Zimbabwe’s run-off presidential election on June 27 is very unlikely to be free and fair, a group of Southern African ministers said on Thursday, in the strongest regional condemnation yet of pre-poll violence.
President Robert Mugabe is accused by opponents, Western countries and human rights groups of orchestrating a campaign of killings and intimidation to keep his hold on the once prosperous country, its economy now in ruins.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said four youths were found dead on Thursday after being abducted the day before, bringing to at least 70 the number of party supporters it says have been killed.
”There is every sign that these elections will never be free or 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 the current chair 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”.
SADC is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote, in which Mugabe faces the biggest challenge to his 28-year rule. Tsvangirai won the first round but without the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off, according to official results.
The United States has joined calls on African leaders to take a tougher stand on Zimbabwe. Its neighbours also fear the possible impact of total meltdown there. Economic collapse has driven millions of Zimbabweans into their countries.
Shot dead
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 the violence on the opposition.
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.
”We spend time here, a lot of time which is unnecessary to attend to the court proceedings and therefore it affects our campaigning,” he said at the Harare High Court, where Biti was to appear on treason charges that could carry a death penalty.
Mbeki mediation
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, Business Day said on Thursday.
The South African leader, under criticism for his quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe, did not comment after the talks.
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.
The MDC praised regional countries who were criticising Mugabe and urged other African leaders to follow suit. – Reuters