Catherine Stihler, Scottish Labour MEP

Thank you, Mr President

Colleagues, think for a moment about your worst nightmare.

It will not even come close to what is happening to the people of Zimbabwe.

Once a prosperous country, it has been turned on its head by its President.

The country is collapsing: no governance, no jobs, hyper-inflation, no food, and no health service. The breakdown of the sanitation system is now creating a cholera outbreak.

A week ago Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said the cholera outbreak had been "arrested". He claimed Western powers wanted to use an epidemic as an excuse to invade Zimbabwe and topple him.

However, South Africa has declared most of its northern border with Zimbabwe a disaster area as the disease spreads over with refugees and Oxfam has warned that warned the situation in Zimbabwe "could get a lot worse".

Today's reported figures show that 1,111 lives have been lost and the disease is spreading. There are 20,581 cases.

Cholera is a highly infectious disease caused by bacteria which creates an intestinal infection.

Symptoms include diarrhoea and dehydration.

In its most severe form, a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhoea can lead to death by severe dehydration and kidney failure.

It can kill healthy adults in hours.

Individuals with lower immunity, such as malnourished children or people living with HIV, are at greater risk of death if infected by cholera.

To give an example of the impact the disease is having on the population, I want to tell Parliament about Cynthia Hunde's son, Munashe.

Munashe died of cholera shortly before his first birthday.

Cynthia had gone to work in South Africa to try and provide a better future for her son as there is no work in Zimbabwe, leaving Munashe in the care of her mother.

When she returned to her mother's home, she found Munashe dying in his grandmother's arms.

Interviewed by the BBC, she said, "I feel so bad. It's so hard to describe. When you have a son you have dreams for him. I came home expecting to find him running around the house, but that just didn't happen."

Please, colleagues, support this resolution condemning Zimbabwe, and please help innocent victims like Munashe.