Times Online
April 23, 2008
Times Online
A Zimbabwean state newspaper
called today for a transitional government of
national unity under Robert
Mugabe.
The Herald, which is seen not just as a mouthpiece for President
Mugabe's
Zanu (PF) party but also as a barometer of its mood, said that
political
tensions in Zimbabwe made it impossible to hold a run-off
vote.
In an editorial, the newspaper said that a transitional government
should
seek the help of the South African Development Community (SADC) and
beyond
to write a new constitution adopted after a national referendum, and
to
organise new elections.
“It stands to reason that, the
transitional government of national unity,
negotiated by the two leading
contending parties, under the mediation of
SADC, supported by the
international community, should be led by the
incumbent President,” it
said.
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states lose patience with Mugabe
The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has already rejected
suggestions of a second-round of voting
because it claims that its leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29
presidential contest.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to
release any results from the
presidential election, and has for some days
been engaged in a recount of
the parliamentary ballot, after initially
announcing that the MDC had
dislodged Zanu (PF) from power. Mr Tsvangirai -
who was today visiting
Mozambique - has accused Mr Mugabe of trying to rig
the election to cling on
to power after 28 years.
There are signs of
growing regional impatience with Mr Mugabe from
neighbours, who have until
now refused to take a hard line with the former
liberation hero despite an
economic crisis that has brought unemployment and
hunger to millions of
Zimbabweans.
In an unprecedented action, southern African states refused
to allow a
Chinese ship carrying arms to landlocked Zimbabwe to
unload.
In his toughest comments yet, Jacob Zuma, leader of South
Africa's ruling
party leader and widely expected to be the country's next
president, said:
“It’s not acceptable. It’s not helping the Zimbabwean
people who have gone
out to ... elect the kind of party and presidential
candidate they want,
exercising their constitutional right.”
Financial Times
By
Reuters, April 23
Regional countries should mediate negotiations in
Zimbabwe for a
transitional government of national unity led by President
Robert Mugabe to
organise new elections that are free, a state newspaper
said on Wednesday.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF are
locked in an election stalemate over delayed
parliamentary results and a
possible presidential runoff that has raised
fears of widespread violence.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Zimbabwe’s MDC seeks
regional help - Apr-20
Mugabe accuses Britain of paying rivals - Apr-18
S
African union blocks Zimbabwe arms cargo - Apr-18
Video: Rice on Zimbabwe -
Apr-18
Mbeki told to quit Zimbabwe mediation - Apr-17
Pretoria clears arms
for Harare - Apr-18
The editorial on The Herald’s website said political
tensions make it
impossible to hold a run-off, which the MDC
rejects.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he won the election
outright and
accused Mugabe of seeking a run-off to rig victory in the
biggest challenge
to his 28-year rule.
Tsvangirai has appealed to the
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
and foreign powers to
intervene to guarantee a democratic poll result and
prevent widespread
violence.
There are signs of growing regional impatience with Mugabe from
neighbours
who have refused to take a hard line with the former liberation
hero despite
an economic crisis that has brought millions of Zimbabweans to
their knees.
Maritime southern African states refused to allow a Chinese
ship carrying
arms to landlocked Zimbabwe to unload, in unprecedented action
towards
Mugabe by long-passive neighbours, including traditional
allies.
The action indicated a tougher response by the region, which has
been
criticised, particularly by the United States, for not doing more to
end a
three-week delay in issuing results from a presidential election on
March
29.
In his toughest comments yet, South African ruling party
leader Jacob Zuma
said in a Reuters interview in Berlin.
”It’s not
acceptable. It’s not helping the Zimbabwean people who have gone
out to ...
elect the kind of party and presidential candidate they want,
exercising
their constitutional right.”
Zuma, who has distanced himself from the
”quiet diplomacy” of South African
President Thabo Mbeki over Zimbabwe,
added: ”I imagine that the leaders in
Africa should really move in to unlock
this logjam.”
His comments were one factor helping to lift the rand
currency to a
seven-week high against the dollar. Traders welcomed Zuma’s
readiness to
take a lead on Zimbabwe after concern the crisis would hit
Africa’s biggest
economy.
NATIONAL REFERENDUM
The Herald, seen
as a barometer of the official mood, said a transitional
government should
seek the help of the SADC and the international community
to write a new
constitution adopted after a national referendum.
”It stands to reason
that, the transitional government of national unity,
negotiated by the two
leading contending parties, under the mediation of
SADC, supported by the
international community, should be led by the
incumbent president,” it
said.
The MDC deprived Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of its majority in
parliament in a
parallel vote on March 29 but there has also been a delay to
a partial
recount of votes from that poll.
The recount could overturn
the MDC victory. The opposition and Western
governments say it is merely
another ploy by Mugabe to steal back the
election. The Herald said ZANU-PF
retained one of the 23 seats being
recounted.
Tsvangirai called for
African leaders to acknowledge that he won the vote,
saying Mugabe would be
allowed an honourable exit.
Africa’s reputation would suffer ”serious
disrepute” if Mugabe stayed in
power, Tsvangirai said in
Accra.
Tensions have been rising on the ground as Tsvangirai tours the
region
seeking help in pushing aside Mugabe, a wily leader who critics say
has used
ruthless security crackdowns and a vast patronage system to keep a
tight
grip on power.
The MDC has accused ZANU-PF of killing 10 of its
members and rounding up
hundreds, charges denied by the ruling
party.
The Herald said police have handled over 75 cases of poltical
violence
carried out by suspected MDC supporters.
The editorial
called on both sides to compromise.
”The peace and security of Zimbabwe,
that it has enjoyed since independence,
is at great risk,” it
said.
”Whilst the ruling party must stop behaving like a wounded buffalo,
the
opposition party must stop its hysterics and lapses into delusion.”
IOL
April 23
2008 at 07:02AM
By Tawanda Mashingaidze, Basildon Peta, Hans
Pienaar and Louise
Flanagann
Harare - Crack Angolan troops are
on standby to fly to the aid of
President Robert Mugabe and his beleaguered
Zanu-PF should the need arise,
according to senior military sources who are
becoming increasingly concerned
about the turn of events.
They
maintain that Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has
assured Mugabe
that battle-hardened troops who have seen action in the DRC
conflict are
ready to fly to the aid of Zanu-PF in the face of "an
imperialist
onslaught".
What this indicates is that Mugabe and the ruling party
can no longer
rely on the unswerving loyalty of his armed forces, if he
steals the March
29 election and provokes violent resistance.
While the top brass in the military generally support the system, the
same
cannot be said for many other officers. Among the ordinary ranks who,
along
with their families, have suffered in the desperate economic
conditions,
there is widespread disgruntlement.
Significantly, much of the
reported terror being conducted against
suspected opposition supporters in
the rural areas is being carried out by
Zanu-PF youth militia rather than
the army or police.
The existence of these gangs of young thugs and
the manner in which
they are conducting themselves has also contributed to
the disquiet within
the military and, perhaps to a lesser degree, among the
police.
Given rudimentary military training and immunity from
prosecution,
they have been turned loose in a number of areas.
In the rural Mashonaland constituency of Mutoko North, the local
chairperson
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Themba
Muronde was
last week beaten to death by "Green Bombers" as the youth
militia are
known.
According to family members who have sought refuge in
Harare, Muronde
was dragged from his home on Sunday and severely
beaten.
He was still unable to move when the "Bombers" returned 24
hours
later. They dragged him from his home and beat him, apparently to
death,
before taking his body with them.
Frightened families
from rural areas in which the Bombers are
operating are continuing to drift
into Harare.
Meanwhile, the An Yue Jiang and its consignment of
weapons destined
for Zimbabwe continued to mystify as it appeared on Tuesday
to do another
about turn and to start the long haul back home to
China.
On Tuesday the container ship was spotted off Cape Town and
by
mid-afternoon it had apparently abandoned its attempt to dock in Namibia
or
Angola, and turned around to head back around the South African
coast.
This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape
Times on April
23, 2008
The Zimbabwean
Wednesday, 23
April 2008 06:41
Lowveld News:
Violence
I am
getting reports from the Zaka and Chiredzi constituencies now of
threats and
violence by youth militia perpetrated against MDC polling agents
and
villagers who it was perceived voted for the MDC. In these
constituencies
the army and police have not been involved in any violence
against the
people, but have also not acted against Mugabe’s militia. These
attacks are
mostly taking place on the resettled farms and in the communal
areas near
these farms.
Farmers move to the towns
Several farmers
spent the weekend in Chiredzi because they had
received word that they were
going to be “JAMBANJAED”. (beaten up)
The guard on my ranch was
told that we would be killed if we were not
off by the end of the month. I
have taken this as a serious threat because
they are the same group who
attacked my ranch in Feb.2002 and killed 3 off
my game scouts’ one of them
being the brother of the threatened guard and
tried to kill me. I have, in
person and in writing, reported this to Chief
Superintendent Dzaramba who is
in charge of the Chiredzi district.,
hopefully he will act against
them.
Dangerously unhappy
I am getting many SMS
messages from the MDC youth now desperately
looking for guns, saying that
they are tired of been chased and beaten by
Mugabe’s youth, obviously I do
not have arms to give them and so tell them
that Morgan wants all his people
to stay calm and peaceful.
MY AND MANY OTHERS QUESTION IS, WHEN THE
PEOPLE HAVE OBVIOUSLY WON AN
ELECTION BUT THE LOOSERS DO NOT INTEND TO HAND
OVER, HOW DO THE PEOPLE FORCE
THE LOOSERS OUT PEACEFULLY?
If
somebody has an answer to this question, please let me know so that
I can
pass it on and so give hope to our people and help to prevent a blood
bath.
Gerry Whitehead
Independent, UK
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
People speak of an
African solution to an African problem. For Zimbabwe's
crisis, there has
already been an African solution. The people of Zimbabwe,
who are of course
African, voted over three weeks ago. They had hopes that
participating in an
election would save them. Most likely, they voted for a
change of
government, but regardless they, the sovereign people of the
republic,
expressed their will.
But hopes for a rapid change have dimmed with every
day that the results of
the election remain unannounced. Robert Mugabe and
his party, Zanu-PF, are
now refusing to accept the will of the people and
are, instead, clinging on
to power by force.
Their crude efforts to
reverse their losses at the poll by ordering a
recount of the votes,
combined with a naked campaign of violent retribution
against those thought
to have voted for the opposition in the past few days
are factors confirming
the illegitimacy of Mugabe's regime that even the
greatest apologists for
the regime in Harare have not been able to ignore.
It is mildly
encouraging that after years of efforts to maintain the
appearance of having
a firm grip over the management of the process of
resolving the Zimbabwean
crisis despite their obvious failure to influence
Mugabe, leaders of Africa,
and Zimbabwe's neighbours in particular, are at
last dropping these
pretences. They don't have Mugabe's ear and they are
plainly embarrassed by
his and his regime's recalcitrance as the crisis in
the country deepens.
This week, Africa's leadership – the African Union, the
South African
government and the ruling African National Congress – at least
thought it
necessary to again press Mugabe publicly to announce the results
of the
election and to respect the result. Zambia and Mozambique's
leadership were
bolder still. They distanced themselves from Zanu-PF's
further attempts to
suppress the popular will through force.
The truth is that the gap
between the African leaders and those of the wider
international community
is narrow. But Mugabe survives on the sliver of an
illusion that there is
some division. It is time for African leaders to make
the final leap and
admit that the manifest challenge of ending the crisis
created by Mugabe's
regime requires a united international effort. World
leaders, African and
beyond, should openly work together towards a solution
to the crisis. Their
responsibility to the people of Zimbabwe, to whom they
promised a free and
fair election, demands nothing less.
Gugulethu Moyo is a Zimbabwean
lawyer. She is editor of the book The Day
After Mugabe
Independent, UK
Leading article:
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
The recent history of Zimbabwe
has felt like a series of false dawns. Hopes
that Robert Mugabe's cruel and
chaotic rule might finally be over have been
repeatedly dashed, as the old
dictator moved ruthlessly to steal the
election he had so obviously lost. He
deployed a formidable array of sly
tactics: invasions of white farms,
arrests of election officials, bogus
recounts and campaigns of intimidation
in areas where the people had dared
to vote against him. And yet it seems
that the tide has finally turned
against him.
Key in this change has
been South Africa's leader-in-waiting, Jacob Zuma,
who arrives in London
today for talks with Gordon Brown before moving on to
meet the French
President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the German Chancellor,
Angela Merkel. Mr
Zuma, in his toughest comments to date, yesterday called
on African leaders
to move in to unblock the Zimbabwean logjam. The remarks
come all the more
powerfully from the man who is now head of the African
National Congress and
the front-runner to take over as South Africa's
president from Thabo Mbeki,
whose "quiet diplomacy" approach is increasingly
seen as discredited at home
and abroad.
To be fair, Mr Mbeki had his moment. It was his initiative
which changed
election rules in Zimbabwe, requiring the results of each
count to be nailed
to the door of each polling station. That was what made
it clear to the
world, despite Mr Mugabe's attempt to stifle the result,
that he had roundly
lost. But quiet diplomacy has had its day. Mr Brown
realised that when he
spoke out against Mugabe vote-rigging at the United
Nations, in a marked
departure from the silence Tony Blair kept for fear
that public condemnation
merely fuelled Mugabe's rants about how everything
was a plot by the
British. A new momentum is clear all across
Africa.
The President of Zambia has just urged Angola to turn away a ship
carrying
Chinese arms for the Mugabe regime, which South African trade
unions refused
to unload in Durban last week. Kenya's new prime minister has
appealed for
African heads of state to use force if necessary to remove
Mugabe from
power. The African Union has this week added its voice to the
chorus of
disapproval; its current chairman, the President of Tanzania, is
pressing
within the AU and the Southern African Development Community for
action. All
of that is far more important than condemnations from Western
nations.
It is significant that, though the South African High Court
suspended the
Chinese arms shipment's conveyance permit, it was the nation's
transport
union, Satawu, which led the fight against allowing weapons to the
Zimbabwe
regime. Satawu was a key force in the struggle against apartheid.
It is also
now an important ally of Mr Zuma, whose power base is mainly
among the trade
unions. Zimbabwe's rightful president, Morgan Tsvangirai,
whom Mr Zuma went
out of his way to meet – in contrast to Mr Mbeki – is a
former trade
unionist, too. He is also, like Mr Zuma, of Zulu tribal
origin.
There is a power struggle between Mr Mbeki, who steps down as
president next
year, and Mr Zuma, his former deputy. Its outcome is not
absolutely certain;
for eight years, Mr Mbeki has spared no effort in trying
to nail Mr Zuma,
with charges of tax evasion and rape which Zuma supporters
say were trumped
up. He was acquitted of rape but faces a corruption trial
in September. If
Zimbabwe is one of the key cards in the poker game between
the two men, that
could yet work to the advantage of Zimbabweans. Mr Zuma
knows that if he can
broker some kind of resolution in that benighted
nation, it will go a long
way to alleviating concerns in the international
community about his
leadership ability.It will raise his political stock at
home and throughout
Africa. Change for Zimbabwe may, after all, be
unstoppable.
Washingtom Post
By DONNA BRYSON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 22,
2008; 7:40 PM
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Zimbabwe's regime got a taste
of the
international isolation critics say it deserves, with its neighbors
blocking
a shipment of Chinese arms to prevent them from being used against
Robert
Mugabe's opponents. China said Tuesday the weapons might be returned
home.
Union, church and human rights leaders across southern Africa
rallied
against allowing the Chinese freighter An Yue Jiang to dock at ports
in any
of landlocked Zimbabwe's neighbors, and they were bolstered by
behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States.
In the end,
governments usually unwilling to criticize Mugabe barred the
ship at a time
when Zimbabwe's government is being accused of cracking down
on
dissenters.
On Tuesday, church leaders in Zimbabwe said people were being
tortured,
abducted and murdered in a campaign of retribution against
opposition
supporters following the March 29 election, and urged
international
intervention.
In Washington, the State Department said
it had urged countries in southern
Africa _ notably South Africa,
Mozambique, Angola and Namibia _ not to allow
the ship to dock or unload. It
also asked the Chinese government to recall
the vessel and not to make
further weapons shipments to Zimbabwe until the
postelection crisis is
resolved.
China insisted the shipment of mortar grenades, ammunition and
other weapons
was part of "normal military product trade between the two
countries,"
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
"As far as I
know, the carrier is now considering carrying back the cargo,"
she
added.
Patrick Craven, spokesman for a South African trade union
federation, which
helped lead the campaign, called it a "historic victory"
that he hoped would
encourage Zimbabweans and lead to more grass-roots
campaigns against Mugabe.
"So far the governments have clearly been
lagging behind the people," Craven
said. "We're hoping now they will wake
up."
A spokesman for Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
welcomed the
development. "It would be pleasing to the people of Zimbabwe to
note that
there has been solidarity on the continent to stop the arming of
the
(Mugabe) regime at the expense of the people," said the aide, Nelson
Chamisa.
When the ship arrived in South Africa last week, the
government said there
was no legal reason to stop its cargo from being
unloaded and shipped on to
Zimbabwe. There is no international arms embargo
against Zimbabwe.
The Southern Africa Litigation Center, a South
Africa-based human rights
group, persuaded a judge to bar the weapons from
transiting South Africa to
reach Zimbabwe. The ship then sailed away from
South Africa, and private
groups and government officials in Mozambique,
Angola and Namibia also
objected to the weapons.
Nicole Fritz,
director of the center, said she believed Zimbabwe's neighbors
were not
changing policy but were responding to pressure from civic groups
and the
United States. She was particularly critical of South Africa, whose
President Thabo Mbeki was chosen by regional leaders to mediate between
Mugabe and his opponents and who has counseled against confronting
Mugabe.
"The South African authorities' actions over this past week ...
suggest that
South Africa cannot be perceived to be a good faith mediator,"
she said,
noting the Zimbabwean opposition has asked that Mbeki step
aside.
Over 200 African bar associations, human rights groups and other
independent
organizations met Monday in Tanzania and issued a demand that
the African
Union get involved in Zimbabwe's crisis, saying the southern
African
regional grouping that had appointed Mbeki mediator is not doing
enough.
The Zimbabwe crisis "is serious enough that the AU must get
involved and it
must de dealt with at a continental level because this is an
issue that has
strong implications for the continent," Eleanor Sisulu of
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition told The Associated Press Tuesday.
The
State Department also is urging governments in the region to step up
pressure on Mugabe's government to release the long-delayed results of the
election and said the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, would
leave Washington Tuesday for talks in Angola, South Africa and
Zambia.
The Bush administration also pressured Zimbabwe's neighbors to
turn away the
arms shipment.
"Right now, clearly, is not the time
that we would want to see anyone
putting additional weapons or additional
material into this system when the
situation is so unsettled and when we
have seen real and visible instances
of abuses committed by the security
forces," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told
reporters.
He added that
China had been encouraged in a message delivered by U.S.
diplomats in
Beijing "to halt this shipment" and "to refrain from making
additional
shipments."
Mugabe's deputy information minister, Bright Matonga, said
Tuesday his
country had the right to acquire arms from legitimate sources.
"We are not a
rebel country," he told The Associated Press.
The
opposition says post-election violence had displaced 3,000 people,
injured
500 and left 10 dead.
Chamisa, the opposition spokesman, said he visited
a hospital in
southeastern Zimbabwe on Monday where he saw cases of people
injured in
postelection violence, including a pregnant woman who had a
"wound in her
womb" after being stabbed. He said he also saw an 85-year-old
woman whose
legs had been broken.
Mugabe's officials said such
reports could not be confirmed, adding that if
there had been such violence,
the opposition could be to blame.
___
Associated Press writers
Christopher Bodeen in Beijing, Celean Jacobson in
Johannesburg and Tom
Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
National Post, Canada
National Post
Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008
We know most of our readers need
no further proof that inter -nationalist
organizations such as the
Commonwealth, the United Nations and the African
Union (AU) are nothing more
than toothless debating societies. But those few
who need more convincing
need look no further than Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe
is stealing last month's
elections in plain sight, and not one of the major
talk-shops is lifting a
finger to stop him.
Sunday will mark three weeks since Zimbabweans voted
for a parliament and
president, and still the official results have not been
released. The
country's national election commission, appointed by Mr.
Mugabe, has offered
no convincing explanation for the delay, fuelling
speculation that the
results favour the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), and that
the commission is merely stalling
The world
community has essentially washed its hands of Zimbabwe's crisis
until it can
stuff enough ballot boxes to swing the tallies back in favour
of Mr.
Mugabe's socialist ZANU-PF party.
This weekend will be crucial. If
Zimbabwe's courts -- also full of Mugabe
appointees --permit the election
commission to go ahead with recounts in the
22 constituencies whose results
are disputed by Mr. Mugabe's followers, but
not in the 60 challenged by the
MDC, then by Monday it may be possible for
ZANU-PF and Mr. Mugabe to claim
re-election.
The local results that trickled out after the March 29
election showed the
main opposition winning 109 of 210 parliamentary seats
to ZANUPF's 97.
Meanwhile, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai captured just over
50% of the
presidential ballots, while Mr. Mugabe received just under 50%.
With such
slim margins, it would not be necessary for Mr. Mugabe's
handpicked
commissioners to rig the vote much to reverse the results in his
favour.
(Even if the Mugabefriendly courts rule against the recounts he has
demanded, the election commission says it will go ahead, another sure sign
that Mr. Mugabe and his cronies are intent on winning at all
costs.)
So where are the Commonwealth, the UN and the AU? They have each
essentially
washed their hands of the crisis. They all claim to have ceded
responsibility for breaking the Zimbabwean impasse to the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), an emerging union of 14 nations in the region,
patterned after the EU.
But the SADC is dominated by South Africa,
and South African President Thabo
Mbeki is an old chum of Mr. Mugabe's. It
is no coincidence that the SADC
last week appointed Mr. Mbeki to broker a
deal between Mr. Mugabe and his
opponents, nor that Mr. Mugabe has felt free
to crack down on the opposition
in the days since, arresting scores of MDC
officials and accusing Mr.
Tsvangirai of treason, an offence punishable by
death in Zimbabwe.
By off-loading responsibility to Mr. Mbeki, the
Commonwealth, UN and AU
have, for all intents and purposes, given their
blessing to Mr. Mugabe's
electoral theft. Mr. Mbeki is too cozy with Mr.
Mugabe to force his old
anti-colonial warrior-in-arms to play fair, and the
large international
organizations knew this when they agreed to step aside
for the SADC.
On Friday, in a bizarre speech filled with the sort of
conspiracy theories
that Mr. Mugabe is fond of peddling whenever his iron
rule is jeopardized,
the 84-year-old strongman claimed that under his
opponents, Zimbabwe would
"go back to white people, to the
British."
Many Zimbabweans no doubt wish this were true. Since
independence in 1980,
the annual income of the average Zimbabwean has fallen
from $1,200 to under
$500. Unemployment is currently as high as 80%, and
inflation is well over
120,000%. Mr. Mugabe's land reforms, corruption and
flights of
central-planning fantasy are the reason, but the President has
instead
blamed his problems on foreign (especially British)
conspirators.
As clownish as Mr. Mugabe's threats are, the joke is very
much on the world
community. For all our moralizing, he will never be forced
from office so
long as cowardly international organizations refuse to act
against him. And
Zimbabwe will never be able to recover so long as the
international
community timidly leaves Mr. Mugabe in power.
Time
Tuesday, Apr. 22, 2008 By MEGAN
LINDOW
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe appears increasingly
unlikely to allow
the election he appears to have lost to end his 28-year
tenure. Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission officials on Sunday announced a new
delay in the
recounting of votes from 23 of the 210 constituencies in an
election held
three weeks ago. Opposition leaders believe the results are
being rigged to
deny them victory, but the growing campaign of violent
intimidation against
opposition supporters makes it unlikely that the
opposition would take
matters to the streets. So the search for a resolution
to the crisis has
increasingly shifted the spotlight to the landlocked
country's neighbors,
and the extent to which they might pressure Mugabe to
respect the
electorate's verdict.
Opposition presidential candidate
Morgan Tsvangirai has fled the country,
while 10 opposition activists have
been killed and hundreds more injured in
post-election violence — and
refugees continue to stream across the border
into South Africa. Despite
growing calls from around the region and the
world for the immediate release
of the election results, Mugabe appears
unmoved. Last Friday he celebrated
the 28th anniversary of Zimbabwean
independence by aiming his wrath against
Britain, the former colonial power,
whose bidding he accuses the opposition
of doing. "Down with thieves who
want to steal our country," he thundered,
in his first speech since the
elections, calling on Zimbabweans to be
vigilant "in the face of vicious
British machinations and the machinations
of our other detractors, who are
the allies of Britain."
While Britain
bluntly accuses Mugabe of "stealing" the election, reactions
from African
leaders have been more restrained. On Sunday the African Union
joined the
chorus of calls for the immediate release of poll results. Former
United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan also weighed in, calling on
African
leaders to find a solution to the situation, which he called "a
serious
crisis with impact beyond Zimbabwe." But leaders of the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) kept noticeably quiet on Zimbabwe at a
summit
on poverty and development being held in Mauritius — except to ask
South
African President Thabo Mbeki to continue to lead mediation efforts on
their
behalf.
South Africa is the neighbor with the most leverage over Zimbabwe
because of
economic ties, but President Mbeki has stuck fast to his policy
of "quiet
diplomacy," refusing to apply visible pressure on Mugabe. Still,
Mbeki's
political marginalization within his own party, which made him a
lame duck
when it chose his arch-rival Jacob Zuma as ANC president last
December, has
emboldened critics of his Zimbabwe policy. Trade union members
in the South
African port of Durban refused to offload a Chinese ship
carrying armaments
for the Zimbabwean government. The vessel, having also
been denied entry to
Mozambique and Tanzania, had to leave the port and may
be recalled to China,
according to news agencies. And Zambia's President
Levy Mwanawasa took the
unprecedented step of urging surrounding countries
not to allow the cargo of
weapons to reach Zimbabwe for fear of escalating
the crisis.
Analysts believe that only Zimbabwe's neighbors, particularly
South Africa,
have the leverage to force Mugabe to resolve the crisis. But
Zimbabwe's
neighbors are divided among themselves over how to respond, and
all are wary
of an anarchic breakdown that brings thousands more refugees
streaming
across the border. Although Mugabe has long traded on his
credentials as an
anti-imperialist liberation hero, younger leaders in the
region are
exasperated by Mugabe's behavior. On Friday, Botswana's foreign
minister,
Phandu Skelemani, broke ranks with his SADC peers to publicly
criticize
Mbeki's handling of the crisis and admit that leaders are more
concerned
about the situation than is reflected in their public
statements.
Referring to the extraordinary SADC summit called the
previous weekend to
discuss Zimbabwe, he said: "Everyone agreed that things
are not normal,
except Mbeki... But now he understands that the rest of SADC
feels this is a
matter of urgency and we are risking lives and limbs being
lost. He got that
message clearly." Still, Mugabe can count on a more
sympathetic hearing from
such liberation-era stalwarts as Angola's President
Eduardo Dos Santos.
Although Mugabe may be vulnerable to pressure from
his neighbors, analysts
doubt that member states of the SADC will agree on
any decisive action that
could force him to go. South Africa's President
Thabo Mbeki and other
leaders have previously given Mugabe political cover
by endorsing the
results of previous elections that have looked questionable
to international
observers. "The one thing Mugabe has been able to do is
rely on the support
of the region," says Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, national
director of the South
African Institute for International Affairs. "So, the
question is, at what
point do Mugabe and the [Zimbabwean] security forces
think that the tide has
changed?"
South Africa holds the ultimate
leverage over Zimbabwe, because, as the
country's electricity supplier, it
could simply turn out the lights. But
shutting down Zimbabwe would be
considerably more painful for Mugabe's
long-suffering people than for the
aging autocrat himself, and the resulting
refugee crisis would put a
destabilizing strain on both South Africa and
other neighbors. Yet Chris
Maroleng, a Zimbabwe expert at the Institute for
Security Studies in
Pretoria, expects that regional leaders will toughen
their stance in time.
"Following the recount [of votes in Zimbabwe], we will
probably see some
kind of cohesive strategy to deal with Zimbabwe," he says.
"As the situation
worsens in Zimbabwe, [regional leaders] will increasingly
see Mugabe as a
liability." That, and the precarious state of Zimbabwe's
finances, may yet
change the country's political calculus.
06:35 GMT,
Wednesday, 23 April 2008 07:35 UK
| The leader of South Africa's governing ANC, Jacob Zuma, is in London for talks with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown expected to centre on Zimbabwe. Ahead of their meeting, Mr Zuma said the delay in publishing election results in Zimbabwe was unacceptable. He also urged leaders of African countries to do more to break the political deadlock in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's electoral commission has still not issued the results of the March's presidential election. The opposition MDC says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the poll outright and it accuses supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF of voter intimidation and beatings ahead of an expected second round. On Tuesday, church leaders in Zimbabwe called for international action to prevent post-election violence developing into genocidal proportions. On arrival in London, Mr Zuma denounced the violence and called for the speedy release of election results. But, in a BBC interview, he insisted South African President Thabo Mbeki's mediation efforts had done more to help the situation than Western countries' sanctions. Reluctance Mr Mbeki has previously faced accusations of taking too soft a line with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. ZIMBABWE'S NEIGHBOURSMr Zuma also refused in the interview to lay any blame for the crisis on President Mugabe. His reluctance to speak out while in London is perhaps understandable, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, as it is British hostility which Mr Mugabe claims is the root cause of the problem. Post-election violence in Zimbabwe has displaced 3,000 people, injured 500 and left 10 dead, according to MDC secretary general Tendai Biti. Human rights groups say they have found camps where people are being tortured for having voted "the wrong way". But Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa denies that anyone had died in political violence. Zuma calls for African mission to ZimThe Herald, Port Elizabeth Zimbabweans need our help nowThe Sowetan COSATU mobilises against illegal Zimbabwe regimeThe Zimbabwean Holomisa Calls for Mbeki to State Case On 'Crises'
Zimbabwe's church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocideIndependent, UK Zimbabwe’s Opposition Party Gets International SupportVOA Zimbabwe's opposition leader expected in MozambiqueYahoo News ‘Chinese’ tanks not going to ZimDispatch, SA |