The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has already cost 575 lives according
to official statistics.HARARE – South African government officials were
in Zimbabwe yesterday assessing the scale of the humanitarian crisis as
international calls grow for Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years
as president.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday that
Mugabe must be pressured to go after the United States and Britain said
last week Mugabe's departure was overdue.
Basic foodstuffs are running out and a cholera epidemic has already
killed at least 575 people, infected thousands and has spread to South
Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia.
The team of senior South African officials arrived on Sunday to assess
the situation and ascertain what aid was needed, a department of
foreign affairs spokesman said.
South Africa, reacting to an unprecedented call for international help
from Mugabe's government, said it would give further details of aid for
Zimbabwe later this week.
Western countries in particular accuse Mugabe of ruining a once
prosperous country and exposing Zimbabweans to famine and disease.
I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to
step down, the EU's Solana told reporters ahead of a meeting of
European foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday.
The 27-nation bloc added up to 11 officials to an already long list of
Zimbabwean officials banned from travelling in Europe, but argued
against any further sanctions.
Everything that can be done has been done … The important thing is the political pressure now, he said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has branded Mugabe's government a
bloodstained regime and said it was responsible for the cholera
epidemic.
But Zimbabwe has accused Britain of using the epidemic to rally Western support for an invasion of the country.
Calls from the European Union, France and Britain for the 84-year-old
to go added to the growing chorus against Mugabe, after Washington as
well as African countries like Botswana and Kenya said last week that
he should step down.
President Mugabe must go, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Paris, adding that the time for negotiations was over.
There comes a time when a dictator does not want to hear, does not
want to understand, and so my understanding is that heads of states and
governments must end discussions.
It is time to say to Mr Mugabe you have taken your people hostage.
The people of Zimbabwe have the right to freedom, to security and to
respect'.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, also arriving for the EU
foreign ministers talks, decried the murderous effects of the Mugabe
regime.
Miliband, whose country is the ex-colonial power in Zimbabwe, described
Mugabe's government as a rogue regime wreaking havoc in the region as
well as death and destruction for its own people.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said it was well past
time for Robert Mugabe to leave, while former UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan said at the weekend that the current government was
incapable of ending Zimbabwe's crisis.
Zimbabwe's economy has contracted for nearly a decade and now reels
under the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million
per cent.
The cholera epidemic has compounded the daily suffering of Zimbabweans,
creeping into every corner of life, with the health minister warning
yesterday that even family gatherings could pose a risk.
People should watch out for weddings, funerals and other social
gatherings which are agents of the spread of cholera, Health Minister
David Parirenyatwa said in the state-runHerald newspaper.
We should avoid shaking hands and uphold high standards of hygiene, he said.
Maintaining hygiene is nearly impossible with only intermittent water
supplies and a creaking sanitation system that leaves sewage flowing in
the streets while garbage piles up on the roadside.
Zimbabwe has been in political limbo since elections in March when the
opposition wrested control of parliament from Mugabe's party and
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pushed the veteran leader into
second place in a presidential poll.
– Nampa-AFP-Reuters
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