World powers sound alarm over Zimbabwe
Pastor Dale Morgan
World powers sound alarm over Zimbabwe*
LONDON (AFP) - - Britain led international cries of alarm over
Zimbabwe's violent electoral crisis after the main opposition leader all
but handed victory to President Robert Mugabe by quitting the run-off race.
Both London and Washington said they were prepared to raise their
concerns in the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Zimbabwe would lack
"legitimate" leadership if Mugabe stayed in charge, and accused him of
using violence to cling to power.
"A government which violates the constitution in Zimbabwe... cannot be
held as the legitimate representative of the Zimbabwean people,"
Miliband said, referring to Mugabe's slowness to hold a run-off after
the March 29 election.
Miliband described the violence as "state-sponsored on a very large
scale with one very clear motivation" -- to keep Mugabe in power.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
opposition party, quit the presidential election second round run-off on
Sunday, saying increasing violence had made a free and fair election
impossible.
The United States joined other powers in sounding the alarm over the
reports of brutal violence ahead of the vote that had been scheduled for
June 27.
"The government of Zimbabwe and its thugs must stop the violence now,"
White House spokesman Carlton Carroll said in a statement, following
reports that Mugabe loyalists had beaten, burned and killed opposition
supporters.
"The Mugabe regime reinforces its illegitimacy every day. The senseless
acts of violence against the opposition as well as election monitors
must stop."
South African President Thabo Mbeki -- the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) mediator for Zimbabwe -- wants Mugabe and Tsvangirai to
negotiate, a spokesman for Mbeki told AFP, confirming media reports.
"I would hope that that leadership would still be open to a process
which would result in them coming to some agreement about what happens
to their country," Mbeki said, according to the SAPA news agency.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thought Tsvangirai's decision was a
"deeply distressing development" that did not bode well for the future
of democracy in Zimbabwe, his spokesman said.
Calling for an immediate end to the "campaign of violence", the
spokesman said in a statement that the UN was prepared to "work urgently
with SADC and the African Union to help resolve this political impasse."
The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana called the
election a "travesty of democracy."
Tsvangirai's withdrawal was "understandable, given the unacceptable
systematic campaign of violence, obstruction and intimidation led by the
Zimbabwean authorities," he said in a statement.
Tsvangirai failed to clinch an outright majority in March according to
official results.
The opposition says more than 80 of its supporters have since been
killed in a campaign of intimidation ahead of the vote and thousands
injured.
The current chair of the 14-nation SADC suggested the vote could be
postponed until a later date, adding that it would be "scandalous for
SADC to remain silent on Zimbabwe."
"There is no need to be ashamed in announcing that the presidential
run-off should be called off until further notice," Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa told reporters.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner branded Mugabe as "nothing but
a crook and a murderer", saying Paris would not accept the "fake
election" of the 84-year-old.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his government was
considering imposing more sanctions on Mugabe's regime.
And New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark branded the election a "total
farce".
"I think if South Africa was to withdraw support it would have a pretty
dramatic impact on what happens in Zimbabwe," she added.