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Zimbabwe: Elections

My Lords, does the Minister not agree that, although we speak of Mugabe as the author of this outrage, he may be little more than a front for the joint operations council—the military junta—that may effectively be in power in Zimbabwe? Does he not agree that, although exasperating difficulties are involved in international intervention, be it by way of blocking electricity supplies, the restriction on foreign currency flowing into Zimbabwe, or the indictment of Mugabe or others before the International Court of Justice, the very worst consequence of this tragedy could be that the world took away the message that tyranny and murder had succeeded in Zimbabwe? I echo the Minister in asking whether, as the former colonial power in that country, we do not have a massive moral responsibility to do whatever we can within justice and reason to help those people who are so oppressed and enslaved.