Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:17pm GMT
By Paul Simao
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela,
on Wednesday described Zimbabwe's government as illegitimate and said
regional leaders had allowed hundreds of thousands of people to die
needlessly in the African nation.
Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as President Robert Mugabe and
the opposition bicker over a stalled power-sharing deal. Rights groups say
scores of opposition activists have been murdered, tortured and beaten.
"Any government that goes out and assaults its people, its citizens, it has
lost completely any kind of legitimacy," Machel said at a news conference
where Zimbabwean activists launched a hunger strike to pressure Mugabe and
the SADC regional body.
Asked if the veteran Zimbabwean ruler, in power since independence in 1980,
should step down, Machel said: "The people of Zimbabwe have already said so
... the ballot has spoken."
The Mozambican-born Machel joined a growing list of prominent Africans who
in the past year have criticised Mugabe's authoritarian rule or called for
the removal of his government.
Mugabe lost the first round of a presidential election last year to MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but he won the second round overwhelmingly after
Tsvangirai pulled out of the race, citing violence against his supporters.
For almost a decade South Africa and other nations in SADC (Southern African
Development Community) have used quiet diplomacy to try to nudge Mugabe
toward democratic reforms and halt Zimbabwe's meltdown.
An apparent breakthrough was reached last September when Mugabe and
Tsvangirai agreed to form a unity government, but the deal has unravelled
over control of key ministries and many doubt it can be salvaged.
In the meantime, food shortages have worsened and the healthcare system has
all but collapsed, exposing the population to diseases such as HIV/AIDS and
cholera, which has killed more than 2,100 people in recent months.
Machel, who was barred from entering Zimbabwe on a humanitarian visit late
last year, said hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved had the
leaders of SADC taken stronger action to end the crisis.
"We trusted too long. It's time to tell our leaders we lay the lives of all
those who passed on ... in the hands of the SADC leaders because they took
responsibility to stop the mess there," she said.
Machel, however, said she would not join the hunger strike and rotating
fasts, which are due to last for three months.
A total of 55 activists have joined the protest, according to Kumi Naidoo,
one of the hunger strikers. Anti-apartheid icon and Nobel laureate Desmond
Tutu is among the clerics who abstaining from food.
Tutu told South Africa's Talk Radio 702 last week that he was fasting one
day a week in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and he called on all
South Africans to join him.
The protesters are demanding, among other things, that SADC recognise that
Mugabe's government is illegitimate and a transitional authority be set up
to implement the power-sharing deal if the deadlock continued past the end
of February. (Editing by Alison Williams)
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