Africa Notes: Time for Concerted International Action on Zimbabwe - August 2001

Zimbabwe has entered a political and economic crisis that could worsen precipitously and destabilize the surrounding region. Pressures for democratic change and economic reform are steep—indeed growing—as Zimbabwe heads, with considerable uncertainty, toward national elections in the first quarter of 2002. Yet the government of President Robert Mugabe and his cronies within the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party resist genuine reform, determined instead to use violent coercion to hold onto power and privilege.