Archbishop of York says time has come to remove Mugabe

The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, called on the international community Saturday to admit that power-sharing efforts in Zimbabwe had failed and to remove Robert Mugabe from power.

In a newspaper article, the second-highest figure in the Anglican Church compared the situation in Zimbabwe to that he faced as a dissident in Uganda under Idi Amin, and called on African leaders to step in.

"The time has come for Mugabe to answer for his crimes against humanity, against his countrymen and women and for justice to be done," Sentamu wrote in the article, to appear in Sunday's edition of The Observer.

His call came after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that world powers must join together to tell Mugabe that "enough is enough", amid a cholera epidemic which has killed nearly 600 people.

Sentamu wrote: "The winds of change that once brought hope to Zimbabwe and its neighbours have become a hurricane of destruction with the outbreak of cholera, destitution, starvation and systemic abuse of power by the state.

"As a country cries out for justice, we can no longer be inactive to their call. Mugabe and his henchmen must now take their rightful place in The Hague (war crimes court) and answer for their actions.

"The time to remove them from power has come."

He asked where was the African leadership in the crisis, noting the role played by Tanzania's Julius Nyerere in ousting Amin in Uganda.

"In Uganda, we were beaten, tortured, abused and hundreds were murdered, but never did we starve to death or see the level of suffering which is to be found in today's Zimbabwe," he said.

Sentamu added: "The people of Zimbabwe look to the international community, especially the SADC (regional southern African bloc), to heed the cries of their suffering and the voices of our own conscience."

The archbishop is a long-time critic of Mugabe. In December 2007 he cut up his dog collar -- the vestment marking him out as a clergyman -- on national television, vowing not to wear it again until Mugabe was gone.

But Sunday's article contains some of the strongest remarks he has made yet.

Sentamu said the time had come for world powers to recognise that a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and main rival Morgan Tsvangirai "is dead".

"The time for any negotiated settlement which leaves Mugabe and his regime in power is over," he wrote.

"Mugabe has had the opportunity to share power and to restore the land that he brought to ruin. Instead, that path of ruination has become a slope falling away into a humanitarian disaster."