Caporegime
Possible coup in Zimbabwe
- Thread starter dowie
- Start date
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Hopefully those oppressed Zimbawe citiizens who silently so long wished for a country as it was under Ian Smith will be seeing some hope, but I think it is optimistic if the Crocodile replaces him. This is an excerpt from an article in The Telegraph from 2007:
Ian Smith only once doubted the wisdom of his decision to declare UDI and lead Rhodesia into a 15-year civil war to protect white rule.
That moment of doubt occurred in April 1980, during a meeting with Robert Mugabe, who the previous day had taken office as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe had summoned Smith to Government House and Smith was surprised to be greeted with a warm handshake and a broad smile; after all, the country's new Marxist leader had promised his people that, come liberation, he would have Smith publicly hanged in Harare's main square.
At that meeting, Mugabe told Smith he was acutely aware that he had inherited from his old adversaries, the whites, a jewel of a country, and he praised its superb infrastructure, its efficient modern economy, and promised to keep it that way.
Smith, completely disarmed, rushed home in a state of excitement, and, over lunch, told his wife, Janet, that perhaps he had been wrong about a black government being incapable of running his beloved Rhodesia.
As he told me years later: "Here's this chap, and he was speaking like a sophisticated, balanced, sensible man. I thought: if he practises what he preaches, then it will be fine. And for five or six months it was fine…"
The simple, trusting banality of Ian Smith's words may, in fact, offer more clues to the catastrophe that has been Rhodesia/Zimbabwe over the past half-century than any number of political or academic tracts.
The point is Mugabe was not the sophisticated, balanced, sensible man Smith had briefly hoped for. Even as he was shaking Smith's hand, he was plotting the destruction of another group of political enemies, the Matabele, and was soon to send Korean-trained troops into Matabeleland to conduct a campaign of torture and murder that has still to be fully exposed.
It is estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians were murdered and as many again disfigured and tortured in what the Matabeles call the gukuruhundi, the washing away after the storm.
The sensible chap, in fact, turned out to be the type of African leader that "good old Smithy", as his supporters called him, had campaigned against throughout the UDI years. He became the embodiment of corrupt, violent, amoral African dictatorship - just as Smith had warned his supporters.
The full article is at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3644217/Ian-Smith-has-sadly-been-proved-right.html
I wish them luck, Smith will likely still be quietly missed, things are unlikely to change in this once fabulous country.
Ian Smith only once doubted the wisdom of his decision to declare UDI and lead Rhodesia into a 15-year civil war to protect white rule.
That moment of doubt occurred in April 1980, during a meeting with Robert Mugabe, who the previous day had taken office as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe had summoned Smith to Government House and Smith was surprised to be greeted with a warm handshake and a broad smile; after all, the country's new Marxist leader had promised his people that, come liberation, he would have Smith publicly hanged in Harare's main square.
At that meeting, Mugabe told Smith he was acutely aware that he had inherited from his old adversaries, the whites, a jewel of a country, and he praised its superb infrastructure, its efficient modern economy, and promised to keep it that way.
Smith, completely disarmed, rushed home in a state of excitement, and, over lunch, told his wife, Janet, that perhaps he had been wrong about a black government being incapable of running his beloved Rhodesia.
As he told me years later: "Here's this chap, and he was speaking like a sophisticated, balanced, sensible man. I thought: if he practises what he preaches, then it will be fine. And for five or six months it was fine…"
The simple, trusting banality of Ian Smith's words may, in fact, offer more clues to the catastrophe that has been Rhodesia/Zimbabwe over the past half-century than any number of political or academic tracts.
The point is Mugabe was not the sophisticated, balanced, sensible man Smith had briefly hoped for. Even as he was shaking Smith's hand, he was plotting the destruction of another group of political enemies, the Matabele, and was soon to send Korean-trained troops into Matabeleland to conduct a campaign of torture and murder that has still to be fully exposed.
It is estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians were murdered and as many again disfigured and tortured in what the Matabeles call the gukuruhundi, the washing away after the storm.
The sensible chap, in fact, turned out to be the type of African leader that "good old Smithy", as his supporters called him, had campaigned against throughout the UDI years. He became the embodiment of corrupt, violent, amoral African dictatorship - just as Smith had warned his supporters.
The full article is at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3644217/Ian-Smith-has-sadly-been-proved-right.html
I wish them luck, Smith will likely still be quietly missed, things are unlikely to change in this once fabulous country.
It's not really a coup to be fair, it's not like the military is taking control of the country, what's happening is that the elected party has decided it's leader has strayed too far from it's ideals and so is replacing them for the good of the party/country.
It's essentially the same thing that happened with Thatcher and the Tories back in the early nineties, just not as clean/efficient due to the systems in place for it not being as well defined.
Soldato
Temporary coup?
Only exception as such is like ubersonic outlined where the military are acting at the behest of the ruling political party. Otherwise its kind of silly as the first thing the leader would do once reinstated if its "not a coup" is remove those who orchestrated it from power and likely undo what they did depending a bit on circumstances.
I guess it would be "not a coup" if the military immediately called a "free and fair" election once things were stabilised.
Soldato
Just swapping one dictator for another. What a world.
Technically they don't need to do that as people elected ZANU-PF not Mugabe, sort of like how Major replacing Thatcher didn't trigger an election because people elected the Conservatives not Thatcher.
I'm not saying that Mugabe's replacement won't call an early election, just that it's not required just like it isn't in this country.
Was just covering both bases depending on whether they were or weren't working with legit ruling party people.
Caporegime
Coup light? Diet Coup?
Permabanned
Coup de Grace? Have they decided where Grace is at the moment?
Coup Zero, with Vanilla.
"essentially the same thing that happened with Thatcher and the Tories back in the early nineties"
LOL yeah OK, because they had the army take over the streets back in the 90s... what on earth are you smoking, the military has taken over this is not the same as the rest of the govt voting the leader out
of course it is a coup, one dictator is being replaced by another... maybe they'll have some elections in due course if the new dictator does want to rebuild links with the international community but remember what happened when the MDC apparently won an election in the past
she's apparently fled to Namibia, presumably she didn't want to go to South Africa as if she lost the diplomatic immunity she'd potentially face criminal charges after doing this to a young South African girl she caught with her sons:
This sort of reminds me of the old board game "Junta"
Capture presidential Palace=Check
Capture radio station=Check
Etc, Etc....
Also reminds me of an old "Private Eye" spoof article referring to
President Ehbygum, president of Rumbabwe (Formally British Rumbabaland)
(And so on.....
)
Capture presidential Palace=Check
Capture radio station=Check
Etc, Etc....
Also reminds me of an old "Private Eye" spoof article referring to
President Ehbygum, president of Rumbabwe (Formally British Rumbabaland)
(And so on.....
)
Soldato
Soldato
The opening paragraph from The Economist absolutely nails it.
https://www.economist.com/news/lead...e-and-help-zimbabwe-recover-it-army-sidelines
https://www.economist.com/news/lead...e-and-help-zimbabwe-recover-it-army-sidelines
Soldato
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Its engineered by Mugabe's former right hand man who Mugabe fell out with badly, just like he's done with all his former allies. He's either too paranoid or too jealous to tolerate any potential rival. The army has always been behind Mugabe seeing him as the father of the revolution but they're not prepared to see his wife succeed him.
Mugabe's former right hand man is just as ruthless as he is by all accounts.
Mugabe's former right hand man is just as ruthless as he is by all accounts.
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Let's invade now. Bring about some change. With Brexit we need all the dictators we can get.