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Archbishop of York John Sentamu (at right) has fired off a stinging attack against Britain’s do-nothing policy on Zimbabwe. The “racist” dictator Robert Mugabe has brought the once-prosperous country to the brink of destruction. Zimbabwe is no longer “an African problem needing an African solution – it is a humanitarian disaster.”
The statistics alone are devastating: the average life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe is 34 years; for men, it is 37. Inflation rages at 8,000 per cent; the shelves are empty of bread and maize; in the hospitals and clinics, children die for lack of vitamins, food and medicine, while the ravages of Aids are exacerbated by government indifference.
In the cramped townships now home to those supporters of the opposition whose homes Mugabe destroyed in a frenzy of destruction called 'Clean Out the Filth', there is no electricity or fresh running water and sewage spews out of the dilapidated buildings. The first cholera deaths were reported last week.
The archbishop likens Mugabe to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, under whose regime Sentamu was imprisoned for three months before fleeing to the United Kingdom.
Like Idi Amin before him in Uganda, Mugabe has rallied a country against its former colonial master only to destroy it through a dictatorial fervour. Enemies are tortured, the press is censored, the people are starving and meanwhile the world waits for South Africa to intervene. That time is now over.
Abp Sentamu calls on PM Gordon Brown to spearhead a co-ordinated international campaign targeted against Mugabe and his supporters. Sanctions similar to those that helped end apartheid in South Africa should be brought to bear against the oppressors of the Zimbabwean people.
Last night the British Foreign Office said that the government is still relying on Zimbabwe’s neighbours to lead action against Mugabe. In other words, Britain plans to continue a failed policy, apparently because it fears Mugabe’s pompous and self-serving allegations of racist colonialism. The Foreign Office should listen to the African-born archbishop.
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[...] Sentamu to UK government: Act now to save Zimbabwe [...]