Calls mount for Mugabe's remova

The chorus has been overwhelming. On Sunday Kenya's Prime Minister
Raila Odinga urged the African Union to call an emergency meeting to
authorise sending troops into Zimbabwe.  He said; "If no troops are
available, then the AU must allow the UN to send its forces into
Zimbabwe with immediate effect, to take over control of the country and
ensure urgent humanitarian assistance to the people dying of cholera.

Also over the weekend Botswana's Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani said:

"SADC should never have recognised Mugabe as legitimate," and called
for internationally supervised elections or border fuel blockades if
Mugabe remained intransigent.  The Inkatha Freedom Party leader
Mangosuthu Buthelezi added his voice saying:  Zimbabwe either adheres
to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (to which it is a
signatory) or it does not. It happens to do neither, and no amount of
pontificating about African solutions' can disguise that fact.  He
said the disintegration of Zimbabwe had miserably exposed SADC's
weakness and Africans had fallen prey to the notion of relative
standards.

Dr John Sentamu, the Ugandan born Archbishop of York, called for Mugabe
to be brought to stand trial in The Hague saying: "The time has come
for Mugabe to answer for his crimes against humanity, against his
countrymen and women and for justice to be done."

On Monday French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was time for Mugabe
to go as he had taken his people hostage. UK Prime Minister Gordon
Brown wants the United Nations Security Council to meet urgently to
consider the situation in Zimbabwe. UK Liberal Democrat Party leader
Nick Clegg said the brutality of the Mugabe regime was a stain on the
conscience of the world.'

Meanwhile British Conservative leader David Cameron called for a fuel
blockade on Zimbabwe and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it
is well past the time for Mugabe to quit.

The Elders, the group of international statesmen who were recently
barred from entering Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian crisis, have
said that the current government of Zanu PF cannot lead Zimbabwe out of
humanitarian crisis.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has simply told Mugabe to step down – or be removed by force!

The calls for Mugabe's ouster also received overwhelming coverage in
the British media with the Telegraph writing: We have no great
confidence in the United Nations. It has a history of moral weakness,
ranging from the expulsion of capitalist Taiwan at the behest of Maoist
China through to recent cases of child abuse by its ironically named
peacekeepers. But given the lack of available British troops, and the
potential for unfounded accusations of imperialism, it would be best
for the British Government to push for a UN sanctioned overthrow of Mr
Mugabe, with – as Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has urged –
African Union troops taking a central role.

While the Times wrote: Replacing the regime in Zimbabwe is a
humanitarian imperative; the UK should support African calls for
military intervention and offer supporting troops. While the world
stands by, the people of Zimbabwe are dying. The mismanagement of
Zimbabwe by its first and only ruler since independence, Robert Mugabe,
defies bromides about the affront to civilised standards; but they are
true none the less.

So the world is fairly clear about who is the problem. However analysts
say the regional and international community has to do more than merely
issue statements. It's all very well for world leaders to say that
Mugabe has to be removed by force, but is there really the will to do
that?

South Africa is still the key to the crisis, but so far they appear to
be one of the few countries reluctant to name Mugabe as being the key
to the problem. Once again they are trying to pressure both Zanu PF and
the opposition to form a government of national unity as quickly as
possible.

They seem unable to realise that this would do very little to resolve
the crisis because of Mugabe's continued stranglehold on power and what
would be his determination to undermine the MDC at every turn.

And so the rhetoric continues – while Zimbabwean's die in their thousands, hoping someone will come and save them.

SWRadio Africa