Britain should have Mugabe prosecuted

Rhoda Klapp

You really think you can turn up anywhere waving a writ or a warrant and people like this will concede. Their writs are signed by Mr Justice Kalashnikov.

Bruce Robertson

Does he still have his (John Major-bestowed) knightnood?

Satrapy

This story is astonishingly badly informed. What's it doing on this site?

The author mentions the European Court of Justice. The ECJ makes rulings about EU law (state aid and all the rest of it). What on earth has it got to do with Zimbabwe? Does he mean the European Court of Human Rights? What has that got to do with Zimbabwe, which is not a member - surprisingly - of the Council of Europe?

Anyway, Britain cannot act unilaterally in its dealings with Zimbabwe, because Zimbabwe is included in the 28 areas of "common foreign policy" we have ceded to the EU; we can do nothing except in conjunction with our EU "colleagues".

For more, see here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/07/20/do2007.xml

TrevorsDen

Pardon me but why should any of us worry about Mugabe and Zimbabwe?

Lefties have been ignoring him and his dastardly actions for years and ignoring right wing protestations too.

If your headline and your story had been about arresting left wing apologists for this murderous tyrant for their complicity in his actions - then maybe I would sit up and take notice.

Helen

Gordon (Moses), should be prosecuted first, he is the Mugabe of the Western World.

Let the European Court of Human Rights do something pro-active for a change.

These things just cost the British taxpayer money, something we can ill afford at the moment.

Bart

The notion that a tinpot dictator like Mugabe who has no problems killing people by the thousands would be the slightest bit impressed by a judicial writ is laughable. It is a classic example of the delusional thinking produced by the effete remnants of dead empires. The world is becoming less civilized, not more, and it must be dealt with on its own terms, not on those the Utopian nutbuggers of Western ivory towers would employ. If you want to topple Mugabe, send in a military force and boot him out, or support the creation of an indigenous insurgency to depose him. Otherwise, just shut up.

Augustus

Although in theory all the criteria exists for an intervention by the UN, it is unlikely that the southern African states or the African Union would sanction or legitimize such an intervention.
As the Zimbabwean military forces themselves are unlikely to stage a coup d'etat because they have too many privileges to defend, it is upon the Zimbabwean people themselves to take to the streets and use other means to end the nightmare they are experiencing. It is only the Zimbabwean people who can liberate themselves from their 'liberator'. The best the international community can do is to support and supplement their noble second liberation struggle.

cuffleyburgers

I think Brown's main interest in Mugabe is as mentor as regards economic development.

Satrapy is doubtless as well informed as I am badly so - we would do better to approach the matter through the UN security council (before the lovely EU knackers that source of influence as well)

Standard Bearer

Please also note that it is World Food PROGRAMME not Program. There is no need for the Spectator to be lazy about letting American spelling slip through, especially when the organisation itself prefers British usage!

Jim

If only they had oil.....

mark

He is the maggot clinging to the centre of a very rotten apple and it will take more than just his removal to clean up the country. Very similar things could be said about Mugabe's rule in Zimbabwe!

Daniel Korski

Satrapy,

Thank you for correcting me - it is of course the European Court of Human Rights. Yes I know Zimbabwe is not part of the CoE, but my argument was broader - if there is a universality principle, which means state courts can act against a certain type of crimes, then perhaps courts such as the European Court of Human Rights could act too. Is it not likely that Mugabe's crimes have affected nationals of the countries who are part of the CoE?

As to the argument that Britain has no independent foreign policy because of the EU and therefore cannot act against Mugabe, this is simply nonsense. I don't remember Britain asking the EU to go to war in Iraq...

Bart,

I'm not saying Mugabe will see an investigation, be scared and bow-out. But I think we all know a military intervention is unlikely, in part because we don't have the capability. I'm suggesting that a investigation is the least we can do given the nature of the crimes involved. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good...

Ken

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g1vdq/Louis_Theroux_Law_and_Disorder_in_Johannesburg/

- just forget Africa - a continent that has long gone from deprived to depraved, (and I write as one who still has family there).

Jon

Prosecuted?

I think you're using the wrong [....]cuted word.

Chris

>If only they had oil.....

There's always one who thinks this is clever, ins't there? If it matters to your cliché-infested apology for a mind, Jim, Darfur has oil.

Anan

Err since we aren't the colonial power in Zimbabwe any more, why the hell should we do anything there? This is the most ridiculous campaign I have ever seen. What is everyone's obsession with Mugabe?

Unitl we no longer have an economy about to collapse, mass unemployment, massive crime rates, and one of the worst education systems in the world, we don't have any right to interfere with other countries.

Verity

Africa's spent the last 50 years being a leach. The richest continent in the world, and they're sucking off Britain, the United States and Europe. Re Mugabe, it's up to them to get rid of him. The Africans let Mugabe get in. They should manage taking him out.

The most we can do is strip him of his honour and close our High Commission.

Ken

Methinks there is meat enough on the homefront. A pox on African bush trail sidetracking. The UK's very own Mugabe is currently destroying the country for this and the next three generations. Enough Zim-babble.

"The pressures on banks prompted an angry statement today from Michael Coogan, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders. He said: “To different degrees lenders are facing conflicting pressures to recapitalise against possible future losses, service Government’s preference shareholdings at 12pc, pay a premium to access the Bank of England Special Liquidity Scheme, show forbearance to borrowers in arrears, follow base rate moves down to help their existing borrowers, keep savings rates high to support existing savers, and provide competitive rates to new borrowers and savers to maintain economic activity in a recession... Government urgently needs to review the cumulative effect of the approach it has taken in the recapitalisation process on large lenders’ willingness and capacity to lend.”
The Marxist history major and Africa-fondler B'RUIN should get a grip!

Max Kaye

Maybe we should deal with the nascent tyranny here at home first.

Satrapy

Daniel Korski -

Iraq is not one of the 28 foreign policy areas that the UK has hived off; Zimbabwe is.

I repeat: the UK can do nothing about Zimbabwe without agreement from the other 26 EU states.

For more, see here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/07/20/do2007.xml

If you want to know the EU's attitude to Mugabe and how tough the EU is on him, remember how it let him attend - irony of ironies - the food summit in Rome recently, despite his being "barred" from entering the EU.

Mike Spilligan

I read that Peter Hain is looking for a significant new job. Surely, he's just the right man to tackle this?

Cogito Ergosum

Unless we are prepared to occupy and rule Zimbabwe we should mind our own business.

muigwithania

Throughout the African people’s history of fighting for liberation and human dignity, each gain and breakthrough we have made was mainly due to our ability to overcome our enemy’s overt brutality, deceit and manipulation.Because the colonialists and imperialists have actively engaged in both our physical and mental oppression, the web of deception created by their Media and networks is a crucial and deadly weapon .

The manner in which the European and British media have reported how cholera is spreading in Zimbabwe not only reveals they enjoy watching a people whom they cannot intimidate and control suffer, but even, more importantly, it is clearly a masquerade by supposedly compassionate human beings who have nothing to do with the problem.

The Zimbabwean Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, and his staff deserve ultimate praise, not only for their tireless efforts to maintain Zimbabwe’s broken health infrastructure, but for having the courage and integrity to inform the world that the sanctions — and not negligence or bad governance — are the root cause for problems with the country’s health delivery system.

While the cholera problem is tragic and deserves our immediate attention, the British government and its supporters (raila Odinga and Co), obsessed with illegal regime change in Zimbabwe, should be the last ones allowed to pass moral judgment on how President Mugabe and Zanu-PF deal with this matter.

George Laird

Dear All

Is Daniel Korski seriously implying that the end justifies the means?

Do, we uphold the law by breaking the law?

If we do, what law do we stand for?

In this country we have seen our first political arrest of an MP.

This is a slippery slope that Daniel Korski advocates; didn’t he see the results of regime change in Iraq?

Does Daniel think; it will be alright this time?

Daniel quoted;

“Though I'm no lawyer, from my university days I remember that Adolf Eichmann was tried in Israel in 1962, based on the prinicple of universality - the right of any state to act, when the worst crimes have been committed”.

I would also like to throw in the Hussein Trial as well.

In both cases, in my opinion, these were certainly could be seen as unfair trials.

In Saddam’s case, the reason that Iraqis conducted the case rather than The Hague was to ensure that Saddam would be killed at the end of the trial.

The Americans had to ensure that Saddam was killed by Iraqis so that he politically couldn’t be used as a Muslim martyr.

Mugabe is a despot but the west has lost its moral authority sometime ago, do we stick Bush, Brown and Blair on Trial for the Iraqi civilian deaths?

We certainly should but they have a get out of jail free card!

“we were acting in good faith”!.... and have political and corporate connections.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Familiar Clown

There once was a house called Rhodesia. When the white man left a few people made a great rush for the door and closed it tightly behind them, leaving all the others outside. Millions of these others have left, but are desperate to return to 'their house'. Those who have stayed are also desperate to get inside, they even voted for it. Must they all be left outside 'their house' for ever?

Frank P

"Britain Should have Mugabe Prosecuted"

I think Brown is aiming for something a little less - er - taxing: Damien Green (I'll bet Green loves his mother for bestowing that moniker on him - she was obviously a Gregory Peck/horror movie fan).

Britain Should have McBruin Prosecuted!

Now that's a headline that might have a little resonance for me.

Africa deserves its Marxist tyrants. Stop giving them taxpayer's money. I can't afford it. Let them stew in their own juice; clarity begins at home.

Ken

A brilliant and witty post (3.09pm) thank you for the hearty chuckle it just engendered. I might even trim our Christmas Tree for afters. Btw, it isn't illegal, is it? I'd better check the Religious Discrimination Act and the Misuse of Energy and Carbon Copies Act before I plug it in.

You do write some convoluted legalistic crap at times Daniel; can't you find a job chasing ambulances? That must be more lucrative than writing for the New Specstatesman. ©

David Preiser

George Laird,

If the West has lost its moral authority in your eyes, who's got it now? You? I suppose the problems in Zimbabwe are really down to too much outside interference - all those nasty sanctions ruined Mugabe's chances, eh?

The regime change in Iraq is obviously leading to less deaths in the long term than leaving Sadaam and his boys in charge would have caused. I'm sure you cannot understand that at all, and are shaking your head in anger at such a suggestion. You won't look at facts, though, because it goes against your beliefs.

Changing the regime in Zimbabwe will also clearly lead to less deaths. Or is it more important to you that certain people ought not to act, rather than the saving of actual human lives?

Korski may be wrongheaded in his recommendations in his legal musings, but your comparison of what Mugabe has done to civilian deaths in Iraq caused by US and UK forces is proof that you have very little moral authority indeed. You ought to be ashamed.

african

The response from the Sadc region and Zimbabwe’s friends like China has been swift. Botswana this time was talking about cash assistance and not about closing borders.

The South African government responded by assembling a team to come to Zimbabwe to assess how it could assist. The emphasis here is on assistance and not witch-hunting.

It is fitting that Sadc has taken the initiative to lead the response to the call for assistance from Zimbabwe.

The good neighbourliness from Sadc countries has already seen the region brokering a political deal among the country’s political rivals. Common sense dictates that the well-being of a neighbour can affect the next country. Problems of a neighbour invariably spill across the border whether it is closed or not.

Thus the sincerity of a country in trying to rescue a neighbour, under normal circumstances, should never be doubted.

Unfortunately, this may not be so with some countries several kilometres away which might have their own dirty agendas.

Instead of marshalling humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is appealing to the international community to help in seeing to it that President Mugabe is pushed out of office.

This is her strange solution to the cholera problem. Her obsession with the regime change agenda has brought some weird utterances from her from time to time. As an advocate of democracy, one wonders why she now seems to prefer cholera to elections in changing governments.

Not to be outdone, yesterday, British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown was mooting the idea of once again bringing Zimbabwe to the Security Council over the cholera epidemic.

This is the unashamed view of the leader of a country that once colonised Zimbabwe and is responsible for the present collapsing water infrastructure designed for black residential areas.

We would have expected Mr Brown to fight Zimbabwe’s cause at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to have its former colony assisted with development aid to update this water infrastructure.

Paradoxically, this aid has been frozen at the instigation of Britain and her allies through the illegal sanctions they have imposed on Zimbabwe.

The cholera outbreak is a clear example of the effects of sanctions on innocent people. The people who are suffering most are not the politicians they claim they want to punish, but poor people who are not political animals in any sense.

Among the cholera victims, there is not one who has been issued with a travel ban or whose child has been deported from Australia.

All the victims are a result of the freezing of balance of payments support, depriving the country of foreign currency required to buy chemicals to treat our drinking water. The infrastructure has not been upgraded because the country has been denied development aid from the World Bank.

Britain and her allies have no moral ground to climb on rooftops to shout about observance of humanitarian standards. What right have they when only last week, foreign ministers from the European Union were said to be planning to beef up sanctions as an expression of their deep concern at the "deteriorating humanitarian situation as a result of the cholera epidemic". Who doesn’t know that the solution to Zimbabwe’s problem is the removal of sanctions?

Britain and her allies right now are busy throwing spanners into Sadc’s efforts to bring a political settlement in this country. When Sadc, which is well versed with the Zimbabwean situation, offers constructive suggestions, some Western leaders are quick to influence their gullible surrogates to scuttle such resolutions.

As Zimbabweans suffer from the effects of sanctions, you hear these Western hypocrites talk about conditional aid. They want a government they feel represents their interests best to be in place first before they can release their aid.

You would think cholera or hunger is a political condition. Genuine aid should have no strings attached.

As Zimbabwe battles cholera, we expect donor organisations and governments to be influenced more by moral obligation rather than political expediency.

Verity

Frank P - Brilliant post! One of your best!

African, I couldn't be bothered to read your post, mainly because we've been reading it non-stop for decades. I skimmed through it but read your final paragraph: "As Zimbabwe battles cholera, we expect donor organisatons and governments to be influenced more by moral obligation rather than political expediency."

Well, to be candid, who cares what you "expect"? We expect not to have our tax money squandered in propping up corrupt thugs like Mugabe and it's up to the Zimbaweans to give him and his gross, greedy wife their very own Ceauçescu moment. Do you have any centrally located balconies over there that they could come out to take their bows on?

Augustus

@ African

As an African you must have seen what has routinely happened during Zimbabwean elections. First, independent observers from the West (who would have been able to spot electoral fraud and irregularities) were barred from the country. Then came the infamous war veterans who either directly tortured and intimidated voters into supporting the ruling Zanu-PF, or more discretely 'assisted' rural and illiterate voters with their ballot papers. Is this your "African solution to African problems"?

You criticise the West for not reponding to the Cholera outbreak responsibly, while only last week Gordon Brown announced a £10m aid programme for that very purpose. The real reason that cholera is persistant there is not because of any recent sanctions imposed by the West, but because the sewerage and water systems there have not been properly maintained since 1980.

The 'political deal' which you say the SADC countries are assisting with brokering has been frustrated at every turn by Mugabe since an agreement was signed in mid-September. The Zanu-PF negotiators even went as far as surreptitiously altering the final version of the agreement behind the backs of the rival MDC. Mugabe, and to a very large extent ex-President Mbeki of South Africa, have paid no heed whatsover to the suffering and impoverishment of the Zimbabwean people. By rights The MDC should have assumed unfettered power in April as they clearly won the March elections. Instead the state has employed violence against its opponents and their followers at every turn, and continues to do so, on a huge scale. It is in fact the worst sort of autocratic regime, headed by an unelected meglomaniac president, and controlled by a military/civilian junta who understands only that the power and extreme privileges which they have amassed for themselves and their hangers-on only comes 'through the barrel of the gun'.

Frank P

Verity (1.22pm).

Steady, gel; you'll activate 'phil' and my scroll wheel is almost worn out. :-)
Keep on truckin', Verity, you're doing a fine job and you are closer to the patch than me now, I believe.

Jon

"wrong [... cuted]". Gloriously succinct and apposite! You're a man after my own heart.

Herbert Thornton

The more I read about Mugabe and Zambia, the more I'm reminded of Evelyn Waugh's novel Black Mischief with Mugabe as a present day version of Emperor Seth.

In reality of course Seth was inspired by Emperor Haile Selassie.

But if history does repeat itself, maybe Mugabe's fate will be similar to Haile Selassie's.

Sarth Effriken

@ African

Britain and other Western countries have imposed only "smart sanctions" on Zimbabwe. These sanctions do not affect the general economy, but merely freeze assets belonging to certain targeted individuals. They also prevent specific individuals from travelling to certain countries.

Britain is accordingly in no way responsible for the economic collapse of the country. This was caused by Mugabe's destruction of the country's commercial farming sector. Since the Zimbabwean economy is based almost entirely on agriculture (tobacco was the country's single biggest source of foreign currency), the economy predictably imploded. This led to hyperinflation and a consequent decline in public services, such as sanitation systems.

I am tired of African leaders wrecking their countries and then blaming Western countries for the destruction. They don't believe their own bogus rhetoric, and neither to their citizens, who are the ones who bear the brunt of the suffering.

kenyan

Why are Europeans so affected by Mugabe being in power. Don't you have bigger problems to deal with like fighting terrorist who want to destroy the west and collapsing economies.

Muagbe and Zimbabwe are Africa's problems not yours. Nobody has asked you to involve yourselves.

Some even claim that their tax money is spent in Africa.Why haven't those billion changed Africa. Because they are largely used to fund Oxfarm and USaid staff. Keep your Money(your collapsing economies need it) stay out of African issues. The world has changed and its time you realized that . It doesn't revolve around the west . Keep you advice and Money we shall keep our Africa and our Mugabe.

End your protectionist policies and africa will trade freely. We have never needed your Money and we never will .