Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has signed a new law that gives “indigenous” Zimbabweans majority ownership of all businesses. This new law will make matters even worse for an already impoverished country.

It is hard to see how conditions could get worse for this once prosperous nation. While few official figures are available, estimates put unemployment at 80 percent. Official figures also put the inflation rate at 24,000 percent, though in reality inflation in Zimbabwe is very hard to measure. When there is no food on the shelves, it is hard to tell how much the price has risen.

This new law is not going to fix that. It states that “indigenous Zimbabweans shall own at least 51 percent of the shares of every public company and other businesses.” The term “indigenous” refers to “any person who, before the 18th April, 1980, was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such person.”

This new legislation brings back memories of the tragic land reforms that took place several years ago. According to Harare-based economist Godfrey Kanyenze, “It will entail the destruction of the economy. We should have learned from the blunders of the land reforms where people who were not properly equipped rushed to grab farms. The result was a disaster in the agricultural sector and we are now importing maize from the countries where the former farmers have migrated to.”

The land now known as Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of Africa. Today it is a den of tyranny, starvation and squalor. In 1960, British Prime Minister Howard Macmillan forecast that “the wind of change” would soon blow over the continent. This is where those winds of change brought Zimbabwe.

The British colony of Southern Rhodesia (the former name of Zimbabwe) was wary of these winds of change. It was easy to see that British withdrawal from Africa would lead to a “one man, one vote, one time” system, where the newly independent colony would end up under the thumb of a dictator, or in the grip of civil war.

The Rhodesian leader at the time, Ian Smith, with majority support from the white segment of the electorate, decided that this would not happen to his country. On Nov. 11, 1965, Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain. It was the only way to keep the country from the tyrants that Communist guerrillas would bring to power. Ian Smith had seen the sad results of decolonization elsewhere and was only too aware of the rapid penetration of Soviet and Chinese Communist influence into Africa in the wake of the colonial powers’ flight.

The date of the declaration was significant. In the British Commonwealth, November 11 is a day of remembrance for all those who have given their lives in battle for the cause of freedom. The timing reminded the world that Rhodesians had voluntarily fought and died for the freedom of other nations. Now they were asking the rest of the world to support theirs.

The rest of the world did not. At least, no governments did. Though there was obvious sympathy from the Portuguese colonies and South Africa, the rapid collapse of Portugal’s colonial possessions and South Africa’s own national interests mitigated against any combined southern African resistance to the march of Marxist terror sweeping Africa at the time. Officers in the British armed forces, however, remembered and respected their old ally. They made it clear to the government they would not comply with any orders to attack Rhodesia. Both times when Ian Smith held talks with the socialist British Prime Minister Harold Wilson aboard British wars ships, it was the Rhodesian prime minister that the officers invited to dinner, while Wilson was ignored.

The rest of the world chose to side with the Marxist terrorists. Armed with Soviet- and Chinese-made weapons, the Communists committed horrible atrocities against black and white alike. Meanwhile, Rhodesia was under UN sanctions from the rest of the world, pushed by Britain. Britain could not use its military to force the country to surrender, so it tried other means such as trade sanctions instead.

The terrorists often attacked women and children, missionaries and Red Cross workers—anyone unable to fight back. Here’s one example from June 23, 1978, as documented by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (mipt): “Black nationalist guerrillas bayoneted, axed and clubbed to death eight British missionaries and four of their children at an Elim Mission School in the Vumba Mountains. Among the victims was a 3-week-old child. Several other Britons were wounded in the attack; one was raped.”

Two of these guerrillas were later killed. Notebooks that they carried showed they were members of the Zimbabwe Africa Nationalist Union (zanu). Their leader is now quite infamous. His name is Robert Mugabe.

Perhaps one of the cruelest attacks came on Sept. 3, 1978. The Hunyani, a Vickers Viscount passenger plane carrying 52 passengers and 4 crew men, was shot down. The plane crashed, but due to the pilot’s skill, there were 18 survivors. Promising them help, the guerrillas rounded up 10 of them and then shot them.

A group run by Joshua Nkomo organized the massacre. Nkomo chuckled about his “triumph” in an interview with the bbc.

Joshua Nkomo served as Mugabe’s vice president from 1987 to 1999.

In February 1979, a second plane was shot down. There were no survivors.

Under this kind of pressure, betrayed and abandoned by the rest of the world, Rhodesia caved in and compromised. At one point, Smith appealed to Henry Kissinger for help. “What about loyalty and honor?” he asked. “I am afraid those things have no place in the modern world,” was Kissinger’s tragic reply.

In 1979, majority elections were held. Mugabe did not win. Bishop Abel Muzorewa became president, despite threats and intimidation from Mugabe and Nkomo.

Muzorewa’s free and fair election was not good enough for the Marxists though. The terrorists didn’t stop their “war,” and the West didn’t lift its sanctions.

The West got its way. Mugabe became president on April 18, 1980, after an election campaign marred by fraud, intimidation and violence.

President Jimmy Carter’s ambassador to the UN Andrew Young was asked what he thought of Mugabe. “Does Mr. Mugabe strike you as a violent man?” said a reporter from the Times. “Not at all, he’s a very gentle man,” Young replied. “In fact, one of the ironies of the whole struggle is that I can’t imagine Joshua Nkomo, or Robert Mugabe, ever pulling the trigger on a gun to kill anyone. I doubt that they ever have.” Later he said: “I find that I am fascinated by his intelligence, by his dedication. The only thing that frustrates me about Robert Mugabe is that he is so … incorruptible.”

Young knew better than that. The Western world deliberately ignored the facts so that the peaceniks wouldn’t have to awake from their never-never land of political correctness.

Zimbabwe is dominated by two main tribes, the Mashona (or Shona for short), and the Matabele. Mugabe was Mashona. After becoming president, Mugabe turned on the Matabele. It is impossible to tell how many he killed, but the Timesestimates about 20,000. Other estimates are much higher.

Opponents of Ian Smith and the white Rhodesians accused them of being racist. The man they replaced him with went on to commit genocide.

Is it any wonder Zimbabwe is in the state it is today? The West put a murdering Marxist Mugabe into power. It should not then be surprised when he turns out to be a terrorist. There is a long list of such murderers being endorsed by Western leaders as a matter of expedience in their drastically flawed foreign policies.

Mugabe now seems set to lead his nation into even more misery. Elections are scheduled for March 29. Will they be free and fair? Never.