As an African whose country has just risen again from a flawed elections(Kenya)it pains me to see the AU and SADC sitting numb when the people of Zimbabwe are suffering. The AU and african Leaders must speak with one voice to solve the Zimbabwean political dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.Time has come for the people of that country to be given their democratic rights.

It is not true that AU and SADC are just seated doing nothing. It is also due to the parties involved. In case of Kenya, African diplomates have done a wonderful job. Is it done yet! No... There are no easy answers or quick fixes to the path toward democracy. Elections will have flaws, it is the ability of those countries to fix them. Even the USA has had problems with the way they select their presidents..It is not an easy matter. The UN body is ineffective in helping countries about elections. Regional body are still the best. Do not expect a single voice, disagreements are fine, as long as a final solution can be arrived at. BBC and other white anglo media think they can force a solution on Zimbabwe, like they used to do during colonial times, but that is not democracy!! Democracy is much harder than dictatorship and that is the reason why Africa may seem to be going thru a hard period. The positive side is that even Africa today enjoys more democratic countries than ever before. Zimbabwe or Kenya are not the entire Africa, there are 54 countries in Africa. Qucik fixes are not the answer as called for by the British.

Phiri's comments are unfortunate coming from a fellow African - regrettably this is the attitude that so many Africans have: people must die - a lot must die like what happened in Rwanda, Kenya, Darfur for the situation to be described a'Crisis'. Recent comments attributed to Thabo Mbeki bear testimony to such disregard for human life. No-one must die for their democratic right to be heard! We fought the whites during the liberation struggle to regain our collective destiny. Why should we wait for the western world to declare disaster areas in our own backyard? If AU and SADCC are indeed doing anything, what is it? How long must I wait to be assured that mother/sister is safe?

Other than guns and physical violence inflicted upon the people of Zimbabwe as we speak, the shops are empty, the hospitals dont have medicines, all the professionals have left.....if this is not a Crisis, then our African standards must be very low and indeed not compatible with a quest for self-determination

Maga, 50 died in troubled Somalia yesterday,1000 died in Kenya recently and hundreds are being killed in Sudan every week. How many have been killed in Zimbabwe? Dont believe all you read - outside forces are so desperate to change the government in Zimbabwe that they fabricate all sort of stories to apply pressure. As far as violence is concerned Zimbabwe is nowhere close to some West and East African countries. Lies,lies,lies.

It rather dismaying to see ineptitude and indifference defended blindly by intellectualism and naivity. I live in Zimbabwe, went to vote on march 29, saw the results outside the polling booths, suffered and still suffer the anxiety of waiting for the presidential results.

The world watches giving excuses yet people who voted for the opposition are being systematically hunted, beaten and killed. I am a city dweller and i am afraid to go to the rural areas, even in the city of Harare heavy armed police and soildiers patrol our streets and shopping mails. There are hideous crimes being committed now! The world needs to come in Now!, what is the UN, the AU and SADC for if innocent people are being victimised and slaughtered by their very government?

The army generals declared before the elections that they would not serve anybody else except President Mugabe, that should have been cause enough for close monitoring of the situation. The courageous people of Zimbabwe went to vote despite threats of war by the arme and Zanu PF.

We are afraid to express ourselves on the streets, those living in high density areas report of beating being conducted every night. The doctors are telling the world of the victims they are treating every day yet, the world waits until there is a bloody civil war? Thabo Mbeki comes to Zimbabwe to meet Robert Mugabe who refuses to attend a meeting called for by SADC on the Zimbabwe crisis and claims there is no crisis in Zimbabwe? Mbeki conveniently ignored the Zimbaweans who are now flooding South Africa fleeing Zimbabwe, he is blind to the plight of those who have lost limbs to crocodiles daring to cross the Limpopo into South Africa. Was he misquoted?, no, the question was clear as can be. The reporter asked "would you say there is a crisis in Zimbabwe?".

To compare is to the USA is a completely thoughtless and irrelevant measure to use, Bush will not send the US army into the countryside to beat up his opponents, come on the two countries cannot be paralled in any way.

The UN needs to tke charge , come in and oversee the re-run that Zanu Pf has announcced before releasing the official results, if that does not raise an alrm bell with you.. nothing will! You cannot resit an exam whose result you do not know.

But what will happen here is very predictable, the government through the Zimbabwe Electorial Commission will announce a date for a re-run, this will be conducted in atmosphere of fear and intimidation, President Mugabe will declared winner and will use the military to supress any uprising. The vote of the people will have counted for nothing as it has so far in the presidential.

Yes elections do have flaws but the situation in Zimbabwe goes beyonf that. President Mugabe has blamed Britain, the USA, NGOs, Teachers, Business people and now everyone who voted against him as being the cause of the problems in Zimbabwe and of working to allow britain to re-colonise Zimbabwe.

In the next few weeks the violence will escalate and intensify as the re-run date approaches, the SADC, AU and UN will continue making statements until people are shooting each other in the streets of Harare.At which point they will take two months to decide how many peacekeepers to send. Didn't someone say prevention is better that cure?

Hepl us now.. this a cry from those in Zimbabwe.

After reading through the letter by Phiri, I'm quite astonished from the way some African brothers view the crisis in Zimbabwe,i however shall restrain myself from anger. Fellow African comrades and all those who are following the events as they unfold in Zimbabwe will predict and predict correctly that there surely will be a rise in the number of corpses due to political violince in Zimbabwe sooner than the next Africa Day celebrations.The question to ask to my comrades like Phiri is how many of such dead people do you want to see before you define the Zimbabwe scenerio to be crisis? The crisis in Zimbabwe goes beyond announcement of the Presidential results, people are dying in Hospitals due to lack of medication while Mugabe has the termerity to import weopons from China! Schools have vertually not been operational since January and yet we all know education is a basic right to everyone. To expect the Zimbabwean crisis to be solved internally is a sheer demonstration of simply ignoring the plight of the Zimbabwean populace.Even within our African culture, where family members enter into dispute, it is the duty of friends and nieghbours to assist in resolving that. In my view, Mbeki and SADC and other Afican leadres occupy that space of friends and nieghbours in the faminly annalogy. Zimbabweans have restrained themselves from a direct offensive approach and have patiently allowed all democratic avenues to be followed in pursuit of freeing themselves from Mugabe, what i see from contirbutions by people like Phiri is a persuasion to the people of Zimbabwe to be violent in order to achieve a peace deal that will culminate in providing a solution to Zimbabwe, may be he is right!but is that the way to go? Mugabe actually takes the patience demonstrated by Zimbabweans as docility! Allow me comrades to join the list of long suffering Zimbabweans who are requesting a peacefull resolution to this compound crisis we have.

Most African heads of state admire Mugabes courage to stand up to the West.They wish they they could have such courage.The majority of them are DICTATORS and thus cannot challange their spokesperson.For this reason Zimbabweans like most Africans are at the mercy of their dictators.STAND AND DIE FOR YOUR RIGHTS.

Ooh, please do. Why don't you all stand up and die for your rights? At least then Africa's major problem would be solved and we can finally have all your land and resources. Mwahaha.