Stardate 20020129.0002

(On Screen): Robert Mugabe is shaping up to be one of the worst monsters to appear so far in the 21st century. His general dismantling of the economy of Zimbabwe, his complete disregard for anything resembling law or justice, and in particular his complete obsession with maintenance of his own power, to the exclusion of all other things, makes him now the most despicable ruler on the planet (now that Mullah Omar has been deposed). He is doing everything in his power in the time leading up to the election scheduled for March to rig it so that he will win.

But that's not all he's done. He has, for instance, set up a Hitler Youth compulsory national youth service, including indoctrination ("training to instill them with patriotism") and propaganda ("an unbiased understanding of the country's history").

Never fear, though; the EU is on the case, and ready to tackle the world's hotspots.

Up till now they have brandished the threat of targeted sanctions to freeze the bank accounts of Mr Mugabe and his colleagues and ban them from coming to Europe, but held back from implementing them.

But Monday's gathering decided to take action. President Mugabe has been given a week, no more, to let in international election observers and give foreign journalists proper access to free and fair elections, or he will face the consequences.

And what, pray tell, will these "consequences" be? (Ye Gods.)

"Targeted Sanctions". You know, those things which were so ineffective over the course of years at influencing Milosevic, and had such little success at stopping the excesses of the Taliban? You remember them.

That's the threat they're making against a man who has already demonstrated that he doesn't give a tinker's damn about destroying the economy of his own nation, so long as he remains in power over it. Why should he care about sanctions?

Oh, and the EU is going to frown real hard in his general direction, too.

And the UK might suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. That'll fix him.