West condemns Mugabe, ignores other Africa despots

Zimbabwe blossomed and became a showcase for the continent, held up as an example to then white-ruled South Africa of an economic and multiracial success created by a black man. But the world's high hopes were short-lived.

In 2000, Mugabe sent out his loyalists to begin violently seizing white farmers' land out of revenge for their refusal to support a referendum to consolidate his power. That led to the collapse of a thriving commercial farming sector that exported food to Zimbabwe's neighbors.

The economic meltdown has left a third of Zimbabweans hungry and caused inflation to run at a mind-boggling 4 million percent. Out of a population of 12 million, some 5 million Zimbabweans are thought to have fled to other countries.

Yet while Mugabe has presided over this catastrophe, he still casts a spell over many Africans. Thousands of supporters thronged the airport at Zimbabwe's capital Friday to greet Mugabe when he returned from attending the African Union summit early in the week.

Zimbabwe is "the single greatest challenge ... in southern Africa, not only because of its terrible humanitarian consequences but also because of the dangerous political precedent it sets," said U.N. deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, Tanzania's former foreign minister.