Zimbabwe Needs a Port in Its Storm of Afflictions

David Coltart, a senator and member of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, writes in The Washington Post: There is a perfect humanitarian storm in my country. The threats of AIDS, poverty, hyperinflation and malnutrition, and now cholera, combined with a regime that has given up on its people, add up to an all-but-untenable state of affairs. It is difficult to know where to turn, but it is clear that under such a barrage, a haven must be found. At the moment, that haven — perhaps the only port in this storm — is the transitional agreement inked in September by President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

It is hard to see daylight at times and all too easy to be discouraged by worldviews on the September deal that left Mugabe in power. The Bush administration has withdrawn its support and is calling for alternatives. Others recognize that the agreement is flawed and full of political termites. But focusing on the negatives distracts from the positives.

In essence, the agreement was to establish a transitional government under the shared leadership of all three major parties. Mugabe has chosen to ignore the spirit of the agreement and to continue his utterly dysfunctional and brutal rule.

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