Click here to watch the forum.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Paris despite a ban on him travelling to the European Union.

The French Government says other African countires had threatened to boycott the meeting unless Mr Mugabe was there.

Zimbabweans are currently suffering from famine, which some say has been exacerbated by Mr Mugabe's land policies.

What next for Zimbabwe?

Lesley Warner of Amnesty International and BBC correspondent Fergal Keane answered your questions in a LIVE forum for the BBC's Six O'clock news, presented by Manisha Tank.

Newshost:
Hello and thanks for joining us on the Six Forum with me Manisha Tank. Amid much protest Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, has arrived in Paris, that's despite a ban on him travelling to the European Union. The French government argues that other African countries had threatened to boycott the meeting unless Mr Mugabe was there. But under his rule Zimbabweans are currently suffering from famine. Campaigners point out that the problem has been made worse by his land policies.

Well joining us in the studio, first of all, Lesley Warner of Amnesty International and the BBC's world affairs correspondent Fergal Keane, he's in Paris.

Well we'll start here in the studio with you Lesley. We received an e-mail from Brian in Zimbabwe: "Why is there no system of international justice to protect the people of Zimbabwe from the whims of their emerging megalomaniac despot dictators?" And we know what his opinion is.

Lesley Warner:
We do indeed. I think this is a very interesting and unfortunately extremely complex question. International justice is a very new area. At the moment there's the international criminal court, that will only, however, try people who've actually signed up to it, there's been a whole debate recently about whether or not America, for example, is signing up to it. There's also been, at the moment, the trial of the international criminal tribunal going on in Rwanda, sorry in Tanzania, about the Rwanda war crimes and that's another instance of the international community actually taking steps to try and get justice around human rights. Quite which route you'd go down with Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe, I think we'd probably have paper about - that high on to get the bottom of it. It is an emerging area and one that needs to be pushed further.

Newshost:
Okay well Lesley you're talking there about stacks of paper perhaps with evidence against this man, let's take it to you Fergal in Paris. Why is Mugabe being feted by the French at this point - as many of the protestors are pointing out - while Zimbabweans are apparently dying in the streets, if you listen to those campaigners that have been talking to us?

Fergal Keane:
I think the first thing I would say is that the French argument is that they're not feting Robert Mugabe but want to bring him here to press him on his human rights record. However, one has to say that he has proved profoundly indifferent to any kind of pressure, certainly the kind of gentle diplomatic pressure the French are talking about, he simply hasn't changed his ways. Most independent observers, most diplomatic missions, report that the situation in Zimbabwe over the past year has actually gotten much worse. Now in terms of what Robert Mugabe will take out of this - I think he will feel encouraged, he will see this as a moment when his diplomatic isolation is ending, if you like - I don't really think that's the truth myself, I think that what happens in Zimbabwe over the next 12 months - let's remember the fundamental facts of the situation - seven million people facing famine, inflation running at around 200 per cent, 70 per cent of the population, something like that, unemployed - all of that can't continue without something substantial happening in the country.

Newshost:
Let's take it back to you then Lesley. Fergal pointing out some very, very important points there about why people are so up in arms about this situation. Just on the human rights situation we've had e-mails in from the UK with people actually asking: Has Mugabe committed human rights offences? It's very difficult to actually go outright and say that he has.

Lesley Warner:
It is. Before I answer that if I can just bring back to Fergal's point about the fact that it's actually getting worse at the moment. We had some researchers out in Zimbabwe in January this year and they were meeting human rights activists who said that they were more fearful than ever. There is this renewed clamp down, there was oppression - people were being arrested, people were being tortured, people were being beaten - and it felt like a really strong state sponsored repression of any opposition. So there is no doubt that it is actually getting worse at the moment. As to whether we can actually lay it all on the - all at the feet of Robert Mugabe, I mean Amnesty International's been calling for an independent international commission to investigate justice. Obviously it's something that actually goes through the whole Zimbabwean authorities and we need to find out what's happening, we need to get proper information and then we need to bring those people to justice.

Newshost:
Okay so it's obviously pointing out there the difference between an administration and then a character that we're having to deal with. Taking it back to you Fergal. "Excluding and isolating a country," asks Jan in the UK, "is what led to the situation that we have in Iraq right now, why do governments choose to ignore history?" How does it look from your position?

Fergal Keane:
I don't think that the situation that we have in Iraq or indeed any of the dictatorships where we have what amounts to tyranny taking place is due to governments isolating the people involved. If you look at, for example, the history of apartheid in South Africa, international isolation, though it was limited, if you look at the fields of sport, it does have a very powerful impact on the regimes concerned. So far it hasn't had an impact on Robert Mugabe and I think the interesting thing about Zimbabwe is just how impervious to international pressure he has become. He certainly, I think, would welcome something like his invitation to Paris but I don't think he really believes it would make much difference to the situation in Zimbabwe itself. My own sense of Zimbabwe is that whatever change comes about now, if pressure had been applied to him many years ago it could have made a difference, but whatever change comes about now I think will be driven by events inside Zimbabwe itself.

Newshost:
Fergal there's been a great deal of talk about Zimbabwe with regard to the Commonwealth. Sasha's written in from the UK, and Sasha is Zimbabwean, saying: "Zimbabwe should not be readmitted into the Commonwealth. How can Mbeki and Obasanjo welcome Mugabe back, claiming the situation there has improved since suspension in 2002 when it has only clearly got much worse?"

Fergal Keane:
Well it goes back to something that, as I said a few moments ago when I think you were asking the question - could human rights abuses be proved? - of course they can, it's very straightforward. Look at a law which says that foreign correspondents who operate in the country without the Government's permission could be sent to jail for two years, if that isn't a human rights abuse what is? When I was in the country several weeks ago I interviewed in his hospital bed an opposition member of parliament who'd had electrodes attached to several parts of his body and was given electric shock treatment - if that's not a human rights abuse what is? So I don't think there's any doubt that the human rights abuses are taking place. I think the problem is that we don't hear very much about it or see much of it on our television screens simply because of the fear for journalists working in the country. Now the Commonwealth is split right down the middle on this. One has to suspect that on the part of Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and President Obasanjo of Nigeria there is a desire to support, or at least not be seen to condemn, a fellow African leader but certainly anybody, like President Obasanjo of Nigeria, who's been to the country, who's travelled around, he's talked to people they know very well things haven't gotten better in the past 12 months.

Newshost:
Okay, let's move on then to Amnesty's position with regard to Mugabe. Lesley, Justin Roberts has written in from London saying: "What is the position with regard to him and having him tried at the Hague for crimes against humanity?" Just moving this on somewhat. This is all very interesting given that Gay Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has asked for Mugabe's arrest, he's in Paris, you might as well through him.

Lesley Warner:
Yes again it's actually trying to work out which court has the jurisdiction to actually try Robert Mugabe, that's why we've been calling for an independent international commission. I think it's very important that it's something that's done with the support of the international community, that it's not just seen as a sort of ex-colonial power getting involved and trying to pull him out and see justice done because we know the sort of reaction that that actually might lead to. So yes we do want to see people brought to justice, I say it again, we can't say that it is just Mugabe, we have to look at the systems in place, we have to get as much evidence as we can. I mean one of the other things we've been calling for is for the UN to send its special rapporteurs on torture and freedom and expression so that they can get the information and just make those tracks to find out exactly who we can prove is responsible.

Newshost:
And obviously information is key, how things are interpreted is key - Fergal one e-mail that we've just had in from Paul Verne in Prague: "What do the people of Zimbabwe actually think? We know what Mugabe thinks but what about the people?"

Fergal Keane:
The first question we need to ask is why do we have to ask that question? And the reason we have to ask that question is because Robert Mugabe and Jonathan Moyo, who's minister of information, have done everything they possible can to make sure that the international world doesn't know what people think, in other words it terrorises domestic journalists, it makes sure foreign correspondents are kept out, they have no interest in the world finding out what people think. I can just give you an example of the kind of views that I got when I travelled around the country. People are quite frightened about expressing themselves in political terms but they will talk directly about how the policies, followed by the government, have impacted on their lives and their economic policies primarily. But people, as I say, are dealing with inflation running at 200-208 per cent, now try and imagine that, where they're having to queue up in eternal queues for basic staples like bread, trying to get petrol, in all those areas the things that impact on people who are not even politically active. That is how life has changed most fundamentally for Zimbabweans, they simply, many of them, have no idea where the next meal is coming from.

Newshost:
Well let's hope that this meeting in Paris will be the first chance to actually address these issues out in the open in some way in the European Union. Even though he was banned from travelling maybe there will be a point to it. Fergal Keane in Paris thank you so much and here in the studio Lesley Warner of Amnesty, thank you.

That's it, you've been watching the Six Forum, thanks very much for joining us and writing in, see you again next time.