'Father Cholera' to highlight Zimbabwe plight

British-based exiles from Zimbabwe will today stage a dramatic tableau outside the country's embassy in London depicting its president as a twisted Father Christmas who deals out disease and death.

Dressed in a Santa Claus suit and wearing a Robert Mugabe mask, “Father Cholera” will dispense gifts labelled starvation, violence, murder, rape and torture.

Protesters outside Zimbabwe’s embassy will demand action to oust Mr Mugabe from power in the country, which is in the grip of a major cholera outbreak and near economic collapse.

The figure representing Mr Mugabe, who has claimed the disease is under control, will deliver the line: “There is no cholera in Zimbabwe!”

Passers-by will be invited to light candles in front of a cross in the doorway of the embassy, while protesters sing traditional Christmas carols in English, Shona and Ndebele, languages spoken in Zimbabwe.

The afternoon demonstration is intended to show people the horrors faced by people in the country this Christmas and is organised by the Zimbabwe Vigil.

The group has stood watch outside the embassy in The Strand every Saturday for more than six years, and says it will not stop its protests against the regime until internationally monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe.

Yesterday British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said conditions in Zimbabwe were “deteriorating rapidly” and that the situation in the country was “a tragedy”.

Mr Brown urged southern African governments to distance themselves from Mr Mugabe, after the president insisted African leaders were not “brave enough” to force him from office.

Power-sharing negotiations with the opposition MDC – widely thought to have won elections earlier this year – have ground to a halt.

Meanwhile the cholera crisis has infected about 18,000 people and could get worse as heavy rains threaten to spread the deadly disease, aid workers said this week.