By Our Correspondent, The Zimbabwe Times
BOSTON - The University of Massachusetts has finally resolved an issue that had bedevilled the institution for a year while it sought to sever an embarrassing link with a dictator it once honoured on assumption he was an exemplary leader.
The university’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday to revoke an honorary degree bestowed on President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in 1986.
The degree was awarded to Mugabe six years into Zimbabwe’s independence from colonial rule for his role as a leading political figure and an international statesman inAfrica.
Mugabe, who faces an election re-run in two weeks time, now stands accused of causing the collapse of Zimbabwe’s once vibrant economy and the impoverishment of the citizens of a nation that was once a net exporter of food. The international community has condemned Mugabe for his government’s gross abuse of human rights abuses.
As Mugabe’s degree was revoked in Massachusetts, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, who challenges Mugabe for the presidency for the second time in three months, was arrested on two occasions yesterday while on the campaign trail.
The election campaign has witnessed a wave of violence unleashed mostly by Mugabe’s followers on MDC activists and members. Tsvangirai says more than 60 of his supporters have been murdered while hundreds have been admitted to hospital with various injuries, including broken limbs and serious burns. He accuses Mugabe of orchestrating the violent campaign to force the electorate to back him.
Yesterday’s decision by the University of Massachusetts to withdraw Mugabe’s degree is the first in the history of the academic institution. It follows years of campaigning by students of the university, concerned about Mugabe’s atrocious human rights record.
The issue has been under consideration for a year at UMass, as the institution is popularly known.
“In the two decades that have passed since the honorary degree was awarded, Robert Mugabe has pursued policies and taken actions that are anti-ethical to the values and beliefs of the University of Massachusetts,” university President Jack Wilson said in a statement last month.
“I must recommend that we sever the connection that was formed when Robert Mugabe appeared to be a force for positive change in Africa. Today, that promise no longer exists.”
As his association of two decades with UMass was unceremoniously terminated, Mugabe told rural supporters yesterday that he would immediately take Zimbabwe back to war if Tsvangirai defeated him at the polls on June 27.
There are growing fears in Zimbabwe this is no idle threat. The military top brass have virtually taken over control of the once prosperous but now impoverished nation, where inflation runs at 1 700 000 percent and 80 percent of the workforce don’t have a job.
