UN: Fair Zimbabwe poll impossible

Cites violence, restrictions on opposition

Residents in Zimbabwe lined up to buy bread yesterday near a campaign poster of President Robert Mugabe. (Getty Images)

UNITED NATIONS - With Zimbabwe's opposition under siege and its leader taking refuge at the Dutch Embassy, the Security Council yesterday issued its first sweeping condemnation of the violence gripping the nation, saying it would be "impossible for a free and fair election to take place."

Zimbabwe has been reeling from a widening campaign of violence and intimidation ever since Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president for nearly 30 years, came in second in the initial round of voting on March 29. On Sunday, five days before a runoff, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition standard-bearer, pulled out of the race, citing the extensive violence against his supporters.

Taking its first action on the crisis, the long-divided Security Council issued a statement calling on the government of Zimbabwe to allow opposition rallies, which had been routinely blocked or canceled, and to free political prisoners.

"The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on 27 June," said the statement.

Earlier in the day, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, condemned the violence seizing the impoverished nation and took the unusual step of calling for the runoff to be postponed, saying a vote under the current conditions "would lack all legitimacy."

"It will only deepen divisions within the country and produce a result that cannot be credible," Ban said of the runoff, adding that he had spoken with "a number of African leaders" and found a consensus that it would be wrong to proceed with one. "There has been too much violence, too much intimidation," he said.

As if to underscore the point, Tsvangirai, who has survived three assassination attempts, sought safety, though not political asylum, at the Dutch Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, on Sunday evening and remained there yesterday, Dutch officials said.

Tsvangirai's closest aide, George Sibotshiwe, fled the country in fear for his life yesterday, and the police raided the opposition party headquarters, rounding up dozens of people, including women, children, and those injured in the recent political violence. Sibotshiwe arrived in Johannesburg, and in an interview shortly afterward, he said he saw four men armed with pistols approaching the front door of his safe house on Sunday morning and narrowly escaped capture.

The statement from the Security Council went through several drafts before it won the required unanimous acceptance of all 15 members. Britain led an effort, dominated by the West, to include the toughest language, while South Africa and allies including China and Russia pushed to dilute it somewhat.

Mugabe, however, has shown disdain for international criticism, so it remained unclear whether the Security Council's statement would carry more weight in prompting his government to relax its oppressive measures than any previous condemnations from foreign leaders.

Boniface G. Chidyausiku, the UN ambassador from Zimbabwe, said that neither the statement from the Security Council nor the call by Ban to postpone the vote would affect the timing of the elections.

"The Security Council cannot micromanage elections in any particular country," Chidyausiku told reporters. "As far as we are concerned, the date has been set."

He accused Britain and its allies of pushing for "regime change" and said Tsvangirai's decision to drop out of the election was a ploy to attract international sympathy. He also said the opposition in Zimbabwe was exaggerating the violence.

Tsvangirai told a South African radio station that his party was prepared to negotiate with ZANU-PF, Mugabe's governing party, but said that first the violence must stop.