(CNSNews.com) – As Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis deepens, three of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are pressing for President Robert Mugabe to step down, but the remaining two have refrained from joining the call.
 
President Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown all said in the last week that the authoritarian 84-year-old ruler must go. Similar calls have come from some African governments, including those of Kenya and Botswana, Zimbabwe’s western neighbor.
 
But Russia and China have not followed suit.
 
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China was concerned about the situation and was considering sending emergency humanitarian aid, but said it would not intervene in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. He said Beijing hoped the people of Zimbabwe would be able to form a national unity government soon.
 
From Moscow, too, there has been no call for Mugabe to step down.
 
China and Russia, both of whose human rights records are frequently targeted for criticism, are leery about any measures deemed as outside interference in countries’ sovereign affairs.
 
The two last July vetoed a U.S.-sponsored draft resolution condemning post-election violence and demanding an end to government attacks and intimidation of opposition members. It called for financial and travel restrictions on Mugabe and 13 other top officials as well as an arms embargo.
 
A bipartisan U.S. group of former policymakers released a report Tuesday that urged against the use of the veto to block or dilute Security Council resolutions relating to genocide or mass atrocities. (See related story)
 
Repression and economic mismanagement have turned the once successful southern African nation into a basket case, languishing near the bottom of world rankings for most economic indicators. Inflation stood at 230 million percent in July.

Zimbabwe’s drawn-out political and economic crisis took a turn for the worse when cholera broke out in August, spreading among an already weakened population and exacerbated by severe food shortages, a lack of clean water and a scarcely-functioning health sector. Some 14,000 cases have been reported and at least 600 people have already died, although health officials fear the real figure may be considerably higher.
 
With sick Zimbabweans crossing the borders to seek treatment, the epidemic has also spread to border areas of Botswana and South Africa, where eight deaths have been reported.
 
The government has blamed Western sanctions for the cholera deaths.
 
A political crisis also shows no sign of resolution. Following disputed elections and a controversial run-off, a unity government deal was eventually hammered out between Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
 
But the agreement has been frozen since September over the allocation of cabinet positions, with Mugabe insisting that his party hold onto key ministries including defense.

President Bush said Tuesday Mugabe must go. “We urge others from the region to step up and join the growing chorus of voices calling for an end to Mugabe’s tyranny.”
 
African leaders have for years been reluctant to turn against Mugabe, a veteran of the “liberation struggle” against colonial and minority rule.
 
But cracks have appeared, with Botswana having become the most outspoken among Zimbabwe’s neighbors. The country’s foreign minister, Phandu Skelemani, told the BBC at the weekend that Zimbabwe’s neighbors working together could drive Mugabe from power in two weeks by cutting off the gasoline used by the army and police.
 
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has raised the idea of foreign troops intervening to end the worsening crisis, and said Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
 
But despite frustration voiced by some African leaders, the 53-nation African Union remained adamant that a negotiated settlement was the only solution to the crisis.
 
South Africa has long been Zimbabwe’s economic lifeline, and has resisted calls to cut off power, fuel and other supplies that keep the government in Harare going.
 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced frustration on Sunday, telling ABC’s This Week that while Mugabe should have gone long ago, “we can’t seem to mobilize the international will do it.”
 
“It seems to me that when the international community makes a very big deal about the ‘responsibility to protect,’ as we did a couple of years ago, and yet you have the Darfurs and the Zimbabwes, it is a failure of the international community,” she said.
 
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that the U.S. had made extensive efforts in the Security Council and continue to do so.
 
“But quite frankly, some of the states in the region need to step up,” he said. “They need to use their leverage.”