ANY STICK WILL DO

by RAY FLEMING
TO judge by much of the British press at the moment Gordon Brown is the author of almost any misdeed or mishap anywhere in the world. Any stick will do to beat him with. Yesterday the Times devoted most of a leading article entitled A Crime Against Zimbabwe to the British prime minister's “timid, incoherent and ineffectual” response to the crisis in Zimbabwe. Specifically he “failed to galvanise” Nato at its summit meeting in Bucharest last week (was Zimbabwe even on the agenda?) and although he has urged President Mbeki of South Africa to toughen his position on Zimbabwe he has done so “in private and inconclusively” (how does the Times know this?). There are probably only three options in dealing with Zimbabwe. The first is to mount some kind of unilateral or international military action to depose Mugabe -- unacceptable in African And UN eyes; the second is to intensify sanctions against the regime - pointless because the country is broke; the third is to continue to put pressure on other African countries to persuade Mugabe to stand down or at least to agree to the presence of independent observers if a run-off election against Morgan Tsvangirai is held. This third option is the only viable one and is already supported by Gordon Brown and others. The Times should remember that the only leader to refuse to attend the European Union conference to which Mugabe was invited last year was -- Gordon Brown.