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Cape Town, Washington DC — As governance in Zimbabwe continues to crumble and the United Nations reports nearly 14,000 suspected cholera cases, Western powers have stepped up their rhetoric against President Robert Mugabe and are lobbying African nations to call on him to step down.
European foreign ministers will decide on Monday whether to intensify sanctions on the Mugabe government.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a statement in London on Saturday describing the situation in Zimbabwe as “an international rather than a national emergency” and called on the world community “to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough.”
He said the emergency was “international” because “disease crosses borders… because the systems of government in Zimbabwe are now broken. There is no state capable or willing of protecting its people.”
Brown said he was pressing African leaders to take “stronger action to give the Zimbabwean people the government they deserve.”
His remarks came after United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used her strongest language yet to condemn Mugabe’s government. She told reporters in Copenhagen on Friday that “it’s well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave."
She joined Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who both called this week for Mugabe’s resignation.
Zimbabwe's government declared a national emergency during the week in response the cholera outbreak. Estimates have put the death toll at nearly 600, and aid agencies warn that the situation is worsening quickly.
Power-sharing talks with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – which has a parliamentary majority – have stalled, and Mugabe has hinted that he might soon form a cabinet without the MDC.
Rice said it was "obvious" that Mugabe had to go, calling both the June election and subsequent talks a "sham." She was speaking to reporters at a press conference after following a meeting with Denmark's Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
She too put pressure on African governments, saying “the southern African states should be responsible at this point because they have the most at risk." She said she hoped her comments would "spur the states of the region to stronger action."
Russell Feingold (Democrat-Wisconsin), the chair of United States Senate committee on Africa, praised Rice: “The political turmoil, for which Mugabe is largely responsible, is the biggest impediment to getting people the assistance they need," Feingold said in a statement.
Also on Friday, Rice’s British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, called Mugabe's administration a "rogue government." He said European Union foreign ministers would decide on Monday whether to extend what he called “targeted measures against key figures in the Zimbabwean regime.”
“The economy is in free-fall,” he added. “Education and health systems have failed. Public infrastructure is in terminal decline and the government is unwilling and unable to look after its own people... Now the country has been hit by a cholera epidemic... This is a direct result of the abuse, neglect and corruption of a Mugabe regime which long ago lost respect and in March's elections lost its legitimacy."
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You people(Brown,Rice) don,t live in Africa and as such have no right to speak for us on how and who we need as a leader.Rice is following the script prescribed by her masters,Brown is a liar in that he and his other fellow European, and American Govts started the problem with the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe.If Mugabe must go it has to come from the Zimbabweans and not you the thieves that are only doing this for your own selfish interests.There is no such thing as white owned land in Africa, the tables will turn soon in other countries of interest e.g Kenya,South Africa,Namibia e.t.c.You people came to Africa from your cold west initially pretending to be friends,alas, the wind has blown and we can now see the hen,s anus.
I thought the people of Zimbabwe have decided duringthe last election............
My fellow Comrades, leaders of Africa, we need to take the responsibility and set examples to convey to the blue eyes devils of the west that we are not barbarians. We must get raid of them and take control of our own destiny Africa must look beyound their noses and have the ability to smell the scent of an rotten egg. Especially, the ability to recognize and smell the aroma of the blue eyes devils even before he stept foot on the continent.
shut up ( broun,rice ) whites they took our land who gave them that land? we have to take our land back, how many blacks own land in europe? africa we must wecup zimbabeweian people wecup this is your land you have to fight for it. standa with mugabbe he is fighitting for you, TUTU he is such stuped old man, he dosent know anything southafrica people they have the same problem
Tell you the truth, I could not care less about how many blacks own land in Europe. I don't care how many blacks, Indians or Chinese are Members of the Uk Parliament if they were voted into that position by the electorate. I dont care how many Lords and Dames or Sirs are people of colour, they probably deserve the title. I do care when a Nation is starving, ravished by disease, all due to one man. So I suggest you wecup (?) and do something to help your fellow man. Support Mugabe if you will but stop the starvation, the poverty the spread of disease, the beatings and abductions, the murders in the name of politics. Speak out against the MDC if you desire, this is your right, but do it with your mouth, not at the barrel of a gun or with a fist. Let others have the same right as you do to support whom they will with out fear that their home will be burnt in the middle of the night, their mothers, wives, sister, daughters raped, abducted to be used as play thing for the mob. Finaly I do hope that South Africans do not have the same problem as Zimbabweans, I hope that the govenment there will never restrict the free press, will never allow the essential servises to corrode and become defunct, will never abduct thier citizenry because they disagree with their political belief.
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