Rice to discuss Zimbabwe crisis at UN as cholera toll mounts

[Turborama]

Source: AFP

HARARE (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to hold talks next week with the UN on Zimbabwe, as Harare blamed Britain for a "genocidal" cholera outbreak and President Robert Mugabe ignored mounting calls to quit.

Rice will visit New York on Monday and Tuesday to discuss among other things the political deadlock in Zimbabwe, ravaged by a meltdown and a humanitarian crisis, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

McCormack said Rice hoped the UN Security Council will work more forcefully to end the multiple crises in the southern African nation, ruled by Mugabe since its 1980 independence from Britain.

She wants Mugabe to step down, a move backed by US President George W. Bush and other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"We're in discussions with members of the Security Council as to what the Security Council as a body might do," McCormack said Friday.

"And what we want to do is to start a process that will bring an end to the tragedy that is unfolding in Zimbabwe."

But Mugabe's government struck a combative tone as the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the death toll had risen to 792, and aid groups warned the epidemic could last for months .

"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," 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," he said. "It's a genocide of our people."

One day earlier, Mugabe had proclaimed in a nationally broadcast speech that "there is no cholera" -- comments his spokesman George Charamba later said were meant as "sarcasm."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081213/wl_uk_afp/zimbabwepolitics

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Anyone who still supports Mugabe is as crazy as he is. The man is a senile, racist, homophobe who needs to step down if he really cares about his country.

Just to make sure we've got this straight...

ZIMBABWE: Cholera feeds off a perfect storm
27 Nov 2008 17:23:47 GMT
Source: IRIN

HARARE, 27 November 2008 (IRIN) - All but one of Zimbabwe's ten provinces have reported fatalities as a result of a cholera epidemic sweeping the country, according to the UN.

The rapid spread of the waterborne disease is attributed to a confluence of events that have created the perfect storm, in which a disease described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "easily treatable", is thriving.

The collapse of municipal services, such as potable water, refuse collection and sanitation in the past few years, a health service hamstrung by an annual inflation rate that the government has estimated at 231 million percent, and the onset of the rainy season, have all conspired to officially kill about 300 people and infect thousands more.

Read More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/3d626e7ce939e04ca7a9f42079d9f507.htm

ZIMBABWE: Cholera timeline from 1993 - present
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a676fef88ec67dd93031113c65ba0bb3.htm

A cholera epidemic blamed on lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes has killed more than 500 people across the country, the United Nations said.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/12/04/zimbabwe-cholera.html

[antinano]

1. What is the urgency?

Why the sudden push to get Mugabe out of office. There are more pressing needs. Unless a native causing trouble in Africa is a problem for many.

[ohio2007]

2. the people of Zimbabwe voted him OUT already ...duh....

:sarcasm:

[antinano]

3. Well...

Just like the prime minister of Britain insisting B*sh resigns because he fukked up the economy. I wonder how that will sound.

[azurnoir]

4. Oh so there's a major cholera outbreak kiling people

Ms Rice et al at the UN are "talking about" doing something, meanwhile their busying themselves throwing political doodoo at each other, nice