Zimbabwe's political opposition and civil society organizations have failed to tap into popular discontent and need to set aside divisions and stage peaceful protests around quality of life issues ifd they are to unseat President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF ruling party, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group.
Entitled ‘’Zimbabwe, An Opposition Strategy,’’ the report from the Brussels-based think tank said decentralized, peaceful protests based on bread-and-butter issues would be hard to infiltrate or sabotage, and could oblige the government to make piecemeal concessions or be forced to stretch security forces ever thinner.
Zimbabweans should not expect too much from the international community, the ICG cautioned. Change must come from within, it said, advising opposition leaders to keep pressure on President Robert Mugabe to step down when his term ends in 2008.
International Crisis Group analyst Sydney Masamvu told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe why the opposition has failed to achieve change.
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