Mugabe told he has lost moral right to govern

Robert Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe and "lost the moral right to govern his people", a committee of MPs concluded yesterday.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee accused the country's President of playing a key role in the seizure of farms and of "rewarding his cronies with gifts of expropriated land". In a highly critical report, the MPs said that Mr Mugabe had "deliberately and systematically flouted the rule of law" and abused his people's rights.

The report criticised the harassment and imprisonment of journalists and called on the British Government to support them.

Mr Mugabe had been responsible for Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy and a crisis involving an "illegal campaign of violence, intimidation and forcible seizure of land", the report concluded

It found that the President has flouted pledges to pursue a democratic path. Instead, Mr Mugabe had used violent, and illegal means to cling to power. "In a speech in 1980, Robert Mugabe said, 'Only a government that subjects itself to the rule of law has any moral right to demand of its citizens obedience to the rule of law. We intend to uphold these fundamental rights and freedoms'," the report said.

But since then he had become a pariah, the report added.

"By abusing the fundamental rights and freedoms of Zimbabwean citizens, he has earned their contempt and that of the international community, and has transformed himself from a respected statesman into an outcast."

The report continued: "The tragedy is that he has taken his country with him. Even judged by his own yardstick, he has lost the moral right to govern his people."

Britain should continue giving aid to Zimbabwe to avert a food crisis but the cash should go to aid agencies rather than Mr Mugabe's regime, the report added.