Sekai Holland Speaks On The End Game In Zimbabwe

End Game in Zimbabwe

On 11 March 2007 Sekai Holland, 64-year-old grandmother and member of the opposition party MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), was beaten and tortured by the Zimbabwean police. For challenging the power of the despotic ruler Mugabe, she paid with fractures of her left leg, arm and ribs. After having been evacuated to Australia, Holland receives ongoing medical treatment for her injuries.

Yet she delivered a powerful speech today at Victoria University of Wellington announcing an imminent 'End Game in Zimbabwe'.

More than a third of the Zimbabwean population has fled the South African country. The economic situation is deteriorating at breakneck speed with an inflation rate approaching 1.5% Million percent that leads to daily increasing hardship among the population.

The administration under Mugabe has driven Zimbabwe into a dark valley of disaster; still the president shows no inclination of loosening his grip on power.

This will change, Holland says. Her party, the MDC, would have already won elections in 2000 and 2005, if their victory had not been "stolen" by Mugabe. "We have the support of the people", Holland claimed. As evidence of its declining power, she listed the regime's failure to expel or suppress the opposition--for which she stands as a living example.

Adressing exile Zimbabweans, she condemned political apathy and commonly expressed opinion of an unorganised opposition. "The opposition is there and we have a determined leadership" Mrs Holland proclaimed, then demanding "If you are so brilliant and know what to do better, come to Zimbabwe!".

While announcing the imminent end of Mugabe's rule, Sekai Holland simultaneously predicted the MDC to pull out of ongoing negotiations about the next election with the government, "if they continue to beat us". In this case, only a UN intervention could prevent the unfolding of a humanitarian disaster of similar magnitude to Darfur.

Before holding her fiery speech, Holland had just come from a meeting with
Prime Minister Helen Clark. She pleaded for pardoning of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants and demanded the expulsion of New Zealand based supporters of the Mugabe regime by tonight.

ENDS

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