2007
Police arrested Morgan Tsvangirai, politician and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, on 11 March 2007, seriously beating him in a prison in Harare. Tsvangirai sustained a skull fracture, broken wrist, and bruises. Over 200 people are injured by people as the MDC negotiates with the government over Tsvangirai. Two female officers were seriously injured in a fire-bombed attack on a police station in Harare on 14 March. President Mugabe commented on the incident the next day, saying, "When they criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence we take the position that they can go hang." The Australian government floated the idea of evacuating its citizens from Zimbabwe on 16 March. Four ranking members of the MDC were refused permission to leave the country on 17 March with one beaten, suffering a fractured skull. The hospital where Tsvangirai was housed released him on 19 March. Many protestors are injured in scuffles with police the next day. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa compared the situation in Zimbabwe to a "sinking titanic" on 21 March. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, called for mass public protests to pressure President Mugabe to resign on 22 March and the day after John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, called for the world to oust Mugabe. Representatives for the MDC and ZANU-PF met in South Africa in September and agreed to constitutional changes that would allow presidential and paliamentary elections to be held simultaneously in 2008. Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, died on 20 November at the age of 88.
Morgan Tsvangirai was badly beaten on 12 March 2007 after being arrested and held at Machipisa Police Station in the Highfield suburb of Harare. The event garnered an international outcry and was considered particularly brutal and extreme, even for a regime as nefarious as Mugabe's. "We are very concerned by reports of continuing brutal attacks on opposition activists in Zimbabwe and call on the government to stop all acts of violence and intimidation against opposition activists," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme.
The economy shrank by 50% from 2000 to 2007. In September 2007 the inflation rate was put at almost 8,000%, the world's highest. There are frequent power and water outages. Harare's drinking water became unreliable in 2006 and as a consequence dysentery and cholera swept the city in December 2006 and January 2007. Unemployment in formal jobs is running at a record 80%. There is widespread famine, which has been cynically manipulated by the government so that opposition strongholds suffer the most. Most recently, supplies of bread have dried up, after a poor wheat harvest, and the closure of all bakeries.
The country used to be one of Africa's richest and is now one of its poorest. Many observers now view the country as a 'failed state'. The settlement of the Second Congo War brought back Zimbabwe's substantial military commitment, although some troops remain to secure the mining assets under their control. The government lacks the resources or machinery to deal with the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which affects 25% of the population. With all this and the forced and violent removal of white farmers in a brutal land redistribution program, Mugabe has earned himself widespread scorn from the international arena.
The regime has managed to cling to power by creating wealthy enclaves for government ministers, and senior party members. For example Borrowdale Brook, a suburb of Harare is an oasis of wealth and privilege. It features mansions, manicured lawns, full shops with fully stocked shelves containing an abundance of fruit and vegetables, big cars and a golf club give is the home to President Mugabe's out-of-town retreat.
Zimbabwe's bakeries shut down in October 2007 and supermarkets warned that they would have no bread for the foreseeable future due to collapse in wheat production after the seizure of white-owned farms. The ministry of agriculture has also blamed power shortages for the wheat shortfall, saying that electricity cuts have affected irrigation and halved crop yields per acre. The power shortages are because Zimbabwe relies on Mozambique for some of its electricity and that due to an unpaid bill of $35 million Mozambique had reduced the amount of electrical power it supplies. On 4 December 2007, The United States imposed travel sanctions against 38 people with ties to President Mugabe because they "played a central role in the regime's escalated human rights abuses."
On 8 December 2007, Mugabe attended a meeting of EU and African leaders in Lisbon, prompting UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to decline to attend. While German PM Angela Merkel criticised Mugabe with her public comments, the leaders of other African countries offered him statements of support.
Read more about this topic: 2008 In Zimbabwe