Monster-in-Law

Morgan Tsvangirai is prime minister of Zimbabwe and therefore must share power with President Robert Mugabe. It's certainly an a process fraught with danger, and Foreign Policy has a useful interview with Tsvangirai in which he expounds on his various measures to rebuild Zimbabwe's economy. Whether or not Tsvangirai succeeds will depend very much on the state of Zimbabwe's own internal politics and Mugabe's valuation of the possible losses he is willing to absorb to either block or indugle Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai also has a harsh comment directed at aid agencies and NGOs:

"FP: President Robert Mugabe has a sinister reputation in the United States and elsewhere. But are there things that the West is failing to understand about Mugabe?

MT: I'm sure this perception is what has been built up over the years -- some of which is a reality. But one of the underlying things is that I am prepared to work with President Robert Mugabe -- not because he's right but because of the national interest: We would work with anybody who wants to push the national agenda forward. But instead of [the international community] taking a cue from us as to how to proceed, it would appear that people have made this judgment [not to help], and they have thrown out the baby with the bath water. "

This puts the human rights community in a rather difficult position--help an odious regime because of the presence of one good man or continue to be blamed for obstructionism. On some level, Mugabe is using Tsvangirai as cover, but it seems like Tsvangirai also does sincerely want to use the opportunity to alleviate the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.