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| In this Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 file photo, South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu speaks after receiving the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding Award during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington. Tutu says the world must use the threat of force to oust Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has presided over his country's economic collapse and an outbreak of cholera that has left more than 1,000 dead. |
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- With the death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic over 1,100 and the country in shambles, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said Wednesday it was time to threaten its longtime president with removal by force.
The comments came as the government of President Robert Mugabe brought a missing Zimbabwean human rights activist to court Wednesday, accusing her and at least six others of plotting to overthrow the 84-year-old leader. The activist, Jestina Mukoko, disappeared on Dec. 3 following nationwide protests against the country's deepening economic and health crises.
Charging Mukoko, the respected head of a group known as the Zimbabwe Peace Project, in a plot already widely dismissed as a fabrication is seen as a sign Mugabe is not prepared to back down.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired Wednesday, Tutu called on Mugabe to relinquish power and said he was ashamed of his own country, South Africa, for its handling of the issue.
"We have betrayed our legacy, how much more suffering is going to make us say, 'No, we have given Mr. Mugabe enough time,'" said Tutu, retired archbishop of Cape Town who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki mediated the power-sharing deal between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and South Africa reiterated this week it saw the deal as the only way forward, despite new U.S. and British opposition to it.
Mugabe has ruled the country since its 1980 independence from Britain and refused to leave office following disputed elections in March.
Asked during the interview if Mugabe should be removed by force, Tutu said there should "certainly be the threat of it." And he added the president should be warned that he could face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for his violent suppression of opponents.
Mukoko's court appearance came days after Tsvangirai threatened to withdraw from talks on implementing the power sharing deal unless at least 42 missing activists and opposition officials were released or charged.
Late Wednesday, a judge ordered Mukoko and six other activists sent to a hospital under police guard so that allegations of torture could be investigated, a human rights lawyer said. The lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said the seven would be brought to court again Monday to determine the next step, while another judge had ordered another group of about two dozen detainees released unconditionally.
Shortly before Mukoko was brought to court, human rights lawyers said they managed to locate 14 activists who had disappeared in recent weeks.
"It is our strong belief that more individuals than those disclosed to lawyers are being held in those police stations, as well as others which have not yet been visited," the lawyers said in a statement. "It is also our belief that there may be more abducted persons than those currently confirmed."
The Herald, the state-run daily, said Mukoko and the other activists with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change would be charged with attempting to recruit fighters to overthrow President Robert Mugabe. The Herald quoted police as saying the MDC was training fighters in Botswana.
Zimbabwean officials have repeatedly made such accusations, which have been denied by Botswana and the MDC. Last week, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe dismissed the allegations, saying the main regional bloc opened an investigation when Mugabe's regime first raised them last month, but "we never believed" them.
Annah Moyo, a Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean human rights lawyers, said the charges against Mukoko were "trumped up," and could be used by the Mugabe regime as an excuse to declare a state of emergency and withdraw from power sharing talks.
The power-sharing deal, signed in September, calls for Mugabe to remain president and Tsvangirai to take the new post of prime minister. The agreement stalled over a dispute about who would control key Cabinet posts - and over charges Mugabe has stepped up harassment of dissidents.
As the political standoff continues, the country becomes increasingly imperiled.
Doctors Without Borders listed Zimbabwe's health crisis and continuing economic collapse among its "Top 10 Humanitarian Crises of 2008," noting in a report released this week that life expectancy has plummeted to just 34 years of age, according to U.N figures. Because of the crisis, some 2 million people infected with the AIDS virus have been forced to skip meals or cannot afford bus fare to clinics for treatment, it said.
State hospitals have closed because they can't pay staff enough to cover the commute to work and medical and water treatment supplies that could help stop the spread of cholera are scarce.
The United Sates and Britain have said they can no longer support a power-sharing arrangement that keeps Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday that Mugabe must leave office, urging South Africa to instigate his removal.
But beyond rhetoric and sanctions against Mugabe and 13 other officials, there has been little other concrete action.
"This is one of those limits on American power. We are trying to work with the international community to bring pressure on Robert Mugabe and we need the help of the region," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a Dec. 8 interview with National Public Radio.
