Time to stand up to Mugabe

Copenhagen - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that it is "well past time" for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to leave office.

Rice said the country experienced a sham election followed by a sham sharing of power. Speaking in the Danish capital on Friday, she said the current outbreak of cholera in the country should be a sign to the international community that it is time to stand up to Mugabe. "If this is not evidence to the international community to stand up for what is right, I don't know what would be. And frankly the nations of the region have to do it," she said. The nations in southern Africa have the most to lose and need to take the lead, she said.

Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system, and state media reported on Thursday the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis. "It's well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave, that's now obvious," Rice said. "There has been a sham election, there was a sham power-sharing. We are now seeing the humanitarian toll."

The failure of the southern African nation's health care system is one of the most devastating effects of the country's overall economic collapse. Facing the highest inflation in the world, Zimbabweans are struggling just to eat and find clean drinking water. The United Nations says the number of suspected cholera cases in Zimbabwe since August has climbed above 12 600, with 570 deaths, because of a lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes.

www.news24.com, 5 December 2008