It is time to take seriously call for Zimbabwe invasion

Leaders of the politically and economically troubled southern African nation of Zimbabwe are digging in their heels in the face of growing African and international criticism, which lends credence to comments last month from the head of the nation’s 1 million Catholics.

In an interview with the The Sunday Times of Britain, Archbishop Pius Ncube urged the British to invade Zimbabwe and overthrow President Robert Mugabe.

With millions of Zimbabweans facing starvation because of massive crop failures due to mismanagement of once bountiful farms by Mugabe’s cronies, with shortages of hard currency, medicines and essential imports, and with political and community activists being intimidated, threatened, harassed and physically attacked and tortured, the time has come for the international community to act.

Last week’s summit of the Southern African Development Community to discuss the worsening political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe was a bust.

“Political reform is not necessary in my country because we are a democracy like any other democracy in the world,” Patrick Chinamasa, minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, was quoted by Reuters wire service.

And true to President Mugabe’s form, Chinamasa blamed the current situation on the history of brutal treatment by Britain, which ruled the country before it became independent 30 years ago.

Fair and free elections?

The justice minister even had the temerity to boast that Zimbabwe under Mugabe has held free and fair elections.

But the refusal to even acknowledge that the country is in the throes of a crisis isn’t confined just to the megalomaniac, Mugabe, and his henchmen. At the opening ceremony of the SADC summit, Reuters reported, Zimbabwe’s president received the loudest applause as regional leaders took turns bowing to a packed audience, which included regional ministers and other officials, the wire service reported.

It is clear that African leaders in the region have no intention of playing hardball with a rogue colleague, which is why Archbishop Ncube’s call to arms is worthy of serious consideration.

The Catholic leader warned that millions of Africans are facing death from famine because not only is food in short supply, but inflation has soared to 15,000 percent, leading the cost of goods in shops to more the double every week.

Archbishop Ncube also pointed out that far from helping those struggling on less than $2 a week, the president has spent more than $1 million on surveillance equipment to monitor phone calls and e-mails.

“How can you expect people to rise up when even our church services are attended by state intelligence people?” Ncube asked.

At the very least, the world community should consider the appeal from Human Rights Watch to southern African leaders to send monitors to Zimbabwe to investigate the clampdown on the pro-democracy movement and the growing spiral of violence and intimidation against activists.

Let there be no mistaking the extent of the human crisis in the country. The elderly and children are already dying by the thousands because of a lack of food and medicine, and another Darfur is in the making.