US President George W.Bush has accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of "destroying" his country and has urged South Africa to intervene in its neighbour's unfolding crisis.
Mr Bush said South Africa was a great democracy and a strong nation in Africa which had to stand up to the Mugabe regime over its campaign to demolish the houses of the urban poor and drive them into famine-hit rural areas. As many as 1million people have been left homeless."Next door to you is a person that is destroying a country because of bad policy, and it's not right. And the nations in the neighbourhood must be strong," Mr Bush said.
The comments came as four more people were killed as armed Zimbabwean police demolished a squatter camp on Harare's outskirts as part of the Mugabe regime's "clean-up" campaign....
The US and European nations raised Zimbabwe's housing demolitions in the UN Security Council for the first time yesterday, using a debate on extreme hunger in southern Africa as a way of getting the issue on the agenda.
But diplomats said that most council members were resisting discussion, saying the Zimbabwe crisis was an internal and not an international peace and security issue. And African leaders have rejected Western condemnation of the forced eviction of slum dwellers from urban areas.
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The African Commission, the administrative arm of the African Union, announced that it was sending Tom Nyanduga, its special rapporteur on refugees and internally displaced persons, to Harare to investigate the mass dislocations.
Read it here.
Right. At least one national leader does not accept the idea that we should simply stand by and tut-tut while millions suffer at the hands of their own governments. Too bad the UN and AU don't feel the same way.
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