SONIA DELESALLE, London | Friday 9.00am.
SOUTH African and Britain called for a full-scale mobilisation of monitors to ensure troubled Zimbabwe’s crucial upcoming elections are free and fair.
But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned that no Britons would be allowed into the country to observe the June 24-25 parliamentary polls.
The crisis in the former British colony dominated a full day of talks in London on here Thursday between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Thabo Mbeki, who earlier in the day was also granted an audience with Queen Elizabeth II.
The two countries, both deeply affected by the alarming developments in Zimbabwe, have not seen eye to eye on how best to resolve the violence which was touched off when landless Mugabe supporters started seizing white-owned farmland.
But Blair and Mbeki presented a united front on Thursday, urging a halt to the land-grab crisis and calling for a major effort to ensure next month’s legislative vote is free and fair.
“It is necessary to send as many observers as possible, as early as possible,” Mbeki said, adding that the main aim was that “all of this violence must come to an end.
“We have to do whatever it takes to ensure that the elections are free and fair and are seen to be acceptable by everybody,” he said.
Blair concurred, saying he and his guest had “agreed on the importance of those elections to be free and fair.”
They both agreed that “any initiative by the United Nations or secretary-general Kofi Annan would be very welcome,” Blair said.
Britain and South Africa are directly affected by the Zimbabwe crisis, Britain through its former colonial links with the country and South Africa due to its economic ties with its northern neighbour.
But while London has strongly criticised Mugabe, Mbeki has adopted a softly-softly approach arguing that forceful public condemnation of the Zimbabwean president’s tactics would prove counter-productive.
Mbeki has also called on Britain to release a promised 36-million ($54-million) to finance land reform, but London is holding back the cash until Mugabe brings an end to the violence that has left at least 21 people dead, most of them opposition supporters.
Mbeki was due to leave Britain on Saturday for a five-day tour of the United States. — AFP