Zimbabwe is Africa's shame, Tutu declares

Opponents of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe have vowed to drive him from office saying the state was already at "war" with its own people.

Arthur Mutambara, the leader of one of the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), yesterday delivered the strongest call for action yet against the increasingly violent regime."If there is going to be any war, this is the time to declare war," he said. The Oxford and MIT-educated professor was among those detained and beaten by police at a peaceful prayer meeting on Sunday.

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"I can assure Robert Mugabe that this is the end game. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested - but we are going to do it," Mr Mutambara said. "We are in the final stage of the final push. We are not going to allow a dictator who is sitting on us to determine the means of confrontation against him."

A relative outsider to Zimbabwean politics who was pursuing an academic and business career in the US when the MDC was set up, Mr Mutambara also signalled a truce in the factional divide that has hit the opposition. Our core business is to drive Mugabe out of town. There is no going back in working together against Robert Mugabe and his surrogates," he told supporters in Harare.

Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the main MDC faction, was released from hospital yesterday after treatment for serious head wounds inflicted by police.

The assault on the opposition leader provoked an outraged response from around the world and appears to have reunited a fractured opposition in the crisis-stricken country.

However, the chorus of disapproval has not been heard in neighbouring South Africa, where the Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu strongly rebuked African leaders yesterday for their failure to rein in Robert Mugabe.

"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," said Dr Tutu of the largely lukewarm response from African leaders, who have hitherto given Mr Mugabe a lifeline despite his ever escalating human rights abuses. Dr Tutu, who together with Nelson Mandela is widely regarded as South Africa's moral conscience, asked in a statement yesterday. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?" The bishop, who once described Mr Mugabe as either "mentally deranged" or "a cartoon figure of an archetypal African dictator," said all leaders in Africa should condemn the Zimbabwe government. Dr Tutu seemed to have been particularly angered by the South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has not commented on this week's turmoil in Zimbabwe.

Mr Mbeki seems to have delegated his deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, to comment on the matter. Mr Pahad has issued one statement which infuriated the local media by its call on Zimbabwe's opposition to help in creating an environment conducive to dialogue. Although the statement also urged the Zimbabwe government to restore the rule of law, it was considered a very lukewarm response.

Mr Mandela said in a statement to The Independent that he was concerned by the situation and hoped that African institutions would help resolve it.

But an unrepentant Mr Mugabe told the youth league to defend the country's independence and said the MDC was being funded by the West, which he blames for a campaign to topple him. "They think we are weak, think we have lost the resolve to defend our freedom," he charged. "They are wrong and stand for great shock if they continue to stretch our patience."

Although Africa's response is still largely fragmented and South Africa, which has the most leverage to rein in Mugabe, has not said anything substantial, it seemed more countries were now breaking ranks with Mugabe.

After the Ghanaian President, John Kufuor, described the Zimbabwe situation as "embarrassing" to Africa, Mozambique, one of Mugabe's staunchest allies since the 1970s independence war from Britain, said Mr Mugabe should ensure a more open society to allow Zimbabweans to discuss their differences.

The US presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a scathing statement against Mugabe yesterday.

A country on the brink of collapse

1 brick: in Zimbabwean dollars the price of one brick today would have been enough to buy a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool in 1990.

34 the current average life expectancy for a Zimbabwean woman, the lowest in the world.

65 the average life expectancy for a Zimbabwean woman 10 years ago.

33-35 per cent: the adult HIV infection rate.

12.2 million: the official population. Some, however, estimate the figure is actually closer to 8 million. The population is thought to have fallen by up to 4 million since the last census was taken in 2002.

61/1000 the infant mortality rate during the 1990s. It is now 120/1000.

42,000 the number of women who died giving birth in Zimbabwe last year

1,700 per cent the current inflation rate, the highest in the world. It is expected to pass 2,000 per cent this year.

7 per cent the inflation rate at independence in 1980

50 per cent The amount Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk since 1999.

Z$250 the price of bread a year ago; it is now Z$1,000.