Civil War for Zimbabwe???

I of course refer to the news that the opposition leaders to Mugabe's government have been arrested and brutally tortured whilst in police custody.

With an economy all but collapsed and a corrupt and manic leader who is removing human rights from his people, and the West looking the other direction is it the inevitable truth that Zimbabwe will decend into a civil war that will no doubt cost thousands of lives. And with that dire prediction there comes the question, what will it take to avoid it?

The West has maintained a stance on African politics from the Thatcher/Regan era, which is that the problems of Africa will be resolved by the people of Africa whilst not doing much to aid their struggles. It begs the question why want the same stance taken over Iraq, oh yeah OIL i forgot that. Africa has no oil. In fact Africa is seen to have little to offer as an economic nation and maybe this is the reason that the world and its media seems to be looking the other way.

And this is not the first time. We only need to look at the devistation of Rwanda to see the full effects of this sort of situation. Thousands dead, a country brought to its knees, and the world said "Not our problem". Well I feel it is our problem, the maintaining of human rights for people all over the world is a responsiblity that each of us carries. It is our responsibilty to look after our fellow man.

I urge everyone to write to people in power and urge them to look at non-violent courses of action to help bring about an end to the bloodshed in Zimbabwe. Let us use our economical, social and diplomatic powers to weaken the currupt government whilst enpowering the people.

Let us not look the other way whilst thousands of people are having their freedoms, liberties and lives taken away from them. It's time for the media to start to tell this story. We have to have a responsible media that provides an honest view of world issues, and does not just not report on issues it feels are of no importance, or that the government as deemed unimportant.

Given our governments attitude on fighting the war on terror, and against dictators, we must then ask the question why it is that there does not look to be alot of action in helping resolve this conflict, and that brings us back to the real issue, what is there to gain? whats to gain from helping? whats to gain from not?