Mugabe's Rule, Zimbabwe's Future

Last week, as the world looked on, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe rigged his re-election amid brutal violence.

Yesterday, he brushed aside critics at the African Union summit. They should mind their own business, Mugabe said.

As for his Western critics, they should "go hang a thousand times."

Now, with talk of tough new sanctions and the AU calling for a negotiated settlement with Zimbabwe's opposition party, Mugabe says he's open to "dialogue."

Still, the old liberator turned tyrant reigns supreme.

This hour, On Point: Mugabe's rule, and a country in the balance.Guests:

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, foreign correspondent for NPR, joining us from Johannesburg, South Africa.

Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he served on the State Department's policy planning staff for African affairs under President Bill Clinton.

Promise Mkwananzi, former president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union. Now a member of the Global Zimbabwe Forum, an activist exile group, he joins us from Brussels, Belgium.

Heidi Holland, journalist and author of "Dinner with Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter Who Became a Tyrant," she joins us from Cape Town, South Africa.

Shandi Mawokomatanda, a native Zimbabwean who last visited his country in 2000, he is a Methodist minister and graduate student at Boston University and Boston Theological Institute. He is researching the role of churches in Zimbabwe and their response to political violence.

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