Arthur Mutambara, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe, was arrested yesterday at his home.Mutambara’s crime was writing an essay in which he accused President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party (Zanu-PF) of running a “terror campaign” against political opponents.
You can read that essay – “A Shameful Betrayal of National Independence” – here. It was originally printed in April.
(The newspaper editor who published “A Shameful Betrayal” was arrested several weeks ago.)
Arthur Mutambara is supporting Mugabe’s opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, in an upcoming runoff election that will determine the future of Zimbabwe.
The Big Think website uploaded a series of Mutambara interview clips six months ago. I blogged about one of them in February.
I’ve embedded another clip below. In this 4-minute piece, Mutambara – who holds an Oxford Ph.D. in robotics – describes his hope for Zimbabwe to become the “Singapore of Africa” in terms of economic prosperity.
But he details the grim realities of Zimbabwe that keep such a hope far distant.
UPDATE (06/03/08): Arthur Mutambara was released today on bail. The amount of bail was 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars... which is literally worth $34 in U.S. currency.
6 comments:
Completely Out-of-topic as usual (not that the Zimbabwe election is not important)...but.. No Bo Diddley in memoriam musical homage today? The man was literally one of the father's of rock-n-roll. RIP.
^ Oh ye of little faith...
I miss Rhodesia...
Nice to see your post. I put up two posts on my blog today covering the Zimbabwe ordeal I think it would be who of anyone with an interest to check it out.
www.1manworldwatchblog.com
Keep up the good work.
^ Thank you, Leif. Those photos you posted are bone-chilling.
I miss Rhodesia...
^^^4q2 anonymous!!
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