Zimbabwe cholera death toll reaches 775

[pecan]

From bad to worse ...


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081210/world/zimbabwe

December 10, 2008, 12:23 pm EST

By Angus Shaw, The Associated Press


HARARE, Zimbabwe - The death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak has risen sharply, the United Nations said Wednesday, reporting 775 deaths and 16,141 cases of the waterborne disease in the southern African country.

Cholera has spread rapidly in Zimbabwe because of the country's crumbling health-care system and the lack of clean water. Last week, Zimbabwe declared a health emergency because of cholera and the collapse of its health services.

The latest figures from the World Health Organization show a jump of nearly 200 deaths from Tuesday, when the UN humanitarian office reported that 589 people had died out of 13,960 cases.

Zimbabwe's government says the disease is under control but aid agencies warn that coming rains could spreading cholera further in a population already weakened by disease and hunger.

With hundreds of people fleeing the country to seek treatment, cholera has already spread to Zimbabwe's neighbours. Nine deaths were reported Tuesday in South Africa.

President Robert Mugabe is coming under increasing pressure as concern about the country's deepening humanitarian and political crisis mounts. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have all called recently for the 84-year-old leader to step down.

Also Wednesday, a group of lawyers marched peacefully through downtown Harare calling for the release of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko.

Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was allegedly taken from her home a week ago when activists held countrywide protests against the deepening economic and health crises.

Zimbabwean security officials regularly detain, harass and beat opponents of Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule, although the government denies such allegations.

A judge ordered police Tuesday to investigate Mukoko's disappearance.

The lawyers - some dressed in their black gowns - carried placards reading: "Stop abductions now" and calling Mukoko a "woman of peace."

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement that at least 20 activists were missing.

A number of international and regional organizations, including South Africa's ruling party, also were raising concerns about the whereabouts of the activists.

The African National Congress urged Zimbabwe's government to find them "as a matter of urgency."

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International said human rights abuses were worsening in Zimbabwe as Mugabe's regime was "desperate" to stay in power.

In Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday, Nobel peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari criticized Mugabe, saying the international community failed to meet its obligation to intervene when "something goes terribly wrong, as it has."

"(Mugabe) was the hope of the continent after Zimbabwe was born. How this desire for absolute power make somebody behave the way he has done? I feel very sad about that," he said.

Mugabe has ruled his country since its 1980 independence from Britain and has refused to leave office following disputed elections in March. A power-sharing deal worked out in September with the opposition has been deadlocked over how to divvy up cabinet posts.

[Dutty]

I does always wonder how come the U.N. the african union..nobody never declare this fella the dictator of a failed state

Even Mbeki wanted to try this diplomacy crap and mbeki eh ha no wukk now

Then again after all the slaughter in rwanda and nobody bat ah eyelash...if yuh eh ha no oil, nobody eh studyin you

[pecan]

I does always wonder how come the U.N. the african union..nobody never declare this fella the dictator of a failed state

Even Mbeki wanted to try this diplomacy crap and mbeki eh ha no wukk now

Then again after all the slaughter in rwanda and nobody bat ah eyelash...if yuh eh ha no oil, nobody eh studyin you

you probably right

[capodetutticapi]

Zimbabwe: Cholera was introduced by West
Mugabe's regime claims 'serious biological chemical war' is behind crisis
HARARE, Zimbabwe - The Zimbabwean government on Saturday accused the West of deliberately starting the country's cholera epidemic, stepping up a war of words with the regime's critics as the humanitarian crisis deepened.

The state-run Herald newspaper said comments by the U.S. ambassador that the U.S. had been preparing for the outbreak raised suspicions the West had waged "serious biological chemical war."

Zimbabwean officials often blame their country's troubles on the West. Their stranglehold on most sources of news to which ordinary Zimbabweans have access makes such rhetoric an important tool for a regime struggling to hold onto power.

After the first cholera cases, U.S. and other aid workers braced for the waterborne disease to spread quickly in an economically ravaged country where the sewage system and medical care have collapsed. Zimbabwe also faces a hunger crisis, the world's highest inflation and shortages of both the most basic necessities and the cash to buy them.

'Genocidal onslaught'
The Herald quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming cholera on "serious biological chemical war ... a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British."

"Cholera is a calculated racist terrorist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they invade the country," Ndlovu was quoted as saying.

Experts, however, blame the epidemic on Zimbabwe's economic collapse. The World Health Organization said Friday the death toll was at 792 and that the number of cholera cases that have been reported since the outbreak began in August was now 16,700. The epidemic has reached a fatality rate of 4.7 percent. To be under control it would have to be less than 1 percent, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said Friday.

Aid agencies have warned that the outbreak could worsen with the onset of the rainy season and the disease has already spread to Zimbabwe's neighbors.

Suffering
President Robert Mugabe claimed Thursday that his government, with the help of international agencies, had contained the epidemic. That sparked accusations he was out of touch with his people's suffering.

Zimbabwe's decline began in 2000, when Mugabe began an often violent campaign to seize white-owned farms and give them to blacks; most of the land ended up in the hands of his cronies, and production has dropped. Hungry Zimbabweans scrounge for corn kernels spilled from trucks carrying the harvest to market in a nation that once exported food.

Zimbabwe once had among the best health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Now most hospitals have been forced to close their doors as they can no longer afford drugs, equipment or wages for their staff. Officials are also unable to afford spare parts and chemicals for water systems.

Mugabe has ruled his country since its 1980 independence from Britain and refused to leave office following disputed elections in March. U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called recently for the 84-year-old leader to step down.