News Brief

CAA Member and former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe on Robert Mugabe's death

After 25 meetings with Robert Mugabe from 1997 to 2001, I came to know him well and learned to despise his oppressive conduct toward his own black people of Zimbabwe. His thugs even beat up a few of my FSN employees working at American Embassy Harare in 2000.
Whatever good he did in the early years of his service to the country, was greatly outweighed by the intimidation and violence he authorized to be conducted by his government, police, military and CIO especially starting in 2000 until he was ousted from power in November 2017.
I would often say that through Mugabe, his government supported thugs who perfected the art of torturing or killing Zimbabweans one or two at a time. Not enough to demand a real response from the world.
During his rule, President Mugabe had absolute power and hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans suffered as a result.
-Ambassador Tom McDonald, former U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe

Date Posted

Sep 7, 2019