/ 13 June 2008

White House calls for UN to take up Zim situation

The White House urged the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to take up immediate consideration of the situation in Zimbabwe after reports of ”state-sponsored violence” and political arrests there.

”We believe the time has come for the United Nations Security Council to take up immediately the issue to prevent further deterioration of the region’s humanitarian and security situation,” White House spokesperson Dana Perino said in a statement issued in Rome where President George Bush was visiting.

A senior UN official is scheduled to visit Zimbabwe next week to discuss the political situation and the presidential election run-off on June 27 between longtime President Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Zimbabwe opposition party’s secretary general, Tendai Biti, was taken into custody at the airport on Thursday after he flew to Zimbabwe from South Africa to help Tsvangirai’s election campaign. Police said Biti would be charged with treason and could face the death penalty.

Perino said the United States was ”deeply troubled” by the arrest.

”The continued use of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe and the regime’s actions, including unwarranted arrests of opposition figures,” were signs that international calls to end intimidation tactics had been rejected, she said.

The Security Council heard a briefing on Thursday on Zimbabwe from UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes, although US ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters that council members were divided on whether they should take up the issue on a political level.

”A number of colleagues called for an open debate on the situation [in Zimbabwe] but a number of other colleagues expressed opposition to it,” Khalilzad told reporters on behalf of the council, of which he is the current president.

Speaking as US envoy, Khalilzad said he hoped UN assistant secretary general for political affairs Haile Menkerios would brief the council when he returns from Zimbabwe after his five-day visit, which ends on June 20. The council was divided on that as well.

Diplomats said South Africa opposed council involvement and was receiving support from China and Russia. – Reuters