The issue is also complicated by the fact that Zimbabwe, like all other countries, is a sovereign state and as such has a RIGHT not to be invaded. The question then becomes what are the criteria for intervention and International Law does rule that genocide is a legitimate (indeed even mandatory) reason for intervention.

Krishna makes the point succinctly – but again international law is pretty tough on what constitutes genocide. The massacres in Rwanda in 1994 were undoubtedly genocide and, shockingly, because this obliges countries which are party to the UN Genocide Conventions, to intervene. Many countries did not wish to send forces to this small and in a geopolitical sense relatively unimportant. The device they developed was to refer to the genocide as ‘mass killings’ to absolve themselves from sending forces to prevent the genocide.

Alex Benee hits the spot – it seems whatever governments do in the context of terrible tragedies such as Zimbabwe, you can’t win? Or are we here dealing with political expediency and not moral force?

Samuel White and Lesley Parish – you will be relieved to know that there are organisations that are meticulously recording every possible incident of inhumane treatment and torture. Doctors are secretly recording the injuries they are obliged to treat and getting the information out of the country. The day of reckoning WILL come for those who have perpetrated massive torture.

Thank you all, especially BG!

Take care, BG

It saddens me that you can believe this.

You said “The unprovoked war of aggression in Iraq is more heinous crime than anything committed by Mugabe.”

I think you would have a very hard time supporting that statement. The United States and its allies probably shouldn’t have attacked, but the troops haven’t been cutting off limbs, gouging out eyes, raping women, and murdering innocent people. Quite the opposite, they have been protecting people from the radical terrorist organizations (much like Mugabe) that want to gain power by any means possible and eliminate democracy. The media portrays this war as terrible and “heinous” as you called you it, but I know better. I have several good friends who have served in the Iraq war, and they all came back saying that they were thanked by countless men, women, and children who live in Iraq. Most people there are just glad for a single night’s sleep where gunshots aren’t fired, made possible now by the presence of the troops.

The question we should be asking ourselves is what does England economically get out of this? Its a very morose question but that’s how our government thinks and works most of the time.

Gareth, I support you comment however in Iraq there is money to be made. Zimbabwe has more in common with the brutality that the Palestinians are receiving from Israel.

Give names and places. These atrocities aren’t happening to nameless non-entities – they are happening to real people.

I believe the main problem is the UN doesn’t have a mandate to interfere in the internal affairs of a country. Of course the argument could be made that the problems in Zimbabwe are having a wider effect on stability across the region.