UN Report: Mugabe Not To Blame For Sweep That Left 700,000 Homeless

Yesterday, the UN released its report on what Zimbabwe locals call "Operation Tsunami," President Mugabe's forced relocation of poor, opposition populations from urban centers. Says the report:

Popularly referred to as “Operation Tsunami” because of its speed and ferocity it resulted in the destruction of homes, business premises and vending sites. It is estimated that some 700,000 people in cities across the country have lost either their homes, their source of livelihood or both. Indirectly, a further 2.4 million people have been affected in varying degrees.

Hundreds of thousands of women, men and children were made homeless, without access to food, water and sanitation, or health care. Education for thousands of school age children has been disrupted.

Many of the sick, including those with HIV and AIDS, no longer have access to care. The vast majority of those directly and indirectly affected are the poor and disadvantaged segments of the population. They are, today, deeper in poverty, deprivation and destitution, and have been rendered more vulnerable.

In an act that would be amazing if this report wasn't authored by the UN, Mugabe gets no blame. Indeed, the report makes no mention of the politics of power behind the sweep, and instead blames the whole thing was just an unfortunate miscommunication and overenthusiam for cleaning up the capital city's street blight:

The Government of Zimbabwe is collectively responsible for what has happened. However, it appears that there was no collective decision-making with respect to both the conception and implementation of Operation Restore Order. Evidence suggests it was based on improper advice by a few architects of the operation. The people and Government of Zimbabwe should hold to account those responsible for the injury caused by the Operation.

So 700,000 people were forceably displaced from their shantytown homes and street businesses without any decision-making by Mugabe's government. This conclusion, far fetched as it is, sealed the fate of the investigation, as it drew Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka to conclude that in all likelihood, no international laws were broken.

The report looked at two laws, the 2001 Responsibility to Protect, established in response to the world’s [read UN's] failure to intervene in Rwanda, and the "crimes against humanity" of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which Zimbabwe is not party to. In both cases, Tibaijuka concluded that persecutions would be difficult to accomplish.

The whole thing smells of Clinton, Kerry and the Dems on the War On Terror. Their approach to terrorism as a legal issue, not a military issue, is exactly the UN's approach to Mugabe's abomination. Just because the displaced were squatters and therefore not legal, Mugabe is given a free pass, since it's just a crime of improper notice, not a crime of putting 700,000 legal people at severe health and economic risk.

Even more, the report sets up pre-packaged scapegoats Mugabe can use to retain his grip on power. While they're not named, but are alluded to in a way that can be interpreted to mean second- or third-tier fucntionaries. The report recommends that action be taken against them, so look for Mugabe to do just that in the near future in order to kissy-face to the UN.

The report's foremost recommendation is the appointement of mediators to "establish confidence-building measures." How lovely. Since Mugabe's thuggery has been thoroughly whitewashed by the UN, we are left with nothing but a Jimmy Carteresque kumbayafest, and no chance that Zimbabwe's path to destruction by a crazed kleptocrat might be stopped.

The result will very likely be war, which the UN report rosily points out does not currently exist in Zimbawe. But it will, thanks to the UN's inability to call evil what it is, and do something forceful about it.