David Norris (Independent)

I welcome that Senator Cummins described President Mugabe as a dictator. I did so in this House ten years ago. I was publicly reprimanded and a demand was made that I withdraw the comment. I am glad that I did not. That was on the occasion that President Mugabe visited UCD. While there when answering a question from a young woman who had great courage he continued to attack and trash the very vulnerable gay community in his country and, as Senator Cummins said, the Irish priests who educated him. He laid the blame for that vitriolic abuse of his own community at their door, which was very regrettable.

I also had the opportunity to meet Roy Bennett, a farmer and a member of the Zimbabwean Parliament whose rights were traduced. I met Morgan Tsvangirai in Liberty Hall some years ago and I formed a very high impression of him. While most of the Minister's speech was fine, when he spoke about President Mbeki's very considerable efforts, what were they? They were useless and hopeless. He is a disaster, as his own people know, including his brother who disowned him. People in South Africa are openly asking what President Mugabe has over President Mbeki and I ask the Minister to have a word with the South African ambassador to Ireland to express our very considerable reservations — at the very least — about President Mbeki's stance which is not what the South African people want. The overflow into South Africa has created a considerable distortion and xenophobic riots. Some 25% of the population of that country has haemorrhaged out of it because President Mugabe has used the instruments of government as a weapon against his own people, which is shameful.

The Minister talked about the result of the election. It is astonishing that the utterly corrupt electoral commission was faced with such a disaster that even it and President Mugabe were forced to admit that Morgan Tsvangirai's party won the parliamentary election. He also overwhelmingly won the presidential election. I salute the enormous courage of the people of Zimbabwe who stayed away in droves. Those polling stations were empty despite people being abducted, raped, beaten and tortured. Yet they had the courage to stay away. We must stand with them because most of the other African people will not. What is happening in Sharm el-Sheikh is a disgrace. How many of those other African leaders are also suspect in the way in which they got into power and the way in which they abuse the rights of their own people?

We have a real crisis. The collapse of the currency is astonishing. Nothing like it has been seen since the days of the Weimar Republic that led to the Third Reich. The inflation rate is unimaginable and shows the total collapse of the economy. That man feels contempt for his own people and yet he has the gall to invoke Christianity. Does the Minister remember what President Mugabe called "operation sweep away rubbish"? The unfortunate people living in hovels around Harare were brutally swept out of the way by the police because he suspected that they might in their desperation at least have the courage to vote against him.

It is astonishing that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a wonderful peaceful man, has called for intervention. Nelson Mandela at last spoke out on his 90th birthday and described this as a tragic flaw. Even the African Union observers have impugned this election. The Minister should not let them away with it. He should stand firm and make it clear that we all know that the election was a complete sham. What a tragedy that President George Bush and American democracy is a busted flush. Nobody could do other than laugh when President Bush called it a sham election. However, for once in his life he was right. It is a pity that the source of American democracy is so vitiated that it will have no effect other than to meet with a contemptuous riposte from President Mugabe's henchmen.

I ask the Minister to stand firm on behalf of Roy Bennett and of the family which suffered an appalling plight when an elderly woman had lighted sticks placed in her mouth while her son and husband were beaten unconscious because of the situation. I urge the Minister not to weaken. He should take the strongest possible position, because, as my colleagues have said, we cannot ever be accused of coming from a colonial position.