Zimbabwe Update -- China Protects Mugabe

It took a special effort on the part of the UK to get the UN Security Council to even listen to a report on the continuing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. It finally did so over protests by China and Russia and African states.

BBC reports:

The UN Security Council has discussed a report on Zimbabwe's controversial slum demolition campaign, despite opposition from a number of member countries.

The report, prepared by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, said the drive had left hundreds of thousands homeless and caused untold human misery.

The UK and US led calls for it to be discussed, but countries including China and Russia were opposed.

They said it would amount to meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

They also pointed out that Zimbabwe was not on the Security Council agenda.

Read it here.

AP notes that the Chinese UN ambassador walked out of the meeting rather than hear the report detailing Mugabe's human rights abuses. The article also reports that Zimbabwean officials are confident that the UN will take no action to condemn them because China will "protect" them from any such action.

Meanwhile, the demolitions continue and Zimbabwe's poor suffer.

Read the AP report here.

Once more we are treated to the spectacle of the international community, as manifested in the UN and other NGO's, totally incompetent to address massive atrocities. It's a story that's been told over and over and over again. It has become clear that in today's world if the US doesn't do it, very little positive gets done.