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Letter from Zimbabwe: Sick at heart[Excerpts] The Amani Trust, which exists to help torture victims, defines trauma as torture, severe beating or being forced to watch your family members suffering similarly or being raped/killed. On that definition 30 percent of all Shona over the age of 30 have suffered trauma, and among the minority Ndebele the figure rises to 50 percent. So it's not surprising that the general strike, which began Wednesday, has seemd thinly supported. And when the president's youth militia goes on the rampage in the middle of town, people scatter and run even though those who voted against Mugabe must outnumber their opposites by 10 to one or more in any street situation.

……….. It is all unbearably sad. Despite its run-down center and its endlessly potholed roads Harare is a beautiful city: tall trees, wonderful vegetation, large gardens. Walking in the center one is endlessly accosted by curio sellers who have hardly seen a tourist in months. When you tell them you don't want to buy their wares they switch immediately to telling you how many hungry children they have. In part this terrible sadness stems from the fact that so many believed -- briefly -- that Mugabe might be beaten. But this disappointment and anti-climax is greatly added to by a conviction that only external forces will be effective in getting Mugabe out... and that the rest of the world doesn't seem to care.

"The news that the Commonwealth has suspended Zimbabwe is good," one Movement for Democratic Change (opposition) supporter told me, "but we need real help now, not gestures. The President is a torturer and murderer and his supporters are taking revenge all round the country on those who voted against him. Even people like me, who have fought with all I've got against him have now to think of my wife and kids. Should we run? If so where to? Surely it would be easier and cheaper for the world to help now than have to pick this country up from the dead later on?" [End Excerpts]