Madam, - It seems quite incredible that the demented, despotic megalomaniac Robert Mugabe can simply be allowed to wreck havoc and terrorise his own people with impunity. As Operation Murambatsvina, or "Drive Out Filth", moves into its second month, as many as a million poor city-dwellers have been made homeless by government bulldozers and axe-wielding police. The United Nations estimates that six million Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food, health care and medical aid. Many of these destitute people are turning to the churches for support and refuge but Mugabe has warned the churches not to help them.
It is not so long ago since Mugabe encouraged the violent invasions of white-owned farms and now he is attacking his own people. The police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, has actually declared: "We must clean the country of the crawling mass of maggots bent on destroying the economy".
It is noteworthy that the governments of African countries have done absolutely nothing to put a stop to this monster. Why is this? Indeed, the whole world just sits idly by and utters occasional mild rebukes. Worse than that, the British Government has decided to repatriate forcibly those refugees who have fled to Britain to escape Mugabe's terror. This, I suppose, is an example of Tony Blair's "ethical foreign policy".
One particularly brave and decent man is Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo who never ceases to denounce Robert Mugabe and his corrupt regime. "He is responsible for the disintegration of our country and for destroying the lives of millions of his fellow countrymen," he said last week. Archbishop Ncube continues to speak out, in spite of numerous death threats he has received. Amnesty International has asked its members to write to their national governments demanding the immediate intervention of the international community.
Isn't it strange that the US and Britain were so concerned about the tyranny of Saddam Hussein but seem quite indifferent to the vicious Mugabe? As for the silence of the African countries, well, it's deafening. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY REDMOND, North Great George's Street, Dublin 1.