THE past week saw regime change proponents, whose major weapons to bring down the Government of Zimbabwe are illegal sanctions and violence, suffer major setbacks on both fronts.

SADC was unanimous in publicly condemning the illegal sanctions while the much heralded countrywide protests by the MDC-Alliance were a complete flop.

The West, which wants to justify its sanctions on the basis of alleged flimsy excuses of human rights abuses, was recently rapped on the knuckles by SADC for its vindictive sanctions.

At the just-ended Summit held in Tanzania, the regional body left the West in no doubt about its abhorrence of the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe. 

The unanimous declaration by SADC countries to have October 25 as a solidarity day against the Western sanctions was a very strong statement.

We have already pointed out how SADC has since realised the malicious intention of the West to rid the region of Governments headed by former liberation movements.

The present onslaught on Zimbabwe is only the beginning.

So the declaration by SADC, throwing its weight behind a prime target of Western mischief, must have disturbed the sanctions proponents.

As if this was not enough, an attempt to create disorder through a well-orchestrated violence strategy suffered a stillbirth. 

But memories of the trail of destruction that accompanied the August and January protests are still very fresh.

Police, sensing the sinister motive of the so-called ‘peaceful’ demo, justifiably cancelled it.

This was confirmed by the courts.

So the attempted demonstrations in Harare last Friday were illegal.

And it was the duty of the police to see to it that the law had to be enforced, even if meant using some element force — like what they did this time. It was with disbelief when the West, through the European Union (EU) backed by the US, came out guns blazing, blaming the Government for suppressing the attempted insurrection.

This was predictable though.

But then, should we really be surprised by this nakedly illogical position of the West, the so-called champions of the rule of law!

The West becomes blind to logic when it is on a mission.

In our lead story, we chronicle the activities of Srdja Popovic, a Serbian believed to be an ‘expert’ in bringing down Governments through violence.

Throughout his endeavours, the hand of the West is evident.

The recent foiled attempt by the MDC-Alliance to create mayhem in the country was supposed to be the culmination of  Popovic’s lectures on violence.

This dangerous Serbian has handpicked civil society and MDC-Alliance members to train them through workshops on how to overthrow governments. But he has not been able to fool the Zimbabwean Government into having all this unnoticed.

And it looks like this time the West was rubbing its hands with glee at the prospect of another demo that would, may be, justify outside intervention. However, given a choice between pleasing the West by allowing illegal demos as a human right and taking measures to maintain law and order in your polity, the option is simple.

Popovic has succeeded in bringing regime change on behalf of the West in Eastern Europe and Africa. 

He has failed in Zimbabwe!  

No doubt, it is his ambition to, one day, claim the scalp of this beautiful country, whose independence was achieved after a lot of precious blood was shed.

Popovic has to be monitored closely.