The Mess In Zimbabwe

The opposition party Movement for Democratic Change is now vowing to boycott a runoff vote:

The 50 members of the opposition's National Executive Committee voted unanimously that they believed their presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29 vote by the clear majority needed for a first-round victory, said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. A second round of voting, he said, would only encourage Mugabe to redouble efforts to rig the results and intimidate opposition supporters.

"We have resolved that we will not participate," Chamisa said. "There won't be any runoff. We have won."

Chamisa declined to say how Tsvangirai intended to assume the presidency in a country with no history of peaceful transfers of power.

There's going to be a civil war in Zimbabwe. I think that's perfectly clear. The ruling party led by Robert Mugabe has already begun the crackdown, banning political rallies and arresting MDC Presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai's lawyer, along with about 1,000 of his supporters. The State Department is making vague calls for a peaceable solution, but they are not beginning from the assumption that a brutal war is inevitable, and Mugabe's forces are perfectly willing to disappear or kill every rival.

Right now there aren't many places, not even Iraq, more needing of the world's attention than Zimbabwe.