From the Salmon

I have stared into the face of evil, and I do not believe I will ever forget the sights of pure wickedness that have become commonplace in Zimbabwe.

— From This is Zimbabwe

One month ago, Zimbabwe’s brutal leader Robert Mugabe began Operation Murambatsvina, which literally translates to “Operation Drive Out Trash.” The “trash”? 250,000 to 1.5 million of Zimbabwe’s urban poor who have had their homes bulldozed or burnt down by Mugabe’s police. The newly homeless are left to sleep outside in the freezing winter nights or are being pushed into rural areas, where they face dangerous food shortages and likely starvation.

Mugabe has managed to stay in power for 25 years by allegedly stealing elections and by dealing brutally with his political opponents. In the past decade, he has turned a country that was once a net exporter of food into a country that faces massive food shortages. The outlying rural areas are now deeply dependent on government food rationing, which means they are deeply beholden to Mugabe’s corrupt patronage system. 80% of the country is unemployed, which means that the only way millions are able to survive is by participating in the very informal economy that Mugabe has targeted.

Mugabe claims that these purges are necessary to improve the urban economy and environment. But some observers believe the home demolitions are specifically targeting areas that are the base for Mugabe’s political opposition.

Regardless of Mugabe’s stated rationale, Operation Murambatsvina has been particularly pernicious. Residents have been given little to no warning before eviction. Some residents have been forced to participate in the demolition of their own homes, and if they refused, they have been forced to pay for the demolition themselves. Churches have been instructed not to accept the homeless for shelter. Some churches have organized efforts to transport people to rural areas where they might find shelter, but Zimbabwe faces a dire fuel shortage that has made such efforts extremely difficult.

The BBC has published aerial photos that show the devastation in one of the many areas targeted in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city:

Mark Taylor, a pastor who grew up in Zimbabwe, gives some background here on the area depicted in the photo.

The first thing I thought of when I read the initial stories about Operation Murambatsvina was the scene in The Killing Fields that depicted the emptying of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge. I realize that Pol Pot comparisons can be pretty controversial these days, but I’m not sure they’re so far off in this case.

In 2002, the Telegraph’s Christina Lamb published a harrowing account (bugmenot) of the rise of rape as a political tool by Mugabe’s security forces. After several horrific, detailed stories, Lamb observes:

Officials now speak of “taking the system back to zero” and of reducing the country’s 12 million population in a chilling echo of what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 1970s and seem to even be employing similar tactics of emptying cities and targeting teachers.

Last week Didymus Mutasa, the organisation secretary of Zanu-PF, said: “We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle.”

Mutasa is now head of the secret police. And his words echo in my ears as I read about Mugabe’s recent brutality.

The US, UK, UN, and more than 200 aid and human rights groups have pushed other African leaders to do something. But just last week, the African Union made it clear that it was not interested in intervening.

Honestly, I don’t know what the solution is. The situation in Zimbabwe is unlikely to get better until Mugabe’s government is removed, but I really don’t know the best way to bring that about.

I write this because these stories tear at my heart and I don’t know what else to do. I’m still learning about Zimbabwe’s history, Mugabe’s regime, and its recent atrocities. If you’re interested in reading more, these are some of the sites that I have found helpful:

• I’ve been learning about Zimbabwe over the past few months by reading Steve’s occasional postings at Two and Two Makes Five.
• Two recent postings by Charles Bird at Obsidian Wings opened my eyes to how bad the situation has gotten.
• This Is Zimbabwe and its parent site Sokwanele are probably the best two sources I’ve found for understanding the current situation and the historical context.
• The Zimbabwe Situation has compiled a vast collection of recent articles, editorials, and letters.
• The BBC, Guardian, Telegraph and other British media outlets have done a much better job of reporting on Zimbabwe than their US counterparts.

For now, all I know to do is read, write and pray.

I pray for relief workers, human rights workers, and the church in Zimbabwe, that they might have the resources and courage to bring healing, mercy and change. I pray this out of a belief in a loving, just, sovereign, powerful God. But as I pray and write, I will honestly admit that events like this can sometimes make it awfully difficult to believe in the power of God’s love and justice in the face of seemingly irrepressible human evil.