There appears to be much hand wringing in the West about what to do. Food aid has been increased but that will deal with the symptoms, not the cause, of famine. Pleas have been made to Zimbabwe's neighbours to act but few African states have the political will to deal with the crisis. Mugabe has shown in recent weeks that he is quite prepared to divide the African Union and the Commonwealth to remain in power. The regime has not hesitated to play the racial card both domestically and internationally and the crisis is constantly portrayed as a spat between Britain and her former colony. Mugabe's purpose is to raise the stakes in the hope of deterring the West from taking sterner measures for fear of, for example, splitting the Commonwealth.
The crisis is now so grave, however, that the West must not be deterred from taking decisive action. Two distinct courses of action should be followed. First, those in Zimbabwe guilty of torture (as defined by the International Convention) should be investigated and prosecuted. Aside from the abuses of the past two years, food is now being used as a political weapon which is already resulting in thousands suffering. Many could die unless those responsible know that they will be held accountable for their actions. The vast majority of those who may die will be MDC supporters denied food solely because of their political beliefs. That is clearly a crime against humanity.
Second, the West, in conjunction with its democratic African allies, must now seriously consider its responsibility to protect Zimbabweans. The report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty published in December 2001 points out that where a population is suffering serious harm as a result of repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling to halt the suffering, the usual principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect.
The principle of state sovereignty, so readily used by the Mugabe regime to protect itself, is not absolute. With sovereignty comes a responsibility for the state to protect its people. But more than six million Zimbabweans face starvation as a direct result of the state's failure and its use of food aid as a political weapon. In these circumstances the civilised world has a responsibility to protect the Zimbabwean people and to do so it should intervene in the manner proposed by the International Commission. If future famines are to be avoided and if what was once the jewel of Africa is not to become another Somalia, governments in the West must must act urgently with their African colleagues to address the root cause of the catastrophe now unfolding in Zimbabwe.***
Enough of the social engineering crap! Look what has happened to two thriving states, Rhodesia and South Africa! Once strong economies, they were taken from those who built them, given to those who benefited from them, and run into the ground by the latter.
The ugly truth is that Rhodesia and South Africa were the main obstacles to a world Communist triump in Africa, and had to be eliminated using the UN and world opinion (take a bow, NYT and Wash Compost). In a morbidly ironic way, by the time these two states were neutralized, Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher had neutralized the perpetrators. No one was able to step into the vacuum and left to themselves, the Africans have degenerated into tribal warfare.