Beckett backs UN action on Zimbabwe

The foreign secretary has called for UN action against Zimbabwe following the latest reports of abuse by Robert Mugabe's regime.

Margaret Beckett told the BBC's Politics Show that she had asked the UN Human Rights Council to find those responsible for the attack on opposition activists at a recent rally.

She said "horror" at the events had been "felt right across the international community".

She added that the EU must also make its sanctions against Zimbabwe more effective as part of a coordinated international response designed to avoid an appearance of UK interference in its former colony.

"It's one of the reasons why we in the British government try to approach the issue in a way that doesn't give him the excuse to pretend it's all just about the relationship between him and us because that way it is the people of Zimbabwe who suffer," she said.

Mugabe has said his critics "can go hang".