Britain must act to crush Mugabe says Archbishop of York

Ugandan-born Dr John Sentamu called Mugabe a racist dictator and compared him to his own country's murderous leader of the 1970s, Idi Amin.

Zimbabwe should now be isolated in the same way as apartheid-era South Africa, he said.

The call from the widely-influential church leader will pile pressure on Gordon Brown to reverse the hands-off policy of Tony Blair, who said that Zimbabwe was an African problem that needed African solutions.

Inflation there is now running at 8,000 per cent, shops have no food, hospitals have no medicine and the average life expectancy is 37 for men and 34 for women.

Mugabe has held on to power by crushing opponents, moving their supporters to townships where cholera has now broken out.

Dr Sentamu said in a newspaper article: "Mugabe is the worst kind of racist dictator.

"Having targeted the whites for their apparent riches, he has enacted an awful Orwellian vision, with the once-oppressed taking on the role of the oppressor and glorying in their totalitarian abilities."

The archbishop said Britain should "escape from its colonialist guilt when it comes to Zimbabwe" adding: "The time for 'African solutions' alone is now over."

South African efforts, he said, had at best failed to improve Mugabe's behaviour and at worst were "complicit in his failing to lead the charge against a neighbour who is systematically raping the country he leads.

"Like Amin before him in Uganda, Mugabe has rallied a country against its former colonial master only to destroy it through a dictatorial fervour which has brought the country to its knees.

"Enemies are tortured, the press are censored, the people are starving, and meanwhile the world waits for South Africa to intervene. That time is now over."

Sporting sanctions against South Africa are considered to have played a key role in persuading the country's white rulers to accept that apartheid could not continue in 1990.

But imposing sanctions would present Mr Brown with difficulties as African countries, including South Africa, continue to defend and nurture the Mugabe regime.

Severing sporting links would risk unpopularity in Britain. Only last week the England cricket team played a match against Zimbabwe in the lucrative world Twenty20 championships in South Africa.

Dr Sentamu said the Prime Minister had phoned him following the article in the Observer.

"I now hope he will make some kind of response this week," he added.