London
24 June 2008
Britain's call for unified global action on Zimbabwe and Monday's U.N.Security Council condemnation of the government of President RobertMugabe are part of a growing international outcry against the politicalcrisis and violence in the southern African nation. However, as TendaiMaphosa reports from London, it is still not clear how the worldintends to move beyond condemnation.
The unanimous U.N. Security Council statement against Mr. Mugabe and his government is viewed as a victory by Britain.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's condemnation has become increasingly harsh. He spoke before the House of Commons on Monday.
"Ithink the whole world now sees the regime for what it is, the consensusin this House is that what has happened is intolerable, we want animmediate end to violence because the loss of life is unacceptable," hesaid.
There is a growing international consensus that something must be done to resolve the election-related violence in Zimbabwe.
Thepolitical crisis has been brewing for months, especially during theelection campaign prior to the March 29 balloting. The opposition,Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, won a majority in parliament,but its leader Morgan Tsvangirai could not score a decisive enoughvictory against incumbent Robert Mugabe in the presidential vote. Arunoff is scheduled for Friday, but Tsvangirai has pulled out becauseof the violent repression of the opposition and its supporters.
Theinternational community has already taken some action by imposingsanctions and a travel ban on Mr. Mugabe's inner circle. On MondayPrime Minister Brown vowed Britain would push for tightening andexpanding those sanctions.
Speaking with VOA, former ministerfor Africa and prominent anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain saidactions must follow words and the world must show Mr. Mugabe it meansbusiness.
"The international community must follow up its finewords from the United Nations Security Council and also from otherworld leaders and actually implement action and that action mustinvolve stronger sanctions against Mugabe and his elite," he said. "Andthen for South Africa to pull the plug on the electricity supplies sothat the regime then is without the power that they need to continue toenforce their tyranny."
Hain added that African leaders mustalso play their part by distancing themselves from Mr. Mugabe, whom hedescribed as a dictator.
Some British news reports have gone astep further - mentioning a military option. A report in Monday's Timesdaily newspaper says the Ministry of Defense has two contingency plansfor military action in Zimbabwe - one for a possible deployment oftroops to resolve a humanitarian crisis, the other to provide militarysupport if a national evacuation for British residents in the countryis ordered. The report says, however, the Ministry insists thatintervention is not "a plausible course".
In a separate report,the Times quotes Paddy Ashdown, the former European UnionRepresentative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as saying that militaryaction would be justified. Speaking on British radio, Ashdown howevertook exception with the report.
"I said that I thought thatthe conditions for a military intervention were not in place, secondlyI said I didn't think they would be in place until there was a cleargenocide of the sort that happened in Rwanda taking place," he said."Thirdly if any such intervention were in the future to happen it wouldbe up to the African nations to lead that and Britain would not have arole in the process, except to provide moral support for something thatis backed by the Security Council."
Military intervention is nota viable option, says Knox Chitiyo a Zimbabwean who heads the AfricaProgram at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and SecurityStudies in London.
"There's no global agreement that a: thereshould be military intervention in Zimbabwe and b: if there was to bewho would the lead actors be and certainly the African countries havenot bought into of the military intervention," he said. "I thinkAfrica is looking more at some sort of negotiation between the twoparties."
Chitiyo says, however, that the situation in Zimbabweis of grave concern and some cohesive plan to resolve the crisis isneeded.
Expressions of concern about events in Zimbabwe camefrom an unlikely source on Tuesday. A Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman called on the relevant parties in Zimbabwe to resolve theirproblems through dialogue. China is a leading trading partner ofZimbabwe and has blocked previous attempts to censure the Mugabegovernment at the United Nations.
At the same time, the leaderof South Africa's ruling party Jacob Zuma said Tuesday that thesituation in Zimbabwe has gone out of control and the United Nationsand the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, should dosomething about it.