Zimbabwe has become a place of terror and desperation.
There is an urgent need for those who support a free and democratic future for Zimbabwe to demonstrate their concern and campaign for change.
In recent times Robert Mugabe's inability to accept his nation's demand for change has locked Zimbabwe into a downward spiral of violence, starvation, corruption and misery. All opposition to the Mugabe regime's illegal policies has been systematically targeted and attacked - literally as well figuratively. The Mugabe regime has undermined all essential mechanisms of democracy and good governance in the country including the judiciary, the constitution, the parliament and the media.
Having once fed sub-Saharan Africa, today many Zimbabweans face starvation. Access to food has become politicised by the Mugabe regime and there is evidence that food supplies are withheld or rationed along party-political lines.
The reign of terror, in which the police, army and intelligence agency as agents of the State are deeply implicated, has escalated in both the rural and urban communities dramatically since early 2003.
Conscription of Zimbabwe's children, aged 10 to 30, to the National Youth Militia Service is now compulsory. They are indoctrinated, taught to use weapons and torture tactics and encouraged to intimidate and violate their own people. The social fabric of a once stable and happy country is unravelling at an alarming rate.
As the lawlessness escalates so does HIV Aids which is now endemic: it is estimated that over a third of Zimbabweans are HIV positive. Hospitals are closing down because of the shortage of trained medical personnel, the absence of essential medicines and the unavailability of basic foodstuffs.
Zimbabweans are fleeing to neighbouring countries creating unmanageable problems for smaller democracies like Botswana, which is now erecting a 300-mile electric fence to control people and livestock movement. Mortuaries are overstretched with unclaimed bodies from Zimbabwe, and crime has increased substantially. Mozambique has once again demarcated its border with Zimbabwe because of illegal land grabbers. South Africa, while refusing to criticize the Mugabe regime's policies, is spending more and more resources on containing the ever-increasing numbers of Zimbabweans seeking refuge.
