Tsvangirai may be hoping to force the hand of African leaders like Mbeki but there is little to indicate that they want anything but the status quo. The only thing worse than what is happening in Zimbabwe right now is the silence that African leaders are giving Mugabe. If anyone in the world should know about the horrors of corrupt totalitarian dictators, it should be African leaders who in modern history have been in the front row seats while it happened.

Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision to quit the race seems intended to force Zimbabwe’s neighbors to take a stand. There are growing cracks in the solidarity that African heads of state have shown for Mr. Mugabe, an 84-year-old liberation hero whose defiant anti-Western rhetoric has long struck a resonant chord in a region with a bitter colonial history.

[From Mugabe Rival Quits Zimbabwe Runoff, Citing Attacks - NYTimes.com]