I had tears reading your story for the courage and dignity in which these people bear such abominable conditions; conditions brought about by one man's heinous ego and loathsome reign. A thank you is due you for caring about and helping Sarudzai Gumbo and to your readers for their donations. If only all the children of this now forsaken country could be given such succor or airlifted out and brought to a safe and healing place. How can the governments of the world stand by and allow this horror to continue?

sharon, london, england

The worlds inaction in Zimbabwe is the great shame of our day.

While the United Nations sit talking and Zimbabwe's neighbors turn disgraceful blind eyes, the millions in Zimbabwe are dying in a country regressing back to the stone age.

I fear the general attitude is, "Mugabe is an old man, he'll die soon and then we'll take action"

That will be far too late for this once great country.

What will it take for REAL action to be taken? how many will have to die?

While tragically sad, i'm afraid the only answer here is armed action either from forces within Zimbabwe supported by the west or from outside the country to remove Mugabe who's policies or now quite literally killing the people of Zimbabwe.

Standing by and watching as these people die is in my opinion not far from being an accessory to genocide.

Michael, London,

The sad thing is it is impossible (well for me, anyway) to tell at what point this could have been averted. Independence had to happen. Corruption, it seems, had to happen. Perhaps China will be part of the solution - untainted by colonialism and needing the produce of Africa.

Geoffrey, Sydney,

It is to all our everlasting shame that we stand by watching this preventable catastrophic human tragedy unfold in slow motion before our very eyes.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

The current leaders of Africa should be ashamed. They should look to how and why Julius Nyere of Tanzania overthrew Idi Amin in Uganda and do the same to Mugabe.

Rob Champion, Lima, Peru

Of course, Bishop Tutu of South Africa, came running to Israel last year to inquire about and lament the accidental wounding of two Palestinian children by Israeli gunfire. Israel and the Israeli/Palestinian crisis is a means for dictators, tyrants, monsters world-wide, to deflect world attention from their own horrendous and massive crimes against humanity. It will always be so,
unfortunately.

Mike Cato , Vestal, USA/NEW YORK

I thought the headline related to the UK

D BERRY, LUTON, uk

It seems black leaders are held to a different standard.
If a white leader was to treat his black citizens in this manner, there would be all sorts of protests in West.
Mugabe is getting away with murder, but as long as its black on black abuse, no one really gives a damn.

Rob, London, UK

One of prominents British statesmen in the late 1980s called international journalists founders of international club "One must do smth." Right now we can discuss this silent Holodomor in Zimbabwe further on, but it seems to me it is better for the Times (and other elite press around the world) to demand from Western governments immediate actions in this case.

Personally I think this situation should be referred to the Security Council of the UN. It seems to me that the Security Council should pass the resolution condemning Juggernaut Robert Mugabe and imposing economic sanctions on his authoritarian regimes. All assets of Mugabe and his relatives in foreign bank accounts should be frozen. And maybe I am wrong, but this is the exact case when "HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION SHOULD TAKE PLACE". If NATO invaved Serbia in 1999 to save Kosovars from ethnic cleanthings of Milosevic, then why those brave soldiers cannot do this job right now in Zimbabwe?

PASIONARIJ, LVIV (LEMBERG), UKRAINE

while Rhodesia may have been a long way from perfect, I can see how anyone with a brain can say that this is better, or in deed right. Ian Smith appears to have been right on the mark.
All in all self determination is an over rated experience fro most people in Africa.

art, sheffield,

"the inability of most of the African peoples to make any impact on their way of life, even with all the help they have had over the years" - Linda


Help?

If you call the organized looting and environmental disaster visited upon the local people by not only Western nations, but Asian ones as well.

Predatory lending, vulture capitalists trying to cash in on "forgiven" debt, the looting of any precious minerals and ores is just the traditional way of us "helping" an African nation. But Zimbabwe has even bigger problems:

During the 1950s British colonial administrators seeded Lake Victoria with Nile perch from Lake Albert. In time the perch conquered Lake Victoria, devouring hundreds of native fish species.With the introduction of the Nile Perch into Lake Victoria, Zimbabwe lost one of the greatest assets that the people had - the ability to subsistence fish, in small boats, and feed their families as well as maybe earn a small amount of money.

Their prolific excrement helps feed another invasive species, the water hyacinth, a fast-growing weed that is choking the region's waterways.

Foreign demand, however, has priced the Nile perch out of local budgets. As the cost has quadrupled over the last decade, the amount of fish protein consumed by Zimbabweans each year has fallen from 22 pounds (10 kilograms) per capita to 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) today.

City dwellers have shifted to fish that are less appealing to European customers. Rural areas, though, have seen a sharp decline in their overall protein intake.

Some families have resorted to eating fish "frames," the deep-fried fish heads and skeletons that are resold to local middlemen after fillets are frozen and shipped abroad.

Now, in step the Asian businessmen. These fish now goes from their boats to their processing plants and are then loaded onto their transport planes, to be flown out of the country. The Zimbabwean people then get to eat the rotting fish heads (deep fried, Yummy!) and go blind from the ammonia wafting from the rotting spines and heads of these fish as they hang to dry. THIS IS WHAT THEY NOW SUBSIST ON - WHAT WE THROW IN THE GARBAGE!

The other pressing issue for Zimbabwe is desertification. Lake Victoria is no Lake Chad (which is now only 2% of its 1960's size), but it is rapidly shrinking, nonetheless. As the lake shrinks, farms can no longer irrigate the way they once used to, and the decrease in rainfall compounds the problem. Therefore, the people's other main source of nutrition - corn, is becoming an unreliable crop for the evolving weather patterns in the region.

As people are unable to feed their families, the children are increasingly pushed out onto the streets, which makes it that much harder to protect them from the AIDS epidemic in Africa. And, of course, whenever a country reaches this state, violence seems to be the inevitable result, as people fight each other for any remaining stores and, literally, to survive.

A bleak picture indeed.

None of this, of course, excuses Mugabe, But Zimbabwe's problems are much bigger than just one man. And we need to remember - Mugabe has always been "our guy", and still is apparently. And Mugabe learns from us well - squandering BILLIONS of dollars fighting with the Congo, ceasing the reporting of economic figures to hide the truth, interference and intimidation towards the judicial system, and, you can be sure, the pocketing of all of the bribes and "perks" we care to send his way.

Once again Zimbabwe is being "trickled down" upon, and it is only with our "help" that this will continue to happen.

P.S. - Naomi Klein's new book - 'Disaster Capitalism' details how much we have "helped" so many countries in their time of deepest need. I weep for humanity - if you can call it that anymore.

Kim , Renway, MT

Yes colonialism produced "successful viable states" but the only people it benefited was the europeans! Their natural resources were plundered and their labour was exploited. Don't even predent to shed a tear for the Africans.

Perhaps if they were given a fair wage in the first place and had more rights therir would not be an uprising in the first place. If you leave straight away you are always going to leave a mess.. But there is hope. Economies of Asian countries once colonised are growing maybe in time Africa will too. In the end it is the African people to decide what happens in THEIR lands

Raymond, Liverpool,

Maybe Ian Smith wasn't so bad after all!

Phil, Saint Augustine, USA/ Florida

Articles like this are why we need journalis

To Ann:
The article mentions the Jesuits, I looked it up and they run UK based events so people can help

I'm glad this article mentions them, its all too common to hear about the zealots that harm in the name of religion and forget about greater numbers of believers that quietly devote their lives to helping others - whether charity events at home or risking themselves in countries like this. People of faith are behind the foundation of most world aid organisations and continue to be the backbone of long-term voluntary work (supplemented by rotating 'year out' students) I wonder how many post-modern PC fanatics would do the same with their lives unless well paid

To John:
People are dying and so it is right to help, stuff what some nations say - they'll blame anyone but themselves for the regions problems anyway (like any gov)

To Pasionarij:
yes, too few mention the devastation caused by the 'progressive policies' of secularist regimes

Bradley, Blackpool,

Agreed that Africa needs to work out its own internal problems. But giving Mugabe a seat at the international table, treating him as a leader of his people, is unnecessary and immoral.

Jim Houghton, Encino, CA, USA

Michael in Haifa is correct. This travesty will be blamed either on Israel or George W. Bush, the favorite whipping boys of every tinpot dictator on the planet from Mugabe to Achmedinajad.

M. Hoeber, Miami, Florida USA

Keep pouring billions and billions of other people's tax money into Africa and see where it gets you - nowhere! The liberal fascist PC police won't allow an open, honest, and frank discussion of the real issues involved though.

Welcome to 1984, where your thoughts must conform to what the Liberal PC-crazed fascists say is an acceptable thought! Any deviation will have you branded a modern day heretic, or even worse, the dreaded "racist" label!

John, Chicago, IL, USA

Mugabe and his fellow fascists are just being the people everyone knew they were, but the silence of South Africa and the ANC speaks new volumes about inaction to this holocaust, as does the silence of most of the rest of Africa and of the pc in Europe and North America. Once again, for such people and such "leaders" pc trumps truth and concern for fellow human beings. Once again, as in Ukraine in 1932, Germany during the 1930s, Cambodia beginning in 1975, etc., etc., the world is largely silent because of pc ideology.

Wondering, Jakconvillle,

Surprised? No.My country ruined.And they think South Africa will not go the same way. You are only fooling yourselves. The warning signs are all around you. It is only thanks to the economy the ANC took over that it has not happened faster, but happen it will.

Ubabaroy, Petersfield, Uk

Did any colonial power ever wreak such devastation in Africa as the Africans themselves? Why do we give them a penny? As soon as the next war breaks out, all the good work will be destroyed (again), and once more we will be asked to underwrite kelpocratic governments and dictators. They hide billions in offshore bank accounts, while their people die in ways you could not wish on your worst enemy.
If the US and the UK can "liberate" Iraqis from dictatorship, why not Zimbabwe?

Sarah N., London, UK

Why is anyone attending a conference at which Mugabe is present. The man is a monster. The world should show its disgust.

Harry Davies, Galway, Ireland

I'm afraid Africa must be allowed to implode as it cannot be saved by any currently acceptable political means. Our missions, our goodwill and our countless billions of dollars over the decades have been a futile waste of resources. I weep for the suffering innocents but ultimately, the people of Africa have only themselves to blame. The ignorant liberals shout about how wicked colonialism was but despite its faults, colonial rule handed over Zimbabwe and S. Africa as relatively prosperous and viable nations. Just look at them now.

Mel, London,

Such racist sentiments, stereotypes and unscientif ic generalisations from Farouk and freely expressed in the Times! I guess responsibility, pity and empathy are to be found in all white, brown ruled countries, even those where there has been sudden/violent change and certainly there is no corruption nor incompetence?
f there had been such empathy and accountability by Rhodesian rulers for the people whose labour and land has been used and abused to create prosperous economies and lavish lifestyles for the few non-blacks, there would not be the problem of Zimbabwe in the first place, no need for armed struggle then, no case for land reform: And no empathy among the ruling black elites hesitant to condemn Mugabe, who continues to live off his credentials as a freedom fighter with impunity. And it does not take much to see that corruption is a bilateral and bi-coloured transaction, betweeen Europeans Americans on the one hand and other non whites.

Nalini, Beau Bassin, Mauritius

Nalini Burn, Beau Bassin,

The late Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Douglas Smith, was admired by many here in the US for standing up to the socialists in Britain. Everything Smith predicted has happened.
It seems to this American that the socialist elite in Britain hates its own people even worse than ours hates us.

Richard, Downingtown, Pennsylvania

I have never witnessed such great concern by white people for the plight of black people (black Zimbabweans in this case) even when they were being suppressed, oppressed and enslaved by the Ian Smith racist regime. Something tells me something is not quite right here. One side of the coin just isn’t being heard. You can believe all the propaganda your media spins, the truth is an altogether different matter.

Nvandou, London,

Where are those bleeding hearts that regularly condemn the US/Britain or Isreal for any action that attempts to stabilise the chaos in this world. They are silent as they try their hardest to ignore that inconvenient truth in Zimbabwe, that a despot has been feted and allowed to get away with murder by his comradely neighbours. These are the same voices that advocate religious tolerance in this country, but are strangely quiet on the inhumane treatment of a kindly teacher in the Sudan. The PC brigade are truly one eyed and as such as culpable as any dictator or mad zealot.

Martin, Watford, England

there seems to be one rule for milosovic and sadam hussein and another for mugabe

peter codner, devizes, england

It is said that sub Saharan Africa was the cradle of humanity. What with Aids,starvation, the inability of most of the African peoples to make any impact on their way of life, even with all the help they have had over the years, looks like it will be the grave of humanity for them. Nuff said.

Linda Graham, Winchelsea Beach, England

I live in s/africa and have to put up with black incompetence and corruption every single day- they have no sense of responsibility, accountability, pity, and empathy to anyone, especially to their own kind. The leaders just like to party (eat and drink alcohol) and drive luxury German cars and SUVs.Giving financial aid to africans is a waste of time - the money ends up in some thiefs pocket and the intended recipients just go on suffering. Blacks are a criminal class and a lost course.

farouk, durban, s/africa

Why the international community has seen fit to disregard, the problems of Zimbabwe, clearly now a failed state, is a sign of the "made to fit" style of politics so current. Address those problems that matter, and ignore others that, though serious, do not.

It is equally true, if tragically so, and I say this as a non-black African-born person, that, as John in Reading remarks, Africa must sort its problems out. There is indeed an element of "leave us alone to do our own thing".

On the other hand, it is an act of extreme nauseating arrogance and a symptom of the intrinsic discriminatory spirit which seems to be the bane of the South African (white) settler, that leads them to make such comments on here, as to suggest that South Africa, in due course, will follow the plight of Zimbabwe. Let these neoracists note the example of other African nations who have done rather well for themselves following independence - Kenya, for example.

Richard , London, England

What's the point of the EU if we can't issue an arrest warrant to serve on Mugabe in Lisbon.

Sure, the lawyers will argue he's a head of state, but a good prosecutor should be able to tie him up for a year or so, by which time he'll have been deposed.

Alex , Tunbridge Wells,

An excellent and very moving report about an obscene tragedy. As Ann in Farnborough asks, how do we register our disgust at Mugabe's regime or help these people, what organizations are working there to improve things?

As for Rob Oats, "This is democracy at work. The majority of the people have voted and attained "freedom". Long live democracy. They have got everything they deserve." - what a revoltingly callous and fatuous comment; people are dying like flies or living in conditions that make death look like the preferable option and all you can do is have a smug little dig at them. Oh, and if you really believe that Mugabe's remaining in power is the result of free and fair elections rather than a terrorised people being brutalised and having their lives threatened for not voting for him (you have seen what's happened to opposition politicians brave enough to oppose him, no?), you know even less about Zimbabwe than your comment suggests, i.e. less than nothing.

Rose (expat), Salwa, Kuwait

Where is the much loved Mandela in all this?

Robert Duller, langkawi, malaysia

I understand that Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are still active in Zimbabwe, working to relieve hunger and AIDS. You can donate to them via their UK office (www.uk2.msf.org/donations/).

K John, London, UK

As much as I feel for the people, Africa MUST sort out it's own problems. 'We' will not be thanked by the other African nations for interfering in Zim. If Africa won't solve their internal problems then the West can't do it for them.

John, Reading, uk

"The Human Rights Commission of the United Nations will undoubtedly designate Israel as the root cause of the Zimbabwe and Darfur situations

Michael, Haifa, Israel"

What pathetic self-pitying drivel. Have some respect for people who are suffering.

Brian, Worcester,

Brilliant report - which deeply saddens me - but someone tell me how does an individual make a contribution to register our disgust at this human tragedy - which organisations are working to help resolve this ? -

Ann, Farnborough, UK

the deaths should be on the consciences of the p.c.liberal fascists. the emperor's new clothes are as ever, beautiful.

Alice, Hove,

It is a country regressing from commercial farms to vegetable patches, from the light bulb to the oil lamp, from the tap to the well. Feet – often bare – are replacing the wheel as the most common form of transport. Once Africa’s breadbasket, Zimbabwe can no longer provide its citizens with bread and water.

Ukraine was also once "granary of Europe", but in 1932-19933 it became the place of mass starvation, artificial famine caused by Communist regime. Holodomor, the worst genocide in human history, took place because the West didn't care about fate of millions of Ukrainian peasants starving to death. Now the same thing happens in Darfur (Sudan) and Zimbabwe. Kudos to British international journalists who dare to challenge official lie and visit the places the mankind has largely forgotten. In 1932-1933 Malcolm Maggeridge and Haret Jones (Manchester Guardian) visited Ukrainian countryside and witnessed apocalyptic reality of Holodomor.

PASIONARIJ, LVIV (LEMBERG), UKRAINE

Thank you so much for bringing this to light. A rare example of proper journalism. This is where we should have sent our troops, not Iraq.

Neil, Oxford, UK

Alas, because of Mugabe's "revoutionary" credentials, too many fellow African leaders will look away.
Like the starvation from Mao or Stalin's deliberate economic policies, this is a silent genocide...and unlike those genocides, the world knows about it, and does nothing ....

Miguel Zambrano, RedLake , MN

The Human Rights Commission of the United Nations will undoubtedly designate Israel as the root cause of the Zimbabwe and Darfur situations

Michael, Haifa, Israel

If it was put to a vote I wonder how many people of African nations would vote in favour of the return to colonial rule?

Kevin, BANGKOK,

A beautiful and productive country once flourishing is now barren and devoid of hope. The South African government, essentially a cadre of comrades, says nothing and the West ignores Zimbabwe - a land of no strategic relevance and thus not worth the effort. Humanitarianism alone cannot save this country, The Times is to be commended on persistently raising public awareness of this tragedy.

Sean Latouf, Townsville, Australia

South Africa is an absolute disgrace allowing this to happen on their door-step - while the spineless Mbeki struts around with that Buffoon Mugabe

Brett, Cape Town, South Africa

This is democracy at work. The majority of the people have voted and attained "freedom". Long live democracy. They have got everything they deserve.

Rob Oats, Okehampton, UK

Don't imagine for a moment that South Africa will be different. It is in the nature of the beast, though political correctness, which is a kind of fascism, forbids us to tell the truth.

Alistair , cape town,

Superb piece of reporting from a difficult environment for foreign journalists - alerting us to the outrage of this blighted country.

Zimbabwe is a tragedy, ignored by the pseduo-liberal establishment. It is no surprise that Mugabe still shelters Mengistu, who ruined Ethiopia in the same way Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe. The folly of not allowing a more gradual process of reform under Ian Smith;s government is now all too obvious.

Matt N, Oxford, UK

Do you really think that the ANC in South Africa is any differant?
Just wait and see. Once the coffers have been emptied by the unbelievable looting, this once wonderful country will go the same way as Zimbabwe

Robert Steenkamp, Johannesburg, South Africa