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.
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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."
