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Zimbabwe vote cannot be fair, say African ministers
Reuters
June 19, 2008

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1908471220080619?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Harare - Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election on June 27 is very unlikely to be free and fair, African nations said, and the United States called for a tougher international response to worsening pre-poll violence. Zimbabwe's MDC opposition party said four of its youth members were found dead on Thursday after being abducted by government agents, bringing to at least 70 the number of its supporters killed since March elections. The MDC, human rights groups and Western nations say the bloodshed is part of an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the opposition and extend President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule in the once prosperous country, whose economy is in ruins. He faces MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in next week's vote. "There is every sign that these elections will never be free nor fair," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told a news conference. He spoke in Tanzania on behalf of a troika of nations from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) responsible for peace and security matters. Tanzania is also chairman of the African Union.

Membe said he and the foreign ministers of Swaziland and Angola would write to their presidents "so that they do something urgently so that we can save Zimbabwe." African neighbors of Zimbabwe fear the repercussions of meltdown there. Hyperinflation and economic collapse has already driven millions of Zimbabwean migrants into their countries. SADC is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote, in which Mugabe faces the biggest challenge to his rule. Tsvangirai won the first round but without the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off, according to official results. There is growing international pressure ahead of the poll. "I appeal to the Zimbabwean government to admit international rights observers as well as the UN human rights envoy, so that we can be satisfied that any elections that take place, if they are to be legitimate, can be free and fair," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in Paris.

The United States joined calls for a tougher stand. "By its actions, the Mugabe regime has given up any pretense that the June 27 elections will be allowed to proceed in a free and fair manner," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. She added it was time for "broader, stronger international action." Rice accused Mugabe of taking a country once considered the jewel of Africa and "turning it into a failed state that threatens not only the lives of Zimbabweans but the security and stability of all southern Africa." Membe said the African ministers' expectations for the poll were based on evidence from 211 observers already inside the country. Some of the observers saw two people shot dead in front of them on June 17, Membe said, without giving details. The MDC said the bodies of four youths found at Chitungwiza on Thursday indicated they had been "heavily tortured." It accused Mugabe's Zanu PF and state security of abducting them on Wednesday. Mugabe has blamed violence on the opposition.

Amnesty International said that 12 bodies had been found in Zimbabwe and that most bore the signs of torture. The rights group added that it had received information that soldiers were threatening villagers and instructing them to vote for Mugabe. A senior Western diplomat in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bloodshed was spreading. "It's time really that we moved beyond calling this a campaign of violence. This is terror, plain and simple. This is a terror campaign that the Joint Operations Command has launched weeks ago," the diplomat said. He added that militias backing Mugabe's Zanu PF party were now active in the capital Harare. "The atmosphere is violent. The violence is not abating; indeed it is spreading to areas where it has not historically spread before." Tsvangirai, repeatedly detained during the campaign, told Reuters Television on Thursday that drawn-out court proceedings against MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti were also designed to hamper his effort to win votes.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who met both leaders separately on Wednesday, has urged Mugabe to cancel the run-off and negotiate a national unity government with Tsvangirai, South Africa's Business Day newspaper said on Thursday. The South African leader, criticized for his quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe, did not comment after the talks. Tanzania's Membe said both sides had indicated they would not accept defeat and he expected more trouble after the vote. "As Tanzania, we have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence. We have told our observers not to be threatened, that they do their work without fear. People of Zimbabwe are hurting and it pains us," Membe said. Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula condemned what he described as "roadblocks" being placed in front of the MDC campaign and urged Mugabe's government to hold a fair election. "Anything less is an affront to the evolving democratic culture in Africa and unacceptable to all people in Africa," Wetang'ula said in a statement.

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