Zimbabwe Cholera, Sorry Chaps

[Sundae]

Sorry me old muckers, turns it the cholera in Zimbabwe was all our fault after all. Because of course we're so damned keen to re-colonise the place (I mean, who wouldn't be?!) that we're killing off the blacks before we move in. Hurrah!

Sorry - seriously - the story made my throat hurt before the ridiculous claims. The fact I am referencing the Torygraph should show how upset I am. How much more does this country need to suffer?

Story from here, edited purely for space:

Robert Mugabe's government has blamed "biological warfare" waged by Britain for the cholera outbreak that has killed at least 800 people in Zimbabwe.
By Sebastien Berger Southern Africa Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:58PM GMT 12 Dec 2008

Health officials in South Africa have said that Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is now of a "massive magnitude".
His ministers said the disease had been introduced to the country by the UK as part of a campaign of 'genocidal onslaught'.

Mr Mugabe has long sought to portray the suffering of his country's people as the result of a dispute between London and his own government, blaming the former colonial power for a range of ills. But the cholera claim is further and more bizarre than his Zanu-PF party has ever gone before.

Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said: "The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe is a serious biological, chemical war force, a genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British," said the. "It's a genocide of our people.

"This was a calculated warfare. There are forces who are continuing to plant anthrax and cholera disease.

“Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country.”

With demands rising for Mr Mugabe to face prosecution in The Hague for human rights abuses, Mr Ndlovu instead called for the British prime minister to be brought to justice.

"Gordon Brown must be taken to the United Nations Security Council for being a threat to world peace and planting cholera and anthrax to invade Zimbabwe – our peaceful Zimbabwe," he said.

His comments came after Harare tried to claim that Mr Mugabe had been joking when he said there was 'no cholera' in Zimbabwe, despite the continuing epidemic.

The 84-year-old leader had told mourners at the funeral of his close ally Elliot Manyika that the disease had been "arrested". Amid growing calls for his departure, some saying the use of force would be legitimate, he said: "Now that there is no cholera, there is no need for war." The comments triggered widespread condemnation, with the US ambassador in Harare saying they showed "how out of touch he is with the reality" in Zimbabwe.

But soon after, Mr Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba tried to backtrack, saying that he had been making "his argument through sarcasm, noting that now that efforts deployed so far towards containing the outbreak were beginning to yield positive results".

He denounced the Western media, saying they "have chosen a path of wilful distortion of a clear statement and argument by the Zimbabwean president, in order to advance the war and regime change agenda of their expansionist governments".

[Undertoad]

how dare you britons prevent zimbabweans from using pure drinking water!

[TheMercenary]

SG, join the group. The US has been being blamed for all of the worlds ills for years, most of which is false.

[Flint]

Yeah, no doubt. I thought it was the US that does this stuff.

[Sundae]

“Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country.”

Oh you're included too. I just assumed that bit was true. In fact I blame the Aussies. And York. And his daughter. Damn those cholera-spreading allies.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, that's a great idea. Send our troops into a country that is cholera infested. Not.

[wolf]

I think that cholera was introduced by the Brits leaving.

[wolf]

You know, kind of like how all the Golgafrinchans died in Hitchhikers when they kicked the telephone sanitizers off the planet?

[DanaC]

Exactly like that.

[ZenGum]

Zimbabwe is completely on the rocks. Mugabe has totally lost it. Surely he will have to go soon, but I wonder how many lives it will take, and what will happen after.

[wolf]

I was a big fan of the starvation after he nationalized the farms, threw the (mostly white) farmers out of the country, and roving gangs killed the ones who tried to remain.

I do not understand African politics.

[ZenGum]

I'd be reluctant to dignify Mugabe's actions with the word "politics". "Gangsterism" seems a better fit to me.

I fear that Zimbabwe will end up as a failed state like Somalia, and become a reservoir of trouble, crime and terrorists. I wonder if in ten years we will be discussing Zimbabwean Pirate attacks. Probably not, since the country is landlocked, but maybe they'll find a way.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Wot Zen sed.

[Ibby]

Actually if Mugabe goes, the power vacuum may let Tsvangirai take power... and he at least very much appears to be a lot saner than Mugabe.

[ZenGum]

Except why would any sane person want to be in charge of Zimbabwe?

But yes, a quick transition might be possible without lasting upheaval, but probably in the years after, as the long slow rebuilding drags on, dissatisfaction will spread and things could get ugly.