BritinBritain
Per Ardua Ad Astra
Amsterdam - Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Thursday that Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe must step down or be removed by force.
"I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down'," Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova.
Asked if Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, should be removed by force, Tutu said: "Yes, by force - if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily."
Tutu, who was one of the continent's leading voices against the former apartheid regime, said the African Union or the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would have the capacity to remove Mugabe, 84.
"He has destroyed a wonderful country. A country that used to be a bread basket - it has now become a basket case," Tutu said.
Tutu's comments came on the day Zimbabwe declared a national emergency to halt a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 560 people.
Economic meltdown, which many blame on Mugabe, has left the health service ill-prepared to cope with an epidemic that it once would have prevented or treated easily.
Once hailed as a model African democrat, Mugabe has become increasingly criticised, particularly in the West over a worsening political and economic crisis that critics blame on his policies.
International help for Zimbabwe's collapsed economy is on hold while Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai remain deadlocked over implementing a power-sharing arrangement.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party won parliamentary elections while Mugabe was re-elected as president after Tsvangirai pulled out of a two way run-off, citing intimidation by Mugabe supporters.
- Reuters
The sooner the better.
Alex Ogle
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's cholera crisis is likely to spread in South Africa if conditions do not improve for asylum seekers pouring over the border to escape the outbreak, a leading human rights group said on Thursday.
"The lack of access to sanitation and clean water for refugees" has contributed to an outbreak of the illness across the southern border, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
"Abysmal living conditions for asylum seekers" in the border town Musina is set to "increase the risk that cholera will spread on the South African side," said Washington-based HRW fellow Rebecca Shaeffer.
500 asylum seekers a day
"Many asylum seekers are living completely without shelter in Musina," she said, adding that the refugees - who are pouring into South Africa at a rate of 500 a day - are living "exposed to the weather and without regular access to toilets, showers, food and clean water".
Some 1 000 asylum seekers are "staying on fenced-in showgrounds in Musina as they wait to lodge their asylum claims, and are fearful of arrest and deportation if they leave," said Shaeffer.
Roughly 200 to 400 refugees are arrested and deported back to Zimbabwe from Musina each day, she said.
South Africa currently reports 455 cholera cases, including seven deaths.
Treatment centres set to be overwhelmed
Health authorities have set up five cholera treatment centres along the border to handle the influx, but are set to be overwhelmed if the disease spreads.
In a perpetuating cycle, the worse the outbreak becomes in Zimbabwe, the more likely it is that refugees continue to cross the border to escape, fuelling the strain on health services in neighbouring countries.
In Zimbabwe, the breakdown of the nation's infrastructure has helped cholera thrive.
The outbreak has been fuelled "by the total breakdown in the health care system," said Shaeffer.
Government and UN figures show that more than 560 deaths and 12 500 cases have been recorded since August.
National emergency
On Wednesday Zimbabwe's state-run Herald daily declared the outbreak a national emergency and appealed for international aid to tackle the epidemic.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 4.5% of people who have contracted cholera in Zimbabwe have died.
The normal fatality rate, HRW said, is below one percent, when infection is properly managed with oral rehydration salts and medicines.
"Cholera outbreaks have repeatedly occurred in recent years, as (Zimbabwe's) water and sanitation systems have broken down," HRW said in a 2008 report on Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa.
"Electric power outages and shortages of chemicals to treat water have interrupted water supplies and compelled individuals to drink untreated water contaminated with faecal matter.
"At least six million people in Zimbabwe - about half the population - do not have access to clean water or sanitation," the report said.
Neighbouring Mozambique reported this week 278 cases of cholera, including nine deaths. Botswana has reported two cases.
- AFP
"I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down'," Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova.
Asked if Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, should be removed by force, Tutu said: "Yes, by force - if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily."
Tutu, who was one of the continent's leading voices against the former apartheid regime, said the African Union or the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would have the capacity to remove Mugabe, 84.
"He has destroyed a wonderful country. A country that used to be a bread basket - it has now become a basket case," Tutu said.
Tutu's comments came on the day Zimbabwe declared a national emergency to halt a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 560 people.
Economic meltdown, which many blame on Mugabe, has left the health service ill-prepared to cope with an epidemic that it once would have prevented or treated easily.
Once hailed as a model African democrat, Mugabe has become increasingly criticised, particularly in the West over a worsening political and economic crisis that critics blame on his policies.
International help for Zimbabwe's collapsed economy is on hold while Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai remain deadlocked over implementing a power-sharing arrangement.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party won parliamentary elections while Mugabe was re-elected as president after Tsvangirai pulled out of a two way run-off, citing intimidation by Mugabe supporters.
- Reuters
The sooner the better.
Alex Ogle
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's cholera crisis is likely to spread in South Africa if conditions do not improve for asylum seekers pouring over the border to escape the outbreak, a leading human rights group said on Thursday.
"The lack of access to sanitation and clean water for refugees" has contributed to an outbreak of the illness across the southern border, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
"Abysmal living conditions for asylum seekers" in the border town Musina is set to "increase the risk that cholera will spread on the South African side," said Washington-based HRW fellow Rebecca Shaeffer.
500 asylum seekers a day
"Many asylum seekers are living completely without shelter in Musina," she said, adding that the refugees - who are pouring into South Africa at a rate of 500 a day - are living "exposed to the weather and without regular access to toilets, showers, food and clean water".
Some 1 000 asylum seekers are "staying on fenced-in showgrounds in Musina as they wait to lodge their asylum claims, and are fearful of arrest and deportation if they leave," said Shaeffer.
Roughly 200 to 400 refugees are arrested and deported back to Zimbabwe from Musina each day, she said.
South Africa currently reports 455 cholera cases, including seven deaths.
Treatment centres set to be overwhelmed
Health authorities have set up five cholera treatment centres along the border to handle the influx, but are set to be overwhelmed if the disease spreads.
In a perpetuating cycle, the worse the outbreak becomes in Zimbabwe, the more likely it is that refugees continue to cross the border to escape, fuelling the strain on health services in neighbouring countries.
In Zimbabwe, the breakdown of the nation's infrastructure has helped cholera thrive.
The outbreak has been fuelled "by the total breakdown in the health care system," said Shaeffer.
Government and UN figures show that more than 560 deaths and 12 500 cases have been recorded since August.
National emergency
On Wednesday Zimbabwe's state-run Herald daily declared the outbreak a national emergency and appealed for international aid to tackle the epidemic.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 4.5% of people who have contracted cholera in Zimbabwe have died.
The normal fatality rate, HRW said, is below one percent, when infection is properly managed with oral rehydration salts and medicines.
"Cholera outbreaks have repeatedly occurred in recent years, as (Zimbabwe's) water and sanitation systems have broken down," HRW said in a 2008 report on Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa.
"Electric power outages and shortages of chemicals to treat water have interrupted water supplies and compelled individuals to drink untreated water contaminated with faecal matter.
"At least six million people in Zimbabwe - about half the population - do not have access to clean water or sanitation," the report said.
Neighbouring Mozambique reported this week 278 cases of cholera, including nine deaths. Botswana has reported two cases.
- AFP
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