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It's time for action, not words, to topple Mugabe
THE Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, made a bold call at the weekend for Robert Mugabe and his henchmen to be removed from power in Zimbabwe. He said that they must be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to answer for their crimes against humanity.
His brother archbishop, Desmond Tutu, also called last week for them to step down – or face indictment for their gross violations of human rights. He said that, if they refused, they should be removed by use of military force. I agree with
them both.
These archbishops know what they are talking about. Both
have first-hand experience of fighting tyranny in the countries of their birth – Uganda and South Africa.
In July, the parish church of House of Commons, St Margaret's Westminster, was filled to overflowing with Zimbabweans living in the UK. They came for a special service, arranged by Dr Sentamu, and I was invited to read the lesson before he preached.
In a typically forthright sermon, he quoted the words spoken more than 20 years ago by Joshua Nkomo at the funeral of Lookout Masuku, who had been imprisoned for allegedly plotting to overthrow Mugabe.
He quoted those words again in his newspaper article at the weekend: "We cannot blame colonialism and imperialism for this tragedy.
"We who fought against these things now practise them.
"Our country cannot progress on fear and the false accusations which are founded simply on the love of power. There is something radically wrong with our country today and we are moving, fast, towards destruction.
"There is confusion and corruption and, let us be clear about it, we are seeing racism in reverse under the false mirror of correcting imbalances from the past. In the process, we are creating worse things.
"We have created fear in the minds of some in our country. We have made them feel unwanted, unsafe. We cannot condemn other people and then do things even worse than they did."
Last week, Gordon Brown renewed his call for robust and decisive international action, particularly from within Africa, to save the people of Zimbabwe from political tyranny, the threat of widespread starvation and rampaging cholera.
Our Prime Minister deserves enormous credit for keeping Zimbabwe on the international agenda. He has faced abuse and denigration for his efforts, not only from Mugabe and his apparatchiks, but from those African leaders such as former President Mbeki, of South Africa, who have spent years shoring up a cosy buffer of protection around the ZanuPF rgime.
The time for talking has now ended – there is no hope of a power-sharing deal with a dictator who refuses to give up any power.
Yesterday, I spoke with friends in Harare. They told me that the situation is dire. The rainy season has started. With the water filtration and sanitation systems closed down, raw sewage is now running into the wells from which people draw their water for drinking and washing. They told me the numbers of dead are much greater than reported.
Yet when Gordon Brown pressed for a UN Security Council resolution aimed at isolating Mugabe and his ZanuPF elite – and upholding the will of the people of Zimbabwe as expressed in their election of March 29 – it was blocked.
In a shameful move, South Africa led China and Russia in opposition. If the resolution had been adopted, we might already be helping to rebuild the economy and institutions of Zimbabwe.
As the outgoing US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said last Friday: "There has been a sham process of power-sharing talks, and now we are seeing not only political and economic total devastation ... but a humanitarian toll of the cholera epidemic."
For those of us who have long been calling for international action to support the brave and peaceful democratic struggle of Morgan Tsvangari and his Movement for Democratic Change, it is heartening that some of the strongest voices calling for action are at last coming from within Africa.
On Sunday, Kenya's Prime Minister called on the African Union to deploy its troops and intervene to bring an end to the crisis. Botswana wants the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to put an embargo on petrol and diesel exports to Zimbabwe. It believes that this could dislodge Mugabe from power in little more than a week. Zambia has also expressed support for his removal.
But all the Southern African countries need to accept that it is time to uphold the will of the people of Zimbabwe. Some of them still don't, and their silence has been shameful. Mozambique, bordering Zimbabwe, has done nothing. Nor has Malawi.
Sadly, we have been prepared to let them get away with their destructive stance for too long and have continued to pump taxpayers' money to them, despite their support for tyranny and corruption. This must stop – and the Prime Minister should say so now.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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