Still hope for negotiation in Zim: Mbeki
Bathandwa Mbola
23 June 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki remains hopeful that Zimbabwe's political leaders can still work together to find solutions to their country's challenges.
This despite Sunday's announcement by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), that his party will no longer participate in the presidential run-off election scheduled for 27 June.
"I would hope that the leadership would still be open for a process which would result in them coming to some agreement about what happens to their country," Mbeki, the Southern African Development Community's (SADC's) appointed mediator in Zimbabwe, told journalists in Nelspruit on Sunday.
Mediators and observers from both the SADC and the United Nations (UN) are on the ground trying to find solutions to the political violence that has erupted in different parts of Zimbabwe, with recent media reports indicating that scores of families are being evicted from their homes for allegedly backing the MDC.
UN voices concern
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the political impasse in Zimbabwe, calling Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the election a "deeply distressing" development that does not bode well for democracy in Zimbabwe.
"The secretary-general deeply regrets that, despite the repeated appeals of the international community, the government of Zimbabwe has failed to put in place the conditions necessary for free and fair run-off elections," reads a statement issued by Ban's spokesperson on Sunday.
"The campaign of violence and intimidation that has marred this election has done a great disservice to the people of the country and must end immediately."
Zimbabwe has been beset by political violence since the first round of the presidential election on 29 March. Ban has been calling for an end to the hostilities, cautioning that the ongoing violence threatened the credibility of the 27 June run-off, in which Tsvangirai was set to face Robert Mugabe.
Ban said the UN stands ready to work "urgently" with the SADC and the African Union to help resolve the political impasse.
UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs Haile Menkerios, who was sent to Zimbabwe last week in an attempt to reduce political tensions ahead of the run-off, remains in the region to assist.
Source: BuaNews
