A study in scarlet

Last week, Robert Mugabe's vicious government passed a law that compels many publicly-owned companies, including foreign firms, to sell the bulk of their equity to black Zimbabweans.

The law is part of a demagogic campaign by a dictator, presiding over the ruin of his once rich country, to set "black power" against "white power". Mr Mugabe says that his country's many problems, which include inflation rocketing upwards beyond all control, are caused by British-led economic sanctions. He is leading a fight, he claims, for liberation from white power.

What he is doing, however, is giving us a study in scarlet, written in the blood of his own people.

There are several ways to evoke the horror of life in Zimbabwe currently. One way is to give some facts and figures.

At the beginning of this week, bakeries in Zimbabwe closed down and supermarkets admitted there would be no bread for the foreseeable future. The reason: the failure of wheat production, down by two-thirds, following the seizure of white-owned farms.

The maize harvest is not expected to be better. Meanwhile, hyperinflation means that supermarket shelves are almost empty of foodstuffs. People are starving.

The government has tried to import wheat, but a shortage of hard currency prevented it from obtaining more than a fraction of its targets. The production of the main cash crop, tobacco, has nose-dived.

The cash crisis means there are also power shortages. Neighbouring Mozambique has cut off power supplies due to unpaid bills. Did I mention the shortages of coal?

International help is unlikely to be forthcoming. And it is unclear whether it would be helpful if it did. Mr Mugabe has the unique distinction of having refused international humanitarian aid.

The current crisis has been long in the making. But it is now entering a frightful stage. Recently, Mr Mugabe bulldozed thousands of shanty residencies, leaving thousands homeless, emulating Pol Pot, so as to drive his people to harvest those unproductive fields. His capital, Harare, has become a town where nothing can be bought - there is no petrol, no food, no medicine.

The International Monetary Fund suspended talks last year. It is unclear, at this late point, whether the EU-Africa summit will be held this December, because of hesitation over whether to invite President Mugabe to attend. (UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already warned he would not attend if Mr Mugabe turns up.)

Another way to suggest the horror of what is happening is to contrast it with the promise that Zimbabwe once held. Some readers might even remember a Malta connection.

Until 1980, the country now called Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia, after the British adventurer, Cecil Rhodes, who dreamt of a railway from Cape to Cairo, and who made his fortune out of the mineral treasures of Africa. He never got to see the spectacular Victoria Falls, so called by the legendary Dr Livingston after his queen. They are indeed beyond description. One of nature's marvels which I will never forget.

Rhodesia hit the headlines on November 11, 1965 when the then Prime Minister Ian Smith made a unilateral Declaration of Independence. Although I was only 12 years old at the time, I distinctly remember the moment as it made dramatic headlines.

I also recall that Mr Smith made an offer for Maltese migrants, which was turned down by the Borg Olivier government. Sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia, the border with Zambia was closed, and for the next 15 years Rhodesia struggled on.

I also remember when the Verdala Hotel, in Rabat, was the venue for a brokered peace agreement between the various black militias and Mr Smith's government. David Owen was at the time the UK Foreign Secretary and was still within the ranks of the Labour Party (he later broke away to co-found the Social Democrat Party). In April 1980, Zimbabwe emerged as a nation, amid hopes that it would be a prototype for a new, democratic, confident Africa.

The most popular member of the black freedom fighters was a certain Robert Mugabe, who emerged as the first President... and has clung on to power ever since.

White racists like to argue that the wreckage of a beautiful, potential rich country like Zimbabwe was inevitable once the black majority took control over the country. This view, of course, does not merit any serious attention.

It is unjust not only towards Zimbabweans as a people. It wipes away over a century of exploitative, oppressive colonial rule. It also lets bad politicians like Mr Mugabe off the hook by suggesting he could not have done otherwise, given his background.

Demanding that some kind of constructive action is taken against Mr Mugabe's regime is not, as he portrays it, the flexing of "white power" against black Africans. It is the flexing of humanitarian muscle against blatant, despicable tyranny.

Nonetheless, a way still has to be found of saying and standing up for this position, without seeming to be lecturing to other African leaders to do something about Mr Mugabe. Otherwise, as the outgoing Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Don McKinnon, recently warned European leaders, the governments of countries that neighbour Zimbabwe would appear in their own media as "bowing and scraping to western leaders".

Dr Attard Montalto is a Labour member of the European Parliament.