Rice: "Well Past Time" For Mugabe To Go

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that it is "well past time" for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to leave office.

Rice said the country experienced "a sham election," followed by a sham sharing of power. Speaking in the Danish capital Friday, she said the current outbreak of cholera in the country should be a sign to the international community that it is time to stand up to Mugabe.

"If this is not evidence to the international community to stand up for what is right, I don't know what would be, and frankly the nations of the region have to do it," she said.

The nations in southern Africa have the most to lose and need to take the lead, she said.

CBS News reporter Sarah Carter in neighboring South Africa reported Wednesday for World Watch that a source told her almost 3,000 people have been killed by the cholera epidemic sweeping Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system, and state media reported Thursday the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.

The failure of the southern African nation's health care system is one of the most devastating effects of the country's overall economic collapse.

Facing the highest inflation in the world, Zimbabweans are struggling just to eat and find clean drinking water. The United Nations says the number of suspected cholera cases in Zimbabwe since August has climbed above 12,600, with 570 confirmed deaths, because of a lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes.

A humanitarian mission by former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and human rights advocate Graca Machel (the wife of Nelson Mandela) was blocked near the end of November when Mugabe's government refused them entry.

The group met instead with humanitarian workers in South Africa, and then warned the cholera epidemic was worse than anyone initially suspected.

Cholera is an infectious intestinal disease that is contracted by consuming contaminated food or water. Its symptoms include severe diarrhea.

Still, residents are getting little help from the government, which has been paralyzed since disputed March elections as Mugabe and the opposition wrangle over a power-sharing deal.

"Our central hospitals are literally not functioning," Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa said Wednesday at a meeting of government and international aid officials, according to The state-run Herald newspaper.

International aid agencies and donors must step up their response, Matthew Cochrane, regional spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"This is about supporting the people of Zimbabwe," Cochrane said, adding that aid should include water treatment plants and more medical staff.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, long among Mugabe's sharpest critics, agreed that Zimbabwe was facing a national emergency and nations must step in to help.

"Mugabe's failed state is no longer willing or capable of protecting its people," Brown said in a statement Thursday. "The international community's differences with Mugabe will not prevent us doing so - we are increasing our development aid, and calling on others to follow."

Britain has offered $4.4 million and set aside a further $10.25 million in relief aid for Zimbabwe to provide medicine, fund basic health services and help prevent more cholera outbreaks.