African leaders call for free Zim poll
18 June 2008
Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano is among 40 prominent African personalities who have signed an open letter calling for an end to the current political violence in Zimbabwe, and for a free and fair presidential run-off election.
The letter was published as a full-page advertisement in a number of newspapers on Friday, including the Financial Times of London and Business Day of South Africa, according to a report by Mozambican National News Agency, AIM.
According to the letter, the signatories were "deeply troubled" by the current reports of intimidation, harassment and violence and stated that it was vital that appropriate conditions were created so that the presidential run-off was conducted in a peaceful, free and fair manner.
''Only then can the political parties conduct their election campaigning in a way that enables the citizens to express freely their political will''.
The signatories called not only for an immediate end to violence but also for the restoration of full access for humanitarian aid agencies. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has shut down the operations of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), claiming they were getting involved in politics.
Former presidents, UN secretaries-general
Chissano's signing of this letter is of considerable significance, since in the past he has been close to Mugabe and was his best man when he married his second wife, Grace.
A second Mozambican signatory is Graca Machel, the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela and widow of Mozambique's first president, Samora Machel.
Other signatories include the two former United Nations Secretaries-General from Africa, Kofi Annan and Boutros Ghali, and Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Wangari Maathai of Kenya.
A total of 17 former heads of state and government signed the letter, several of them from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). They include former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, two former Tanzanian presidents, Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa, and two former presidents of Botswana, Quett Masire and Festus Mogae.
Other signatories include world-renowned Senegalese musician Youssou N'dour, and Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Mbeki expresses serious concern
South African President Thabo Mbeki expressed serious concern regarding the violence in Zimbabwe last Wednesday. Mbeki called on all parties involved to discontinue any action that could detract from the objective of having a free and fair run-off election.
"We will also continue to argue that the people of Zimbabwe will have to unite to extricate their country from the economic crisis in which it is immersed, and that we will contribute everything we can to support the realisation of this objective," Mbeki said in Parliament.
He said South Africa would continue to insist that the people of Zimbabwe be allowed to freely choose their leaders and government, and refuse to participate in projects based on the notion that other countries had the right to bring about "regime change" in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki has also dispatched senior South African retired generals to assess the situation in the country and report back to him.
Meanwhile, Botswana Foreign Minister Phandu Sekelemani has summoned the Zimbabwean ambassador in Gaborone, Thomas Mandigora, to warn him that Thursday's detention of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the arrest of MDC general secretary Tendai Biti on treason charges were "unacceptable".
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday that the arrest of the opposition leader needed to be address urgently.
Source: BuaNews-NNN
