GORDON Brown branded the Zimbabwean government a "blood-stained regime" yesterday and urged the international community to tell President Robert Mugabe "enough is enough".
Brown said food shortages, and the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe which has killed hundreds of people, had become an "international rather than a national emergency" that demanded a coordinated response.
"We must stand together to defend human
rights and democracy, to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough," he said.
The Prime Minister did not explicitly say that Mugabe should step down, but he called for the world to speak with one voice, "to say that this must be brought to an end".
Brown continued: "The whole world is angry because they see avoidable deaths – of children, mothers and families affected by a disease that could have been avoided.
"This is a humanitarian catastrophe. This is a breakdown in civil society. It is a blood-stained regime that is letting down its own people."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that Mugabe's departure from office was long overdue. Britain has long had tense ties with Zimbabwe, formerly a British colony. Mugabe, 84, in power since independence in 1980, has accused London of trying to retain influence in his country.
Brown said he had close contact with African leaders "to press for stronger action to give the Zimbabwean people the government they deserve".
He also said that he hoped the United Nations Security Council would meet "urgently" to consider the situation in Zimbabwe. "The people of Zimbabwe voted for a better future," Brown said. "It is our duty to support that aspiration."
Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change are deadlocked over the allocation of cabinet seats, the key element in forming a power-sharing government to break the impasse following flawed elections, and the 15- nation Southern African Development Community has been unable to push them into a deal.
Zimbabwe's worsening economic collapse, and the spread of cholera to neighbouring countries as Zimbabweans seek medical treatment and food abroad, may now force regional leaders to take a stronger stand against the veteran Zimbabwean leader.
Brown said the immediate priority was to prevent more deaths by distributing rehydration packs and medical testing kits.
The Prime Minister said a "command and control structure" should be put in place in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, to coordinate aid efforts.
"Cholera is completely controllable and avoidable," he said. "The failure to do so… has got to be held as the responsibility of the Zimbabwean regime. That is why I want all the world's opinion to be heard saying that this cannot go on."
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said that the UN should now declare that the use of military force by the international community was justified in order to protect the people of Zimbabwe.
"The world has sat idly by whilst Robert Mugabe has brutalised his own people for too long. Economic recession in the West has led the world to avert its gaze from the suffering in Zimbabwe.
"The UN must urgently declare that Mugabe will be indicted in the International Criminal Court. Further international inaction would be inexcusable."
The full article contains 534 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
