/ 7 December 2008

Archbishop: Mugabe must be toppled now

In an extraordinary and passionate outburst, the Archbishop of York is calling for President Robert Mugabe to be toppled from power.

In an extraordinary and passionate outburst, the Archbishop of York is calling for President Robert Mugabe to be toppled from power and face trial for crimes against humanity,

Dr John Sentamu, writing in the Observer, said the world must recognise that the time for talks was over and Mugabe should be forced out. ”The time has come for Robert Mugabe to answer for his crimes against humanity, against his countrymen and women and for justice to be done. The winds of change that once brought hope to Zimbabwe and its neighbours have become a hurricane of destruction, with the outbreak of cholera, destitution, starvation and systemic abuse of power by the state,” he says.

”As a country cries out for justice, we can no longer be inactive to their call. Robert Mugabe and his henchmen must now take their rightful place in the Hague and answer for their actions. The time to remove them from power has come.”

He said the power-sharing deal signed by Mugabe and the Zimbabwean opposition in September was ”now dead”.

This time last year Sentamu, one of the Anglican church’s most senior clerics, ripped up his dog collar on television in protest at Mugabe’s regime and refused to wear one again until the tyrant had been toppled. He then asked Christmas shoppers to give £1 to Zimbabwe’s suffering people, but now he wants more far-reaching action.

The Archbishop’s attack came as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also stepped up the rhetoric on Saturday, calling the Zimbabwean government a ”blood-stained regime” and urging the international community to tell Mugabe ”enough is enough”. The Brown said food shortages and the cholera epidemic had become an ”international rather than a national emergency” that demanded a coordinated response.

”We must stand together to defend human rights and democracy, to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough,” he said. ”The whole world is angry because they see avoidable deaths — of children, mothers, and families affected by a disease that could have been avoided. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. This is a breakdown in civil society.” Brown said he hoped the United Nations Security Council would meet ”urgently”.

But Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg went further, saying the UN should now declare the use of military force was justified: ”The world has sat idly by while Mugabe has brutalised his own people for too long. Economic recession in the West has led the world to avert its gaze from the suffering in Zimbabwe. Further international inaction would be inexcusable.”

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Dutch TV that Mugabe must stand down or be removed ”by force”. But while Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said it was time for African governments to ”take decisive action to push him out of power”, there has been little sign that Zimbabwe’s neighbours were prepared to move against him. The growing international fury came as cholera ravaged the people — 575 have died and 13 000 are infected – and the economy is worse than anything the world has seen.

The Zimbabwe central bank sacked executives at four banks accused of illegal foreign currency trading. The managers were sacked for diverting Zimbabwean dollars to the black market before the notes were introduced, central bank Governor Gideon Gono told the state-run Herald newspaper. Referring to reports that the central bank itself bought black market currency, Gono said: ”We are sick and tired of being labelled crooks.”

Inflation is at 231 000 000% and the Reserve Bank has been unable to print money fast enough to keep up with prices, which double every 24 hours. – guardian.co.uk