YOUR LETTERS

RAY Fleming should question the image the British and Western media in general is giving to Mr Mugabe. He should ask himself what the following countries have in common with Zimbabwe: Cuba, Vietnam, Indonesia, Grenada, Mozambique and Yugoslavia? Their leaders were all vilified in the same terms as Mugabe and were all victims of terrible economic blockades by the Western countries and the USA. In the cases of Korea, Vietnam and Mozambique they were also attacked militarily with terrible loss of life. The answer to this question is that they were all Communist-led.

And yet any crimes committed by the leaders of these countries fade into insignificance when compared with the mass murders carried out by Colonel Pinochet who massacred around 20'000 Chileans and was wanted for murder by the Spanish government but who was given Royal treatment by our New Labour government. Suharto of Indonesia who also stole US$ 15 billions as well killed at least half a million in East Timor with the bombs, guns, rockets and Jet fighters supplied by this very same New Labour government.

Mugabe is an intelligent Marxist-Leninist. As such his philosophy is to take back all Zimbabwean arable land (about 80 percent of the country) from white control and re-divide it up for the indigenous Zimbabwean tribes. He may be making a hash of it for all I know. But his heart is in the right place - unlike Pinochet and Suharto so beloved of Gordon Brown.

One last thought: Gordon Brown has stated that when Mugabe is put out of office, Britain has ready masses of food and other items to put the Zimbabweans back on their feet. In other words he is deliberately starving the Zimbabwean people because they are being ruled by a Marxist-Leninist. I call that disgraceful, don't you Mr Fleming?

David Lee, by e-mail , Majorca

Editor´s note: Let us not forget that Mr. Mugabe refuses to allow democratic elections and has tried to destroy the opposition movement in his country. He has also ruined his own own country.