Invasion of Zimbabwe (2009) (President McCain)

The Invasion of Zimbabwe, codenamed Operation Democratic Change, was a military conflict between Zimbabwe and a coalition force from 27 nations under a joint COD-African Union mandate commissioned with removing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power following years of human rights abuses and economic mismanagment leading to hyperinflation and impoverishment and following Mugabe's refusal to step down following the result of the presidential election in 2008.

The deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe had resulten economic sanctions against Zimbabwe by some members of the UN, EU and the Concert of Democracies, and with immediate preparation for war by the United States of America and the United Kingdom following escalation in January 2009. The invasion of Zimbabwe began in March 2009 and was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which removed Robert Mugabe from power and installed Morgan Tsvangirai as the new President of Zimbabwe.

Situation in Zimbabwe
Following the chaotic implementation of the land reform by President Rubert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF Party, Zimbabwe experienced a sharp decline in agricultural exports, traditionally the country's leading export producing sector. As a result, Zimbabwe wxperienced a severe hard-currency shortage, which has led to hyperinflation and chronic shortages in imported fuel and consumer goods. In 2002, Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations on charges of human rights abuses during the land redistribution and of election tampering. Life expectancy at birth for males in Zimbabwe has dramatically declined since 1990 from 60 to 37, among the lowest in the world. Life expectancy for females is even lower at 34 years. Concurrently, the infant mortality rate has climbed from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period. Currently, 1.8 million Zimbabweans live with HIV. By July 2008, the hyperinflation was as high as 231,000,000% while continuing to grow.

As a result, popular support for Morgan Tsvangirai and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change increased up to the 2008 presidential elections. In the first round of the presidential election on March 29, Tsvangirai and his MDC won 47.9% and Mugabe's ZANU-PF 43.2%, thereby necessitating a run-off, which was to be held on June 27, 2008. Despite Tsvangirai's continuing claims to have won a first round majority, he initially decided to participate in the second round. The period following the first round was marked by serious political violence. ZANU-PF and the MDC each blamed the other's supporters for perpetrating this violence; Western governments and prominent Western organizations have blamed ZANU-PF for the violence. On 22 June 22, 2008, Tsvangirai announced that he was withdrawing from the run-off, describing it as a "violent sham" and saying that his supporters risked being killed if they voted for him. The second round nevertheless went ahead as planned with Mugabe as the only actively participating candidate, although Tsvangirai's name remained on the ballot. Mugabe won the second round by an overwhelming margin and was sworn in for another term as President on June 29. However, Mugabe retained control and has not conceded the election results that would otherwise put him out of power.

The international reaction to the second round have varied. The United States and states of the European Union have called for increased sanctions. On 11 July, the United Nations Security Council considered imposing sanctions on the Zimbabwe. The sanctions were vetoed by Russia and China. The African Union has called for a "government of national unity."

Preliminary talks to set up conditions for official negotiations began between leading negotiators from both parties on 10 July, and on 22 July, the three party leaders met for the first time in Harare to express their support for a negotiated settlement of disputes arising out of the presidential and parliamentary elections. Negotiations between the parties officially began on 25 July and are currently proceeding with very few details released from the negotiation teams in Pretoria, as coverage by the media is barred from the premises where the negotiations are taking place. The talks were mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. A provisional deal was reached on September 11, 2008, involving Tsvangirai chairing the council of ministers and Mugabe chairing a new national security council. By the following January it remained unimplemented due to ongoing disputes between the parties. The results of this election were withheld for several weeks, following which it was generally acknowledged that the MDC had achieved a significant majority of seats.

By January 30, 2009, the situation in Zimbabwe continued to deteriorate. Inflation was at 231,000,000%, and the unemployment rate was at 94% according to the United Nation. There was an excess of 60,0000 reported cases of cholera, of whom over 3,000 died. Despite pressure from SADC, the EU and COD to organize a Coalition cabinet consisting of ZANU-PF and MDC, President Robert Mugabe announced that he would organize a cabinet consisting of his own party (ZANU-PF) with or without support from Tsvangirai. On February 1, the international community demanded that the UN acts to stopped further spreading of Cholera in Zimbabwe. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga once again condemned Mugabe, saying that his government is responsible for not taking any actions in preventing the outbreak, while Reverend Desmond Tutu says that he will support a military intervention should the UN or the Zimbabwean government itself fail to act. The Zimbabwean government declares the outbreak a national emergency and requests international aid, but announces that they will form a cabinet without Tsvangirai's MDC Party, and that they will solve the crisis themselves.

However, following pressure from the African Union, the COD and the United States and the United Kingdom, Mugabe agreed to a power sharing deal with Tsvangirai, and on February 28 they signed a deal to end the violent political crisis. As provided, Robert Mugabe will remain president, Morgan Tsvangirai will become prime minister, the MDC will control the police, Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) will command the Army, and Arthur Mutambara becomes deputy prime minister.

On March 5, 2009, Tsvangirai announced that he would do as the leaders across Africa had insisted and join a coalition government as prime minister with his nemesis, President Robert Mugabe. March 6, 2009 Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. However, the political and the humanitarian situation deteriorated, and following the swearing-in of the unity government, his announced nominee for deputy agriculture minister, Roy Bennett, was arrested and charged with treason, which was later reduced to a charge of possessing weapons for the destabilization of the government; Tsvangirai's government has exhibited little ability to rescind the charges. Furthermore, farmland invasions by the war veterans have continued, with Mugabe maintaining the land reform policy despite the protests of the opposition.

On 11 March 2009, Tsvangirai was injured and his wife, Susan Tsvangirai, was killed in a car accident near Harare; the driver of the lorry with which Tsvangirai's car had collided was allegedly asleep at the wheel, and the MDC-T stated that there was no outstanding evidence of foul play in the accident. The truck belonged to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). According to news reports, Tsvangirai was hospitalized with minor head and neck injuries. The next day, MDC officials disclosed that Tsvangirai believes the truck driver "deliberately" drove toward his car, and Tom McDonald, the former United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, suggested that Robert Mugabe was responsible, bringing up several past unexplained "accidents" in which opposition figures in Zimbabwe were killed on the road. The MDC is reportedly to commission its own private investigation of the wreck. However, following the crash ZANU-PF members again began assaulting members of the MDC, and reports indicated that in the following days, 17 MDC members had been killed. On 13 March 2009, in a departure from previous reports, Prime Minister Tsvangirai said that he believed foul play was the cause of the collision.

Following the assassination attempts on Tsvangirai on March 11 and March 13, the COD Secretary-General John McCain followed up on Tsvangirai's request and urged the UN Security Council to vote in favour of increased sanction or, in a worst-case scenario, a military sollution to remove Mugabe. When Russia and China voted against this on March 15, he stated that "once again the Russians and the Chinese are unwilling to show their solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We will on a meeting on Wednesday decide whether or not to intervene in Zimbabwe. I sincerely urge Mugabe to stop the massacre of the democratic powers in Zimbabwe and cede power to Prime Minister Tsvangirai".

Meanwhile, Mugabe and the security forces under the control of ZANU-PF continued persecuting political opponents, including Prime Minister Tsvangirai's own party. By March 25, over 20 members of MDC-T had been killed while thousands had been imprisoned. The international community condemned the Mugabe regime, and their accusations were further reinforced by video evidence of the extremely poor conditions in the Zimbabwean prisons. By then, the reports of cases of cholera had rised to 89,000 while over 4,000 had died.

On March 23 a Western politician along with Western journalist were allowed entrance to Zimbabwe for the first time in many years, when the Norwegian politician Erik Solheim along with a team of journalists of the Norwegian television channel TV2 visited Zimbabwe, where Solheim discussed the political and humanitarian situation with the Zimbabwean leadership. Once again Mugabe told the international leaders, and McCain, Bush and Blair in particular, that "they could go hang [themselves]".

On March 30 Tsvangirai was almost killed in a drive-by shooting in Harare that killed 3 people, including his grandchild Sean, the son of Tsvangirai's son Garikai and his wife Lilian residing in Canada. This occured only two days after he declared that he would investigate Mugabe's land reforms in the late 1990s. Following the second assassination attempt open clashes between ZANU-PF and the military on one hand and the MDC-T on the other occcured, while Tsvangirai and his family was evacuated to South Africa, where he condemned the Mugabe regime, and called for international pressure to force him from power.

In a second UN Security Council meeting whether to increase sanction or use military force to remove Mugabe. The motion was blocked by China on April 2, which was met by outrage in the international community. The COD declared that the UN had failed in intervening in Zimbabwe, and it was not up to the COD to solve the crisis.

Recruiting a coalition
Following the failure of the United Nations in solving the crisis in Zimbabwe, the Concert of Democracies declared that they call for a emergency summit at the Democratic Council in Geneva to discuss whether the Concert of Democracies should intervene. On April 5, the Democratic Council passed with over a two-third majority in favour of a resolution, which declared that:

"'The United Nations has failed in presuring the Mugabe regime in accepting international laws as well as democratic rights, and thus the Concert of Democracies issues an ultimatum to the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Due to the breach of international law and democratic rights, Robert Mugabe must give in and accept democratic rights by stopping persecution of political opponents and accept Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, or resign as President of Zimbabwe. If he does not give in to the ultimatum, the Concert of Democracies will be obliged to function independently to go to action pursuant to article four and consistent with the purposes of the United Nations by military force as according to Chapter 6 of the The Charter for a Concert of Democracies.'"

The Concert of Democracies, especially CODs Secretary-General John McCain, U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, assembled a coalition supported by the African Union to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power and bring stability to Zimbabwe until a democratically elected government can take power. It was designated The Concert of Democracies - African Union Military Operation in Zimbabwe (CODAMIZ), consisting of forces from 27 countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Zambia, the United Kingdom and the United States itself. Although they did not contribute any forces, Japan, Spain and Germany made financial contributions totaling $10 billion, $4.2 billion and $6.6 billion respectively. U.S. troops represented 43% of the coalition’s 70,830 troops in Zimbabwe. Some of the coalition forces were reluctant to join; some felt that the war was an internal African affair, or did not want to increase U.S. or British influence in the Middle East. In the end, many nations were persuaded by the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation inside Zimbabwe and some of the member's wish to join the COD itself.

On April 6, the first U.S. troops were deployed in the theatre, when the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush reached the territorial waters of Mozambique. The same day, the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division was flown in by transort aircrafts to Mozambique. Over the next week 25,000 U.S. soldiers with equipment were deployed in South Africa and Mozambique along their borders with Zimbabwe. The 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams of the 1st Infantry Division was deployed in South Africa along the Zimbabwean border, while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Brigade Combat Teams of the 3rd Infantry Division were deployed in Mozambique and Zambia, respectively. Meanwhile, the U.S. also assisted in the deployment of other CODAMIZ contingents, especially in the other African contingents.

Between April 7 and 12 the British contingent was deployed to the theatre, while the French, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish contingents were deployed between April 10 and 13. The British contingent were deployed in South Africa, while the other European contingents were deployed in Botswana and Mozambique. At the same time, the Egyptian and Jordanian contingents were deployed in Mozambique and Zambia. On April 10, CODAMIZ was reinforced by contingents from Ireland, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The Irish contingent were deployed along with the other European troops, while the Indonesian and Bangladeshi were deployed along with the Egyptian and Jordanian contingents.

Decision to invade
The CODAMIZ coalition continued preparing for the invasion of Iraq, with a host of public relations, and military moves. In his April 13, 2009 address to the nation, U.S. President George W. Bush issued Robert Mugabe a 48-hour ultimatum to surrender power to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai or face military action from the Council of Democracies.

The next day, in a defiant speech before the Zimbabwean parliament, Mugabe stated that "The great people of Zimbabwe will never surrender to the imperialist ways of the United States, Britain or any of the other colonial powers trying to subvert the world's free peoples. If they do not recognize the territorial integrity of Zimbabwe, they can all go hang."

Following the speech, members and supporters of ZANU-PF began systematically louting the offices of MDC-T and attack its members and people sympathising with Prime Minister Tsvangirai following orders by Mugabe and Minister of National Security Dr. Sydney Sekeramayi. A decree of full mobilisation was ordered, and Minister of Defence Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa along with Chief of Army Gen. Constantine Chiwenga declared that the "Imperialist will face their humiliating defeat in Zimbabwe. We are prepared for them."

Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Simbarashe S. Mumbengegwi demanded that the United Nations should take full measures to stop the United States and their "Imperialist allies in the Concert of Democracies". In the evening the embassies of the United States and the United Kingdom were attacked by unknown protesters, which were later connected to ZANU-PF.

U.S. President George W. Bush said that if Russia and China agreed to support the rest of the international community in resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe, the COD operation would be cancelled. However, the UN Security Council again failed to show results, again due to the refusal by China to vote against sanctions on Zimbabwe. As a result of this, the Concert of Democracies decided to go forward with the operation. Later that afternoon, Gen. William E. Ward and the military leadership of CODAMIZ set the H-Hour for "Operation Democratic Change", the Invasion and liberation of Zimbabwe, to begin at 03:33 A.M. local time on April 15, 2009.

CODAMIZ
The Concert of Democracies - African Union Military Operation in Zimbabwe (CODAMIZ) is a joint Concert of Democracies and African Union peacemaking mission approved by the Concert of Democracies on April 5, 2009 to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power and bring stability to Zimbabwe until a democratically elected government can take power. Members of the CODAMIZ included Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia. While most nations contributed with military units and humanitarian support, nations bordering Zimbabwe, like Mozambique and Zambia mainly allowed military access to CODAMIZ forces. The supreme commander of the CODAMIZ forces was Gen. William E. Ward of the U.S. Army. He was the head of United States African Command (AFRICOM in short).

The largest contingent of the CODAMIZ was sent by the United States. Brigade Combat Teams (of the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions), elements of the 101st Airborne Division and United States Air Force squadrons were mobilised to the theatre, along with the aircraft carriers. Around 1,500 armoured vehicles and 30,000 troops were shipped for action.

The United Kingdom sent the largest contingent of any European nation participating in combat operations during the war. British Army regiments (mainly with the British 1st Armoured Division) and Royal Air Force squadrons were mobilised to the theatre. The Royal Air Force, using various aircraft, operated from airbases in Saudi Arabia. Almost 500 armoured vehicles and 15,000 troops were shipped for action.

The third largest contingent came from South Africa. Under the command of Lt.Gen. Solly Z. Shoke, the Chief of the Army of South Africa, the South African Army deployed Three infantry battalions, one tank regiment and support units for the operation against Zimbabwe, totalling 8,400 troops. These were supported by Olifant Mk II battle tanks, heavy artillery and close air support helicopters.

France deployed an 4,000-men strong expeditionary unit, which consisted of the 5eme Regiment Interarmes d'Outre Mer, the 2e Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes, as well as support units, including engineers, medical personnel and logistic units. The 5em RIOM also deployed a number of armoured vehicles. They were in command of the European contribution to the CODAMIZ operation.

The remaining 13,430 troops were deployed by other COD or AU members. Most of these units were engineers, medical and logistics personnel, but some nations did contribute with substantial combat units. Other European countries also contributed indirectly by providing humanitarian support.



Invasion
On April 10, 2009 at approximately at 03:33 local time, explosions were heard in Harare as the missiles of the U.S. and British bomber aircraft hit military installations and governmental offices. Twenty minutes later Coalition aircraft also attacked army barracks, military installations and supply depots around Zimbabwe, taking the Zimbabwean Army completely by surprise. Special operations commandos from the CIA's Special Activities Division from the Northern Zimbabwe Liaison Element and the British Defence Intelligence Staff infiltrated throughout Zimbabwe and called in the early air strikes. At 02:15 UTC, or 09:15 P.M. EST, U.S. President George W. Bush announced that the CODAMIZ operation had been initiated to "remove President Mugabe from power and install Tsvangirai as the head of government.

The air force imposed a blockade on the Harare International Airport in order to prevent Mugabe and his government from escaping, while continuing targeting military installations and army units. The Zimbambwean Air Force was quickly destroyed, with most of their aircraft destroyed on the ground.

Two hours later the Coalition troops launched the ground assault on Zimbabwe. The Invasion force was divided in three seperate columns: From the South, advancing from South Africa, U.S., British and South African forces was to advance northwards. From the East, a contingent consisting of troops from Norway, Sweden, ....... and Jordan was to support the northern column on their advance towards the capital Harare.

In keeping with the rapid advance plan, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division moved northward toward Harare, while the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved westwards.