Mugabe is ranked second, behind North Korean despot Kim Jong-il, in an annual survey of the world's 23 worst dictators, the results of which were published on Monday by the US based Foreign Policy magazine. The magazine, which calls the list of dictators "the committee to destroy the world", also lists Zimbabwe as the fourth most failed state in the world, only three places behind war torn Somalia.
The dictator's report by prominent Ghanaian analyst George Ayittey ranks the dictators "based on ignoble qualities of perfidy, cultural betrayal, and economic devastation." The report directs blame on Mugabe for Zimbabwe's socioeconomic and political ills, calling him a "murderous despot."
"Mugabe has arrested and tortured the opposition, squeezed his economy into astounding negative growth and billion-per cent inflation, and funneled off a juicy cut for himself using currency manipulation and offshore accounts," Ayittey writes.
The annual Index of the World's Failed States 2010 meanwhile highlights how little the situation in Zimbabwe has changed, despite the formation of the unity government last year. The Index report states that the top failed states were the usual "familiar states" saying that "none of the current top 10 has shown much improvement, if any, since 2005."
"The overall story of the Failed States Index is one of wearying constancy, and 2010 is proving to be no different," the report reads.
The rankings by Foreign Policy use publicly available data to analyse 177 countries on "12 metrics of state decay, from refugee flows to economic implosion, human rights violations to security threats." It comes on the back of a United Nations report which detailed that Zimbabweans still top the global list of asylum seekers, yet another indictment of life under the unity government. The report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was released last week and is based on findings during 2009, the first year of life under a coalition government in Zimbabwe.
The report: 2009 Global Trends - Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons, shows that more than 158 000 Zimbabweans had applied for asylum last year alone. It cites "political and economic turmoil" and "uncertainties" over the fragile coalition government as key reasons behind the numbers fleeing the country, a figure which is three times higher than the next list-topping country, Burma. Zimbabwe's figures were also alarmingly higher than those of war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Somalia.
Political commentator Professor John Makumbe said these various recent reports underline why people are so desperate for change in Zimbabwe, change which he said will not happen until Mugabe's hold on power slackens. He expressed hope that these reports will prompt international pressure for change in Zimbabwe.
"Pressure for change has been thwarted by the existence of a unity government, but it is critical that international pressure continues to grow for an end to the crisis in Zimbabwe," Makumbe said.