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2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Zimbabwe
is infecting the region, Miliband says
Christopher
Munnion, The Telegraph
July 07, 2008
View article
on the Telegraph website
The crisis in Zimbabwe
was "infecting the whole of southern Africa" and it was
now "imperative" that there was a legitimate government
in that country, David Miliband said.
In his first visit to
the region, the Foreign Secretary was speaking after visiting refugees
from Zimbabwe in central Johannesburg.
He said he had seen the
"human face" of the catastrophe in Zimbabwe during his
tour of the Central Methodist Church, having met many orphans among
those fleeing the country.
Around 2,000 Zimbabweans,
double the usual number at any one time, were sheltering in the
church's hallways, stairwells and storerooms during the tour. Many
had fled beatings and pre-election violence that has seen more than
100 opponents of the Mugabe regime killed.
"No one who meets
the people here could do anything other than redouble their efforts
to secure international consensus that the Mugabe regime is not
a legitimate representation of the will of the people of Zimbabwe,"
he said. "At the heart of President Mugabe's rhetoric is the
idea that this is a fight between Zimbabwe and Britain. It is not.
"It is a fight between
two different visions for the future of Zimbabwe, one of which has
the support of the Zimbabwean people and the other which is held
together by a small clique that holds power on the basis of violence
and intimidation today."
Mr. Miliband will meet
his South African counterpart, Nkosazan Dlamini Zuma, tomorrow (TUES)
to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe.
The Foreign Minister
said the international community, including South Africa, had to
rally behind touch new UN Security Council resolutions in New York
next week to target individuals within the Mugabe regime.
President Thabo Mbeki,
supposedly the mediator on behalf of the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) in Zimbabwe, has come under increasingly harsh
criticism in recent week for his seeming support of the Mugabe regime.
Mr. Mbeki flew to Harare
on Saturday in an attempt to persuade Mr. Mugabe to form a government
of national unity. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), refused to meet the South African leader.
Mr. Tsvangirai said that
if he met Mr. Mbeki it would imply his party's recognition of Mr.
Mugabe as president following his controversial and disputed re-election.
Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail
newspaper, a government mouthpiece, quoted Mr. Mugabe as calling
Mr. Tsvangirai's refusal to meet "a show of utter disrespect."
Leaders of the
G8 group of nations, meanwhile, were expected to "strongly
condemn" Mr. Mugabe in their final statement
of a three-day summit in Japan, the White House said.
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