Why are they allowed to starve to death?

Simply heartbreaking scenes from Zimbabwe on the ITV news this evening. There are 5 million people looking down the barrel of death from starvation today despite President Mugabe partially relaxing a three-month-old ban on food distribution by aid agencies six weeks ago. Restrictive regulations still handicap the delivery of relief severely.

Mugabe's shenanigans in Zimbabwe are designed to detract the world from seeing what he's doing to its people. They are starving and for some bizarre reason the west still stands by and allows it to deteriorate to disaster proportions. Starving teachers in the rural Masvingo central constituency have resorted to eating porridge meant for primary school children as hunger blights the province. Inflation when last measured in July, runs at 231,000,000%. If there was food to buy, no-one could afford it anyway. Life expectancy for females is just 34 years.

Over the weekend, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon bemoaned the deadlock between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition over the formation of a power-sharing government to tackle Zimbabwe's deepening crisis. Yesterday ex SA President Thabo Mbeki flew into the country to try and save the power sharing deal he brokered last month. It's a shame neither grasp the opportunity to kickstart a humanitarian effort to save lives as well.


nick