Mbeki leads Mugabe defence at UN
South Africa led efforts to block the dispatch of a UN envoy to Zimbabwe yesterday as the UN Security Council met on the election stand-off for the first time.
Diplomats said that South African opposition to a UN mission meant that the next step would probably be a public meeting of the 15-nation Security Council on Zimbabwe under Britain’s presidency in May.
Britain and other Western nations have been pushing for a greater UN role in resolving the month-old election crisis, since Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, raised it at a UN summit on Africa this month.
The Security Council held a closed-door session in New York yesterday after Britain succeeded in pushing Zimbabwe on to its agenda under “other business”. Britain, backed by the US, France and other Western nations, called for the sending of a UN envoy and a moratorium on arms sales to Zimbabwe.
A Zimbabwe opposition leader urged the UN Security Council to appoint a special envoy to demonstrate international support to resolve the worsening crisis in the country following last month's elections. But the deeply divided council took no action.
The council president said it is up to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to decide whether to dispatch an envoy or fact-finding mission, and the UN political chief said Ban has not decided if it is necessary.
While the United States, Britain and France back council engagement and sending a UN envoy to Zimbabwe, diplomats said South Africa, Russia, China and other members oppose any action now.
The stand-off was frustrating for Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, who flew to New York hoping to address the UN's most powerful body, with the results of Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election still in limbo.
But the council heard a briefing on the situation in Zimbabwe behind closed doors from UN political chief B Lynn Pascoe, with no outsiders allowed, so Biti was left scrambling for appointments with the 15 council members. The United States helped out late on Tuesday, organising a meeting at its mission and inviting many council members, diplomats said.
Biti called the current situation "desperate" and said it was time for international action to help Zimbabwe, which he said has become "a war zone".
He accused President Robert Mugabe of allowing "the complete militarisation of the society" and unleashing "systematic violence" against the people which has killed at least 18 people, and probably 50, since the elections.
Many world leaders have expressed dismay that Zimbabwean electoral officials have yet to say whether Mugabe or opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential election.
Independent observers say that Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change, defeated Mugabe, but did not secure an outright majority necessary to avoid a run-off. Tsvangirai insists he did. Mugabe has stayed silent.
"We would like the international community to intervene before dead rivers start floating" with bodies, Biti said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
"It is unacceptable, the abuse of human rights, the killings that are going on at the present moment. It is unacceptable, the use of food as a weapon and the deliberate starvation of our people. And again it is unacceptable, the deliberate assault on democracy that is taking place in Zimbabwe."
South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating the Zimbabwe crisis on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), using "quiet diplomacy" that has been criticised in many quarters but backed by many council members.
Biti said SADC has been dealing with the issue of Zimbabwe for 10 years, and "if anything it has got worse". SADC is now "in a paralysis of action", and its members are defending the status quo, with the exception of Zambia and Botswana, he said.
"Mugabe is too wily an old fox and basically treats those leaders as small boys," Biti said. "So ... it is critical that we internationalise this issue."
But Pascoe, who briefed the Security Council, said SADC and the African Union are in "the lead" on Zimbabwe, a view backed by virtually all Security Council members.
He said he told the council at the closed briefing: "For our part, the Secretary-General is ready to use his good offices in conjunction with the AU or SADC to help resolve the issue." But he said Ban has not decided whether to send an envoy or fact-finding mission.
Biti countered that only international action will help Zimbabwe now.
He said that "sending an envoy would indicate to everyone and to Zimbabweans that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe".
Britain's deputy UN ambassador Karen Pierce said Pascoe had spoken of "a level of political intimidation and violence that I think many council members found quite chilling".
US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said he was struck by Pascoe's characterisation of the situation in Zimbabwe "as the worst humanitarian crisis since independence".
Asked whether he believes the council could agree even on stepping up humanitarian aid, Wolff said: "Actually, I'm not sure the council could agree on that either." Diplomats said South Africa, Russia, China and other members oppose any action now.
Reacting to Wolff's assessment, Biti said: "It is as tragic as it is disappointing."
"We find that there are certain people and certain countries that have decided to play pingpong with our people," Biti said. "There is a humanitarian crisis. People are dying, and more importantly, there is an obvious - such an obvious and embarrassing subversion of democracy."
South Africa's UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, said "it's true that in the Security Council, the only thing that the members seemed to agree with is that SADC should work with the Zimbabweans, especially their independent Electoral Commission, to make sure the results are coming out" of the presidential election.
Beyond that, he said, "there was no agreement" on what to do next. SAPA