Calls mount for Mugabe to resign

From Al Jazeera, 12/7/08:

Calls mount for Mugabe to resign
Cholera is thought to have claimed nearly 600 lives in Zimbabwe in the past few months [AFP]

Calls for Zimbabwe's President to resign are mounting, with Botswana's foreign minister saying southern African countries have not done enough to make Robert Mugabe to step down.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Phandu Skelemani said the international community could easily force Mugabe out.

"Sadc [The Southern African Development Community] should never have recognised Mugabe as legitimate.

"[They] should treat Mugabe and the MDC [the opposition Movement for Democratic Change] as equals because none of them have won elections."

He said that if Sadc did not bring pressure on Mugabe, then the grouping should be held responsible for any deaths in Zimbabawe.

"The best solution would be to pressurise Mugabe as an international community to go for a [presidential] run off.

International condemnation
The call followed Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, condemning Mugabe's "blood stained regime" and Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, saying that it is well past the time for Mugabe to quit.

EU foreign ministers are expected to adopt a draft text tightening sanctions against Zimbabwe on Monday, due to fears over the worsening humanitarian situation and political deadlock in the country.

For a humanitarian intervention in Zimbabwe

For humanitarian reasons, the international community should depose the Zimbabwean government.
The United Nations should assemble a coalition of nations, from the continent of Africa, to intervene and depose the government.
The government has held an election, has ignored the will of the people, and the human situation is deteriorating. The economic collapse has been bad enough.
Now, the governmental, administrative inefficacy has been exposed in the breakdown of the hospital system and the cholera epidemic is an outcome of the multiple breakdowns in the nation. Nine of the ten provinces are now affected. As of December 4, 2008, the epidemic has spread to some adjacent areas in Botswana and South Africa.

The United Nations, the World Health Organization have not contributed adequate resources so far to the crisis. Southern African nations, notably Botswana and South Africa, and Australia and the European Union are to be commended for their humanitarian contributions. See this link to the wikipedia article on the cholera outbreak. However, the crisis is worsening by the day and more urgent action is required.

"Zwnews.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe" is a good site that assembles various stories on the humanitarian crisis.

We should consider our fellow people on the planet our brothers and sisters. Figuratively speaking, our brothers and sisters are dying by the road in Zimbabwe. We should step in and save their lives.