Slashdot Mirror
Wikileaks and Democracy In Zimbabwe
OCatenac writes "The Atlantic has an interesting story on the collateral damage of exposing diplomatic communications in Zimbabwe. From the article: 'The reaction in Zimbabwe was swift. Zimbabwe's Mugabe-appointed attorney general announced he was investigating the Prime Minister on treason charges based exclusively on the contents of the leaked cable. While it's unlikely Tsvangirai could be convicted on the contents of the cable alone, the political damage has already been done. The cable provides Mugabe the opportunity to portray Tsvangirai as an agent of foreign governments working against the people of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, it could provide Mugabe with the pretense to abandon the coalition government that allowed Tsvangirai to become prime minister in 2009.' Undoubtedly there are lots of things that our governments hide from us which should not be hidden but it's a shame that no one from Wikileaks could be troubled to consider the potential repercussions of this particular exposure."
yep and wikileaks gave him some more ammo. Just what such a person needs.
But Lord High Julian never made a mistake and ALLL information needs to be free ALL the time.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
NO. WRONG.
Wrong how? WikiLeaks leaked private communications between a force for reform in Zimbabwe and western nations. Those communications may have irreparably damaged efforts at reform by giving Mugabe and his thugs material to discredit reformers.
It seems blatantly obvious that the actions of wikileaks are to blame here. Yes, I understand, you want to believe wikileaks is pure as the driven snow and immune from all blame. But guess what? This is a *perfect* example of how *some* politics *does* need to go on behind closed doors, and that *some* amount of secrecy is, in fact, necessary.
it's a shame that no-one criticising wikileaks realises that mugabe is an insane criminal and murderer who will take advantage of *anything*.
I'm sure they're quite aware of that. But how does that excuse wikileaks from handing a gun and some ammunition to said insane criminal?
Seriously, you apologists baffle me. Why can't you just admit that wikileaks, to put it succinctly, fucked up?
it takes wikileaks reporting to expose mugabe by "triggering" him to act out his true (insane) nature, for the world to observe how inappropriate a leader he really is.
Oh, yes yes, no one realized that before... jackass.
This isn't about the world and what they think of Mugabe. This is about Mugabe's actions as a dictator within his nation. The man can now, quite legitimately, demonstrate that those people fighting for reform in Zimbabwe were, in fact, *supportive* of sanctions that have hurt the Zimbabwean people. Are those sanctions ultimately necessary? Sadly, yes. But now those reformers look like tools of the west, and Mugabe can use that to attack the voices of reform as traitors. That helps no one but Mugabe.
In short, you're a naive, apologist twat. Grow up. The world is a lot more complex than it might appear from your mom's basement.