Quiet diplomacy costs lives

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90O82CG0&show_article=1&catnum=0

'There are believed to be up to 3 million Zimbabweans living in neighboring South Africa who have fled the economic and political turmoil in their homeland.

Massive inflation, food and fuel shortages have sent increasing numbers of Zimbabweans to South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia in search of business and basic commodities—or whole new lives.'

'Emmerson Ziso fled hunger and repression in neighboring Zimbabwe, but now he wants to go back. Even his violent, chaotic homeland seems a haven compared to Johannesburg, where weekend attacks on foreigners left at least 12 dead.'

But hang on- I thought Thabo Mbeki had this all under control. His 'Quiet Diplomacy' has been operating at full tilt for at least ten years. Surely we're very, very close to a great breakthrough or something.

About half the world (possibly a lot more) seems to adhere to opinions like this-

'Successful diplomacy is not about the pious airing of personal opinions or the strutting of moral postures. It is about getting intransigent people with non-negotiable positions to do what you want without a fight.'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804180171.html

OK, so where's the beef? Mugabe's non-negotiable positions are:
1) I'm in charge until you take the presidential chain from my cold dead fingers
2) ZANU are the only political party who aren't a cover for the National Party
3) Everything wrong in zimbabwe is a direct result of colonialism; its all Britain and Americas fault

So, given that all of Mugabe's positions seem unchallenged at the mo, we must ask ourselves, what is it that Mbeki wants Mugabe to do? I think we must accept at this point that Mbekis messages to Mugabe have been along the lines of 'I agree with your point 1, your point 2 and your point 3, but I have to be seen to be disagreeing with you about something, so I say your curtains are too short.'

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is heading back to the stone age, a third of Zimbabweans live outside their homeland, and the regions temperature is gradually rising. Mugabe has ignored the result of the last election, and Zanu are using all their 'extra-judicial' bodies to beat and murder all opposition with impunity.

Lets face it, Mbekis diplomacy isn't worth a fig. Back in the mid 1960's ZANU decided that diplomacy wasn't getting results- so they decided to employ AK-47's instead. Maybe there's something in that...