Don't ignore African wars
The world has come down heavily on Mugabe, and quite rightly so, but I wonder if he had confined his mistreatment to black people, would he attract the same level of international interest? What evils must a regime sink to before the international community sits up and takes notice? Three million people have died in the past four years in a war over diamonds and other precious natural resources in the Congo but international indignation is nowhere near as high.
Long running wars in Angola, Sudan and elsewhere also count their victims in millions and have ruined the lives of whole generations of people and yet they hardly rate a mention in the Western media. Blatant corruption has stymied the struggle for development in many of the world's poorest countries and condemned millions to lives of utter penury or even death and the silence is equally deafening.
Yes, I applaud the EU for its stance on this issue. Mugabe's behaviour is intolerable but he is not the only bad boy in the class. Both the moral outrage and the punishment should be applied with more even strokes.
John O'Shea,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
