Will anyone do anything about Zimbabwe?

The news from Zimbabwe just gets grimmer and grimmer. Robert Mugabe's government continues to desperatly cling onto power by whatever means possible; influencing elections, arresting opposition leaders, stopping opposition rallies. Even food has become a weapon, as they are now preventing aid agencies from distributing food (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7440237.stm ).

But- compared to other events recently, and given the scale of the crisis- there seems to be relatively little international condemnation of Mugabe, so little that in the same week as banning food aid he can attend an international conference trying to solve world food shortages! Surely there's something wrong here.

Is it because the West still feels guilty about the role it played in Africa in the past, in the days of colonialism? Because politicians are frightened of interfearing, in case they end up with another Iraq or Afghanistan? Because Western politicians believe that their voters are unlikely to care much about the political problems of a country so far away? Because other African leaders see it as an African problem, which can and should only be solved by Africans? Something of all these?

Or, to quote yes minister, that "once you start interfearing in the internal squabbles of another country, you're on a very slippery slope." Well yes, I think we can all see that from the disaster zone that is Iraq. But does that excuse them from any action? Not as far as I'm concerned.

Some seem to think that all the West can do is encourage African leaders like Thabo Mubecki (apologies if I've spelt that wrong) to mediate. But he's got enough problems at home, besides Zimbabwe. Understandable, Africa is nervous about white intervention. But the crisis in Zimbabwe goes far beyond issues of race.

It's surely time, and more than time, that the UN made some effort to help the people starving and suffering from violence and coercion. That was what it was created to do, and if it cannot help now, it will be more ammunition for those who say it's an irrelevance. I don't want that to happen. Eventually, something will happen- another country will feel that their stability is being threatened, or the people will finally rise up against Mugabe, and an already utterly dreadful situation will become even worse. Surely there's got to be something that can be done to stop this happening. Interfearing may lead down a slippery slope, but not interfearing isn't going to prevent trouble. One day the people of Zimbabwe may look at us and ask, "why didn't you help us?" And I don't think we've got a good enough answer.