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Police Surround Zimbabwe Hotel, Journalists being removed

ap.google.com — Security agents and paramilitary police in riot gear are surrounding a Harare hotel housing foreign journalists. A man answering the phone at the hotel says they are taking away some reporters.

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  • notque, on 04/04/2008, -0/+50New York Times Reporter has been seized by Zimbabwe. State Department demands his release. Mugabe's nuts, but he's taking it up a notch.
    • notque, on 04/04/2008, -0/+32New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller confirmed that Barry Bearak, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent based in Johannesburg, South Africa, was taken into custody.
      • malsikcuF, on 04/05/2008, -1/+0Stupid ***** ***** has ruined that country. Before when the white people ruled the economy was excellent. Since he took over, killed all the white people and then stole their land the country has fallen apart. 1 US $ = 100000 Zim $

        Same will happen to South Africa if Jacob Zuma becomes president!
    • plaing, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Team America was right
  • humanerror, on 04/04/2008, -2/+18uh oh
    • SuperWinner, on 04/04/2008, -7/+6We'd better hope there is no oil there...
  • Dr00pieS, on 04/04/2008, -0/+26I guess a presidential "runoff" means: I'm going to do something crazy and possibly create a severe international incident.
    I'm going to assume that at least a few of these journalists are Brits. Hopefully, Mugabe will take his head out of his ass before he's on the recieving end of a JDAM, or some SAS fella's will come stormin in with guns blazing.
    • JointVenture, on 04/04/2008, -1/+3You Neocon, right wing military industrialist pig!

      just kidding, I respect anyone who has made it into any nations special forces.
    • Caeili, on 04/04/2008, -4/+0I'm sure this is Bushs fault.
      Moron.
  • jon30041, on 04/04/2008, -1/+34Ok... This gonna be another Rwanda? Good God, can we help in THIS one, please? Or at least suggest it at the UN?
    • Peko, on 04/04/2008, -2/+45I'm sorry, the US will be unavailable. They are currently too busy spreading democracy elsewhere.
      • Hermiod, on 04/04/2008, -3/+14Speaking as a Brit, this is our problem, not America's and we should be the ones dealing with it.
        • PhQnix, on 04/04/2008, -3/+25This is humanity's problem and should not be subject to the idea of 'my country' or 'your country.' We all need to help.
          • Hermiod, on 04/04/2008, -1/+11Sure, but the responsibility for this problem lies with the UK as much as I am ashamed to admit it.
          • PhQnix, on 04/04/2008, -2/+14Of course, I merely meant that the UK's 'responsibility' shouldn't be an excuse for the inactiveness of other nations.
        • ixid, on 04/04/2008, -3/+10"Sure, but the responsibility for this problem lies with the UK as much as I am ashamed to admit it."
          How do you figure that? Zimbabwae's problems are the creation of Mugabe and Zimbabwae, the UK's responsibility ended some time ago. If the UK were to step in alone rather than as a part of an international effort it'd be an easy propoganda target for Mugabe's ranting about colonial invasion. You don't have any idea what you're talking about.
          • MinorLemming, on 04/04/2008, -0/+5The UK put that despot in power, so it really is our fault.
          • Hermiod, on 04/05/2008, -0/+1Read up on your history. Who used to run the country now known as Zimbabwe ? Us, that's who. Britain has a colonial history that it has to take responsibility for.
          • ixid, on 04/05/2008, -0/+0My family lived there and still do, stop mindlessly banging the colonial drum.
      • saxreturns, on 04/04/2008, -2/+11"The number you have dialled is at war. Please try again later."
    • oldhick, on 04/04/2008, -2/+11For real? All we do is bitch about how we stick our noses in everyones business. Maybe we should get out of Iraq, finish up in Afghanistan and come home, and stay home.
      How do we define our role as world police? The UN did nothing in Somalia, we had to lead the charge, the UN did nothing in Bosnia until we led the way, the reality is that if we want the UN to act, then we have to act.
      I'm tired of being the worlds police. If you continue to be the worlds police then it gets tougher to define when and where you intercede.
    • Inthenameofmine, on 04/04/2008, -3/+4The US won't help.
      I don't think that the US government has any real financial or military interests in this country. And even if it had, you couldn't risk an internal economic collapse just because of semi-crucial outer activity. That's the way most politicians think.
      • caferrell, on 04/04/2008, -1/+4" Hello, you have reached the Bush White House. We are presently too busy foisting antimissile defense systems onto Europe in order to sweeten Lockheed´s P&L Statement to be able to help you. As things stand today we have no time for poor black people in Africa. Come back when you have some money or other assets, meanwhile, we really don´t care."
    • JohnFlux, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2"Still, about half of Zimbabweans who voted in weekend elections chose the ruling ZANU-PF party."

      Half the population still (for some reason) like Muguabe. No matter how much we disagree, how much right do we have to step in?
      • caferrell, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2First - that is almost certainly not true
        Second - you are right, we have no right to intervene
        Third - we do have the right to protect American citizens
      • ralphthemagi, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1A full right. We are Team America: World Police.
        AMERICA! ***** YEAH!
        BOOKS!
      • bubba9999, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2How about when a genocide is involved?
      • Animental, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!
    • ralphthemagi, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Help? Of course not. We didn't help in Rwanda, we didn't help in Sudan (ongoing), and so why would we help in Zimbabwe?

      The world has forsaken Africa.
    • MrSelfDestruct, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Who are "we"?
    • momsshizzle, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1We can only hope that it will be like Rwanda. Less people, the better.
  • madfrogurt, on 04/04/2008, -0/+17Interesting to see how far he'll go to take his country down with him. He wasn't content enough to kill the economy under the guise of social reparations, now he must involve reporters from foreign nations to act as scapegoats for why he's voiding the elections due to foreign interference. Here's to hoping that he gets a knife in his spine before all this is over.
    • TacticalPenguin, on 04/04/2008, -0/+5If anybody gets smart about it they'll just send a sniper team from either SAS or the SEALs and there will be no knives involved.
    • echotech, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1HUMILIATION!
  • fuzzmeister, on 04/04/2008, -0/+8Can't have people taking pictures of the crackdown, now could we?
  • ozymandias2012, on 04/04/2008, -0/+27Mugabe's behavior is really vexing to me. The man is 80 something years old, he's probably got billions in stolen international aid money stuffed into Swiss accounts, he's ran the country into the ground, and he seemingly won't relinquish power to anyone for any reason. I mean, how much longer is this guy going to live? He must realize that his days are numbered, that he's going to die sooner rather than later. It just goes to show that the pursuit of power is boundless and holding onto that power transcends wealth, knowledge, and common sense.
    • momsshizzle, on 04/04/2008, -5/+3I'm so vexed.
    • calroot, on 04/04/2008, -1/+10"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"
      • ralphthemagi, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Just like acid.

        Oh wait, that corrodes. Similar concept though.
  • slantyeyed, on 04/04/2008, -3/+8i'm not getting on the zimbabwe bandwagon. there's too many causes to jump on these days that people forget about. what about darfur? what about katrina victims? what about tibet? what about burma? now zimbabwe?
    • Extracheese, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3Don't forget Somalia!
    • Elohir, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3Honestly?

      There were white people in Zimbabwe. We don't forget easily.
    • Stavrosian, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2What do you mean "now Zimbabwe" though? People in Zimbabwe were being screwed by Mugabe long before Hurricane Katrina. Just because you only just realised it's going on, don't presume it's new.
      • slantyeyed, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2all these people were screwed before they became trendy and cool in the US to know about and put a badge on your blog about it. I'm sticking with my katrina badge. and whatever happened to starving people in ethiopia and biafra?
  • IphtashuFitz, on 04/04/2008, -0/+8One of the few times a story could be submitted with a legitimate "BREAKING" tag and it isn't.
    • boran, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2This has been on the news since yesterday here ... (2008-04-03) so it's not exactly breaking.
    • khail250, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2becasue its not about apple
  • mytibt, on 04/04/2008, -0/+7Maybe he should realize that this has little to do with foreign reporters and more to do with what is wrong in his country when a loaf of bread is 3 million Zimbabwe dollars
    • kingmanic, on 04/04/2008, -0/+4Since you posted it went up to 3.2 million. ahh inflation.
  • sputnike, on 04/04/2008, -0/+6@Hermiod: Speaking as another British citizen, we are part of both the European Union and United Nations. Everyone who CAN deal with it, SHOULD be dealing with it... I don't give a crap about their elections, that's their problem... if their citizens want to vote for some crazy loon, then let them, however while citizens of the United Kingdom, United States and every other damned nation are there, their country of citizenship should be getting in there.
    From the British Passport: "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary".
    • momsshizzle, on 04/04/2008, -2/+1No, everyone should not deal with it. Britain and the US should stay out of it.
  • elvy, on 04/04/2008, -2/+0misto
  • slvrbullet87, on 04/04/2008, -1/+9Isn't this one of the times where the civilized world should give him an ultimatum? Something like, "Let the journalists go or we will put a bullet in your head"
    He has being strong arming his own people for long enough, sometimes you have to have bully the bully to get him to quit.
    • JointVenture, on 04/04/2008, -2/+3We did that with Saddam (he was given 48hours) and the world balked.
    • Pixelante, on 04/04/2008, -1/+2The best the civilized world will ever do is "let the journalist go or we will huff and puff and do nothing".
      The hell with this "civilized" stuff. When you want a ***** like Mugabe done, you go UNcivilized. You need to be brutal, you need to be ruthless, you've got to climb down into that pit of ***** he lives in and rip his face off with a dull knife. You've got to gouge his eyes out and fart into his skull. You've got to go MEDIEVIL on his ass, man.
      Sometimes a man's got to stand and just say it: "Enough is enough. I've had it with the ***** Mugabe on the ***** Zimbabwe."
      • jawdog, on 04/04/2008, -0/+5I only dugg you up because i'm assuming you're on PCP...
        • Pixelante, on 04/05/2008, -0/+0I don't do horse drugs, despite the occasional long face.
      • JohnFlux, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1From the article "Still, about half of Zimbabweans who voted in weekend elections chose the ruling ZANU-PF party."

        A lot of africans outside of Zimbabwe also support Mugabe. If the west goes against africa then a lot of black people will see this as an attack of whites against blacks.
        • slvrbullet87, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1That is part of the problem... this is people who are somewhat sane vs a wack job not anything racist
  • noolvidaremos, on 04/04/2008, -4/+5Wow, it is incredible how similiar this guy is to Hugo Chavez. we'll see what happens on elections day in Venezuela. i know for fact that international press will be controlled as it was on past elections.
  • KegBol, on 04/04/2008, -5/+6Mugabe is the only person I have ever caught myself calling a *****. I hate the word, and don't let anyone use it near me, but ***** him. He deserves it more than any man ever did.
    He has come to embody everything that is wrong with African politics the way Hitler did to European politics.
  • lhbaker, on 04/04/2008, -7/+5Just wait until it's Bush's turn to surrender the keys.
  • chapoec, on 04/04/2008, -6/+4Not to sound racist or anything. But Africa would be better of it was still ruled by the white man aka European Countries. These dumb ***** can't do ***** right. All they know how to do is create a hellhole piece of ***** countries. Even with all the resources Africa has they still can't do *****. That being said they should definitely ass rape and kill this old ***** Mutabe. Oh well he will get plenty of that when he is in hell.
    • boran, on 04/04/2008, -2/+3Seriously, learn your history. They are mostly in the mess they are right now because of the mess we made there in the past. Have some faith in people to find their own way.
      • Elohir, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3Say that to the farm owners Mugabe ran off their land and sent the country into the biggest agricultural crisis the country has ever seen.
        • JohnFlux, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1The farm owners weren't farmers. If you were given a load of land, I wonder how will you'd run it?
          • Elohir, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2I'd grow food, if I knew how to. Which is the problem. When you take farms from farmers and give it to random people, your country ends up starving. Funny, that.
          • JohnFlux, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Hmm, I misread the parent post, sorry :) I was trying to say that the new farm owners aren't farmers and know nothing about farming. Ethics aside, it might have worked mostly if Mugabe had given the land to people who knew how to farm, rather than just his friends.
          • Swivelstick, on 04/05/2008, -0/+1The land should have gone to the farm workers
    • notque, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2African Americans wold be better of it they were still slaves. They wouldn't have to worry about renting themselves to make money, and would have a place to stay. Spend more time with family.

      .... That's racist, regardless of if you didn't want to sound that way.
      • chapoec, on 04/04/2008, -2/+0Don't take what I said out of context. I said that you see what you get when you let dumb "*****" with spears run their own country.Come on naturally they are gonna run it into the ground like Barack Obama is going to if he wins the presidency.. Now this is a racist comment and i wanted it to sound this way.
  • PyroKittens, on 04/04/2008, -1/+4Remember guys, these people have nothing that we want too badly, so therefore we cannot help them, I mean, who cares about human suffering, right? It just dollar value that counts.
    • PolishLogic, on 04/04/2008, -2/+2That's one ***** comment if I've ever heard one. Claiming there was no suffering in Iraq prior to the invasion?

      Go screw. While you're at it, at least get your personal beliefs straight. Are you for or against us meddling in other countries politics? For or against us not respecting a nation's sovereignty? You can't have it both ways, otherwise your bitching becomes rather hypocritical.
  • adhocadhoc, on 04/04/2008, -2/+1Now if they can only hang on until Obama comes along so we can get them out of there. Lord knows Bush is trying to justify a reason to drop a bomb. There's probably WMD in there.
    • KegBol, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Actually, Bush has been surprisingly good to Africa, and I say that as someone who dislikes the man intensely. He kept to his word for once, and put a lot of resources into the continent.

      He is still a total ***** though. As is Mugabe.
  • calroot, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3I detest global interventionist policies in general especially over military actions, but Mugabe's unwarranted crackdown against his people and foreign journalists justify some intervention other than diplomatic means. Mugabe has a history of violating human rights, hindering social justice and suppressing liberties even when urged and pressured by the international community. Based on this troubling pattern of past actions and the current crackdown, Mugabe clearly will not positively respond to international pressure through diplomatic means, nor respect the votes of his people. As much as it pains me to propose this, I would suggest a clandestine approach to support the Zimbabwe's opposition to remove Mugabe and his cronies from government.
  • GettinReal, on 04/04/2008, -7/+2This is so ridiculous. Look at what our own US government is doing around the world and here at home....and people want to worry about Zimbabwe? What this little dictator does in his third-world country pales in comparsion to what our "leaders" do. Our elections are just as rigged, our rights are just as much trampled, and we pay WAY more taxes than the Zimbabweans do. In addition, Mugabe doesnt send his troops around the world to massacre people and call it freedom. Zimbabwe doesnt manufacture weapons of mass destruction and sell them to any country that can afford them. The Zimbabwe people actually have it much better than we do. They actually have a true opposition party that truly represents change. All we have is a bunch of sycophant cowards.
    • crowbar77, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3Are you retarded, RTFA.

      "Today, a third of the population depends on imported food handouts. Another third has fled the country and 80 percent is jobless. Inflation is the highest in the world at more than 100,000 percent and people suffer crippling shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 to 35 years."

      Yeah sounds like paradise compared to the US.
      • GettinReal, on 04/04/2008, -3/+1You're 18 and from Canada. When you get a few more revolutions around the sun, grow some hair around your balls, pay taxes for 10 or 20 years, and do a little less cutting and pasting... then maybe I'll give a ***** about what you think. On a lighter note, obviously I wouldnt want to be in Zimbabwe now instead of the US....5 or 10 years is a different story. Would you rather be preparing to be burned at the stake or preparing to rise from the ashes?
    • PolishLogic, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3I forgot all about the story of how the US military surrounded the Waldorf in NYC to kidnap journalists. Thanks for reminding me.

      /facepalm
      • GettinReal, on 04/04/2008, -2/+0Yes sir you Trollness!!!...*Heels click followed by a sig heil....*

        I can tell by your comments that you are probably employed by the government as an official troll. The government has little motive arrest the journalists these days since most are shills anyway...like you. However many journalists are arrested each year in the US and abroad under various guises. Just keep on with your freedom isnt free, better fight em there than here, and rockets red glare moronic ***** while our country continues to go down the ***** due to apologists like yourself.

        /bootstomp
        • PolishLogic, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Actually, if I were trolling, I'd just call you a paranoid conspiracy loon.

          Then again, what's the point when your post make that loud and clear. Along with your apparent affinity for Nazi culture. By the way, where am I apologizing for or defending anything? I'm merely stating that this country is in NO WAY anything even remotely close to what you're ridiculously overreacting mind is implying. If it were, you'd have been hauled away and killed already for your dissent. Besides, if this country is going down the *****, what are you still doing here? Why not save yourself?

          In closing: I hope you're paralyzed in a boating accident. Go screw.
  • RandomLogin, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1I hope nobody is shocked by this. It's not as if Mugabe was going to just quietly concede defeat right? Those journalists knew what they were doing when they went there. Hopefully they'll all be fine but if not, so be it.
  • PolishLogic, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2Ah, a leader of an African country acting like....well, a typical leader of an African country. It's par for the course there.
  • mrbambastik, on 04/04/2008, -0/+3Mugabe's ethnic cleansing in Zimbabwe is the most under-reported human tragedy today. You may not have heard of it because the murder of white farmers was silenced by the media.

    Mugabe turned one of the wealthiest countries in Africa which once exported food into the only country on earth with a negative GDP (source: CIA factbook), where people are now starving.

    Watch this video and see for yourself what Mugabe did to mankind:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4otBmN4yK_I

  • unknownpoltroon, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I'm a reasonable man. I think we should give diplomatic means the chance to settle this. Say, less than a week. Then, Then, we give him another week. And then, maybe a couple of years, until we get enough of our military back to be a threat to this guy.
  • poleag, on 04/04/2008, -2/+0Just to play the devil's advocate..

    The opposition party has been illegally announcing victory well before the official results have been released, and these foreign journalists have been broadcasting said announcements to the world. Such behavior can reasonably be interpreted as incitement, and a threat to Zimbabwean sovereignty.
    • petrodollar, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1"a threat to Zimbabwean sovereignty."

      How is it a threat to Zimbabwe's ability to govern affairs within its own borders?
      • poleag, on 04/05/2008, -1/+0In the Zimbabwean legal system, announcing victory before the Electoral Commission has released the official results is illegal. Thus, the presence of foreign journalists broadcasting these illegal announcements can rightfully be viewed as an effort, on behalf of foreign powers, to undermine Zimbabwe's political system.

        • petrodollar, on 04/05/2008, -0/+1No. At best it's a violation of Zimbabwe's laws (at least as you've described them). Otherwise its effect on "Zimbabwe's political system" is nil.
          • poleag, on 04/05/2008, -1/+0The point is..these people were not unlawfully detained. They should be deported back to their countries of origin and fair elections should be carried out according to the Zimbabwean constitution.
          • petrodollar, on 04/05/2008, -0/+1"these people were not unlawfully detained."

            Following your logic, neither were the people who were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge. After all, they were violating Cambodian law by owning eyeglasses and wristwatches.
          • poleag, on 04/05/2008, -0/+0Well, we're all faced with that choice. You can either break the law or you can work to change it. But if you do break the law, you must be prepared to face the music.
  • dekx11, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Gettinreal needs to get real...
    Ever had 2 weeks straight wih no electricity or water?
    Earn $47 a month? A monthly salaray that buys ABOUT a weeks worth of food. And nothing else. No bills, No gas, no school fees nothing for a rainy day...
    Have to wait days in mile long queues for gas?
    Be afraid to speak out coz if you do you jus might disappear?
    I could go on for days about wat goes on...
    But God's honest truth, I would take George.W over Mugabe ANYDAY!!!
  • ramong, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1I saw blood diamond too!
  • abxy, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Did anyone else quickly glance and read "Police Surround Zombies"
  • Stewage, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Harder to get rid of than poo on a blanket.
  •  

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