Day By Day

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Zimbabwe Update -- The International Community Responds to Mugabe's Atrocities

AFP reports:
[F]oreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) club of wealthy countries Thursday rapped Zimbabwe.

"We discussed the current situation and the ongoing police operations which have reportedly left thousands of the most vulnerable homeless and destitute," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a news conference in London following a one-day meeting with his G8 counterparts.

"And we call on the government of Zimbabwe to abide by the rule of law and respect human rights," he said.

The G8 is due hold a summit in Scotland in early July to discuss the fate of a multi-billion-dollar rescue plan for Africa which underpins good governance and zero-corruption in the world's poorest continent.

The G8 warning came as London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International led more than 200 non-governmental organisations in urging the United Nations and the African Union to exert pressure on President Robert Mugabe to stop the drive.

"The AU and the relevant bodies of the UN ... cannot fail to act in the face of gross and widespread human rights violations and appalling human misery," Amnesty and the other bodies said in a joint statement released simultaneously in Harare and four other African cities.

Zimbabwean lawyers have meanwhile lined up a series of lawsuits against the clean-up campaign.

Read it here.

Ooooh! Wow! That'll have Mad Bobby Mugabe trembling in his boots. Calls, strongly worded statements, threats of lawsuits, discussions. The International Community really knows how to bring the heat. It's only a matter of time now before Mugabe crumbles and makes full restitution to the victims -- maybe a few centuries.

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