LONDON (AFP) — British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch Brown urged African countries on Sunday to do "whatever it takes" to ensure Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe steps down.
Ahead of this week's African Union (AU) summit, he said Mugabe is "outside the pale of the international community" and that "everything's on the table now" in the face of global pressure for the veteran head of state to go.
"The fact is, if law and order breaks down in the country, or if Mugabe is utterly resistant to change and continues to oppress violently peoples' human rights, then I hope the African neighbours will do whatever it takes to secure his departure," he said in a BBC television interview.
"President Mugabe has to go (and) we've got to see what works in terms of ending this regime".
On the upcoming AU summit in Egypt, Lord Malloch Brown said he hoped that African nations would "unequivocally" tell Mugabe they cannot accept him after he clinched Friday's run-off election by default.
"I would want to remind the AU that it very bravely adopted a procedure by which it would not sit undemocratically elected leaders," he said.
Malloch Brown added that while Italy has proposed that all EU member states close their Harare embassies, Britain is reluctant to do so given the number of British nationals in Zimbabwe who might need consular help.
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