Robert Mugabe’s achilles heel is his wallet

So writes Nick Clegg in The Times, calling for action to protect Zimbabweans from the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe:

In less than two weeks the fate of the people of Zimbabwe will be determined by the result of a run-off presidential election. If Robert Mugabe is allowed to steal that election the tragedy will be complete. The scale of the catastrophe that Mugabe has precipitated in his country is almost unimaginable. In just ten years, life expectancy has plummeted from 61 years to less than 36 – the lowest in the world. The economy has disintegrated – inflation by the official measure stood at 164,900 per cent in April, unemployment is more than 80 per cent; the shops are empty, the health service has collapsed, the school system no longer functions and millions of Zimbabweans have fled …

In view of the extreme circumstances facing Zimbabwe, I urged Gordon Brown two weeks ago to warn Mugabe that unless his Government met the basic minimum standards for a free and fair election on June 27 we would work with our allies in the region and the wider world to do the thing that his regime fears: cut off access to the foreign currency that keeps them in power. This step could be taken straight away by Britain using the powers of the Exchange Control Act 1947.

Since everything hinges on what happens in the coming days, a sharp and aggressive strategy with immediate consequences is justified and this is the only tool with sufficient force to secure the guarantees that we need now to ensure there is a fair election. We propose that its application should be reviewed weekly and be lifted immediately should the regime meet basic requirements for fair elections …

Critics of the measures I have proposed argue that blocking foreign currency from entering the country would precipitate greater suffering. I do not underestimate the severe consequences.

The alternative, however, is to do nothing. That may spare us our moral qualms but it would not spare us the responsibility for the far greater disaster that will engulf Zimbabwe if Robert Mugabe is allowed to steal the election. The consequences for Zimbabwe’s people of that outcome would be catastrophic beyond any imagining.