If a little cholera will do the trick...

The International Herald Tribune has an article by Stephen Castle about Mugabe:

With cholera spreading and the Zimbabwean economy in crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France joined calls for the leader of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, to step down, as the European Union extended its travel ban on government officials in Harare. The move by Sarkozy, echoed by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, marked a significant increase in European pressure on a Zimbabwean leader who has so far proved immune to efforts to unseat him. At a meeting in Brussels, Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, which holds the EU presidency, said that 11 more Zimbabwean officials had been added to the EU visa-ban list that already includes the president. The total on the list now stands at 160 officials, Kouchner said. An EU spokesman later put the new total at 178.
"President Mugabe must go," Sarkozy said in Paris. "It is time to say to Mr. Mugabe: 'You have taken your people hostage, the inhabitants of Zimbabwe have the right to freedom, security and respect."' But many policymakers said that only a withdrawal of support by Zimbabwe's southern African neighbors will have any practical impact on Mugabe's grip on power. Although the cholera epidemic has killed at least 575 people, infected thousands, and spread to South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and Zambia, there is still no sign of a tougher line from influential countries in the region.
In Brussels, David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, welcomed the more aggressive EU stance. "There is real unity," he said, "about the fact that, while cholera has got the headlines, the real disease at the heart of Zimbabwe is the misrule of the Mugabe regime." Miliband said there was a growing view that Zimbabwe's problems now pose a threat to regional stability. That could be significant because, when Britain sought to take the Zimbabwe issue to the United Nations Security Council in July, it was rebuffed by Russia and China. Both countries were reluctant to see internal - rather than international - issues debated there. Miliband hinted that another attempt may be made to raise the matter at the Security Council. He said British officials were in the "foothills of the discussion" to overcome resistance.
The Zimbabwean information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said Mugabe was constitutionally elected and rejected such demands. "No foreign leader, regardless of how powerful they are, has the right to call on him to step down on their whim," Ndlovu said.
One EU diplomat, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said ministers had changed their tone, with none now arguing that engagement and negotiation with Mugabe needed to be given more time. "Here in the EU," he said, "we have had it with Mugabe, but there is some frustration because it is so difficult to see how we can change the situation." The foreign minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, said that the EU was too far from Zimbabwe to exert genuine pressure on Mugabe and that southern African nations needed to act. In September, after disputed elections, Mugabe and the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, agreed to share power, though they have been unable to agree on the allocation of cabinet posts.
EU countries were divided Monday over whether to send an EU peacekeeping force to eastern Congo after UN officials appealed for more troops. The Belgian foreign minister, Karel De Gucht, urged the 27-nation bloc to send a temporary "bridging force" to aid the 17,000-strong UN force in Congo amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The UN Security Council has authorized an additional 3,000 troops to support forces in eastern Congo, but it will take time to organize the deployment of the new troops. "It is urgent that we take a decision on a bridging force," De Gucht said. "It will take four to six months before the additional troops for MONUC arrive and the humanitarian situation is dramatic." (He was using the French acronym for the peacekeeping force.) Belgium has been the most outspoken European country in appealing for help for Congo, its former colony. De Gucht said the EU could send up to two of its elite 1,500-strong 'battle groups', but Germany and Britain are against sending an EU force. Years of sporadic fighting in eastern Congo intensified in August. An estimated 250,000 people have fled to escape clashes between the army and rebels.

Rico says we wouldn't allow some idiots living in the block down the street to have a war that hurt people without sending the cops in to make them stop, so why do we think the antiquated notion of 'national soverignty' should stop us from acting like the world's policemen and dealing with this forthwith?