated power-sharing deal, and the official inflation rate is 231 million percent. Grocery shelves are largely barren. Most public hospitals and schools are closed.

According to the Herald, Mr. Parirenyatwa, the health minister, said many hospitals were in urgent need of drugs, food and equipment. He also cited the critical shortage of staff in hospitals adding that those remaining had “no zeal” to work, the Herald said.

By declaring an emergency, the health minister was able to appeal for outside help which, he said, “will help us reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with the current socio-economic environment by December 2009.”

The newspaper quoted the minister as telling potential donors: "Our central hospitals are literally not functioning. Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived." He listed urgent requirements as including medicines, laboratory reagents, surgical sundries, renal and laundry equipment, X-ray films and boilers, the Herald said.

Since August, cholera deaths have risen to 565, according to the United Nations. More than 12,500 people are infected, and to make matters worse, in Harare water itself has become scarce as a dysfunctional government lacks the chemicals to purify the drinking supply. Many businesses have shut because of the sanitation problems.

To add to the chaos, soldiers, angered at the meagerness of their deflated pay, on Monday rampaged through central Harare, breaking windows, looting stores and robbing the money changers who deal in foreign currency. Armed police officers had to disperse the marauding troops with tear gas.

The demonstrations on Wednesday brought yet another macabre scene of violence. The police “assaulted several women, some of them pregnant,” said Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

The protesters, upset about restrictions that kept them from reclaiming their increasingly worthless cash, had been marching with placards. One read, “We want all our money!” Another said, “People are dying of preventable disease!”

Many onlookers were standing in long lines at banks, and they watched with a contradictory set of anxieties, afraid of being shot but reluctant to risk losing their place.

“I don’t want to die now,” said one observer, Mary Muzanenhamo, a mother of two boys. “I have kids to look after. I just hope this crisis will soon be over and we can start on a new chapter.”

Among the protesters who were arrested were Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Congress of Trade Unions, and Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Mr. Matombo said. All those arrested were released.

More than 50 others were arrested in demonstrations throughout the country, according to a statement by the Congress of Trade Unions, and several of those protesters remained jailed.

Earlier, some union members had presented a petition to Gideon Gono, the powerful governor of the nation’s Reserve Bank. The wages of many salaried workers are paid directly into bank accounts, and Mr. Gono had promised to raise the amount people can withdraw from 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars each day, which is now a paltry 20 cents, to 100 million Zimbabwean dollars, or about $40, each week.

The health care workers had their own particular complaints. “We are forced to work without basic health institutional needs like drugs, adequate water and sanitation, safe clothing gear, medical equipment and support services,” read a protest letter from the Zimbabwe Doctors’ Association.

Conditions in hospitals and clinics have been steadily deteriorating. Basic medicines are absent. There is no thread for suturing or needles for injections. The health system was already in collapse when the cholera epidemic struck.

This week, Unicef announced an emergency response to the worsening conditions. So did the European Commission and the International Red Cross.

“Cholera is a disease of destitution that used to be almost unknown in Zimbabwe,” Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, told The Associated Press.

He was referring to a time when Zimbabwe was a breadbasket of the region. But during the past decade this nation has plunged into ruin, one reason being the confiscation of white-owned farms by the government of Robert Mugabe.

In elections last March, the 84-year-old Mr. Mugabe, who has headed the country for nearly 30 years, was outpolled by opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. Forces loyal to the president then unleashed a campaign of violence before a runoff vote set for June. The brutality caused Mr. Tsvangirai to withdraw from the second election.

Regional leaders finally coaxed the two sides into a power-sharing deal with Mr. Mugabe’s remaining as president and Mr. Tsvangirai’s becoming prime minister. But though the agreement was hailed as a breakthrough, vital details have never been ironed out and the arrangement has been stymied by disputes over who will control central government ministries.