I'm sure I'm not alone in being horrified about recent events in Zimbabwe. It seems the situation in the country has reached crisis-point in several aspects, due to the legalised dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.

Recently, I was shocked to see pictures of Morgan Tsvangirai, a leader of the opposition Movement For Democratic Change, being taken to hospital from court with a gruesome head wound, incurred at the prayer meeting held by Mugabe's opponents on Sunday 11th
March.

(Although intended as a rally and show of force by the MDC, officially demonstrations are all but banned in the clampdown climate imposed by Mugabe, so it was billed instead as a prayer meeting. Even so, the police moved in with typical brutality. Zimbabwe even has laws prohibiting criticism of the president, an obvious violation of the basic human right to freedom of expression.)

However, while Western governments have targeted Mugabe with mild criticism over the beating and arrest of Mr. Tsvangirai, his treatment is not the most glaring abomination delivered at the prayer meeting, but only that which most lends itself to media attention.

According to the Amnesty International UK website, one Zimbabwean activist, Gift Tandare, was shot dead by riot police at the same prayer meeting. Had this happened in my own country, we would be up in arms. Yet I do not even know the gender of this latest victim, sacrificed at the altar of Mugabe's power madness, although I am convinced that he or she can have been no less a thinking, feeling, breathing person than myself. Hence, if his or her life had no value, then neither does my own, and I should not hold my life dear when thinking how best I can oppose this malice.

We in the west tend to have a kind of "schizophrenic" approach to the "third world"; we care for our nearest and dearest over here with a vibrant urgency, and will fight for their happiness and safety with tooth and nail.

However, although we all claim that all human life is of equal value, and even sometimes that we love all humanity, it seems that when the geographical distance and the gap in lifestyles is imposed between ourselves and someone in Zimbabwe, say, or Sudan, Brazil, Eritrea or Burma,
often the best we can do is buy a red nose and watch celebrities congratulate us on how much we've raised, although we may have sacrificed very little in terms of energy, emotion, or economic expenditure.

The amount the British government will have to spend on ensuring that Britain remains armed with nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction will dwarf that raised by its citizens for Comic Relief. Parliament has voted to replace Trident by a majority of over 200, although
this will cost at least £20 billion (20 grand grand grand) of "the taxpayer's" money.

For now, all I can propose is raising your concerns with any of the following, then giving yourself a slap on the back for being a caring person:

ZIMBABWE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS,
Private Bag 7703
Causeway,
Harare

Telephone:
00 - 263 - 4 - 703641
00 - 263 - 4 - 703643

Fax:
00 - 263 - 4 - 707231

E-mail:
 moha@gvt.co.zw

Officer-in-Charge of the law and Order Section of the
Criminal Investigations Department -
CID Headquarters
Box CY34
Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe

The Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
P. Bag 7751,
Causeway,
Harare,
New Government Complex,
Corner Samora Machel / Fourth Street

Telephone 002634 774560 or 002634 774620/7

AMBASSADOR:
His Excellency Gabriel Machinga, Zimbabwe High Commission,
Zimbabwe House, 429 Strand, London. WC2R 0QE
Email:  zimlondon@yahoo.co.uk