You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Zimbabwe Blocks Carter, Annan Fact-Finding Trip

HeadlineNov 25, 2008

Zimbabwe has blocked former President Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and South African human rights campaigner Graca Machel from entering the country to assess the humanitarian crisis there. The United Nations estimates about 6,000 people have contracted cholera in recent weeks in Zimbabwe, and almost 300 have died. Hundreds of people have crossed into South Africa seeking treatment. Jimmy Carter said the entire structure of the country has broken down.

Jimmy Carter: “We all have a feeling that the leaders of SADC do not know what’s going on inside Zimbabwe. I think they need to send in a team to make an assessment about what’s going on with the cholera, with starvation, with the crops, with the education system, with the monetary system, and report back to the leaders what’s going on. And I see no reason why the African Union, without interfering in the political negotiation, shouldn’t do the same thing. And I don’t see any reason why the United Nations shouldn’t also send a team into Zimbabwe, so the whole world will know what we have learned the last three days and what was just shared with you.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top