Diplomatic Row Over Zimbabwe Veto

Russia on Saturday attacked remarks by U.S. and British officials who criticized Moscow's veto on proposed U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement Saturday said it was "impermissible" that the criticism called into doubt Russia's worthiness as a Group of Eight partner.

The United States accused Russia and China of standing with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe against his own people, after the two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council vetoed proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The resolution would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, an international travel ban and a freeze on the personal assets of Mugabe and 13 other officials.

It also called for the appointment of a U.N. special envoy for Zimbabwe.

The U.S., along with Britain and France, supported the resolution, arguing that sanctions were needed to respond to the violence and intimidation that opposition leaders and international observers said Mugabe and his supporters used to steal the recent presidential election.

Russia, however, claimed the sanctions would have taken the U.N. beyond its mandate, while China argued Zimbabwe should be allowed to resolve its political crisis on its own.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's information minister hailed the failure of the resolution, calling the proposed sanctions an example of "international racism."

The BBC reports Sikhanyiso Ndlovu saying the resolution was designed to make the people of Zimbabwe suffer in order to incite a revolution, and accusing Britain of wanting to "divert attention by bringing unfounded allegations against Zimbabwe, against the people of Zimbabwe, trying to make the people of Zimbabwe suffer more with the economic sanctions... so that they can turn against their own government."

The vote in the Security Council: FOR: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, France, Italy, Panama, United Kingdom, United States. AGAINST: China, Libya, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam; ABSTAINED: Indonesia.

Astonishment Voiced Over Veto

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Russia had initially indicated it would abstain rather than veto.

"The U-turn in the Russian position is particularly surprising and disturbing," he said Friday. "Only a few days ago the Russian Federation was supportive of a G-8 statement which said, and I quote, 'We express grave concern about the situation in Zimbabwe.'"

"The Russian performance here today raises questions about its reliability as a G-8 partner," he said.

Russia said that was an "impermissible" interpretation because the G-8 powers agreed not to mention U.N. sanctions in the joint statement on Zimbabwe, albeit at Russia's behest.

"The American and British U.N. representatives in the best-case scenario are totally uninformed about the discussion of the G-8 leaders in Tokyo, and in the worst case they are deliberately distorting the facts," the statement said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband added that the vetoes "will appear incomprehensible to the people of Zimbabwe."

Khalilzad said, "China and Russia have stood with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe."

Russia says it believes the sanctions would set a dangerous precedent for U.N. Security Council meddling in internal affairs.

Permanent G-8 members Britain, France and the U.S, have pushed through nonbinding Security Council resolutions condemning election violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe.

South Africa, Russia and the other member with veto power, China, have opposed taking further action.

Despite the veto, Russia added that it condemns "the irregularities and acts of violence that have taken place, ... and for which both Zimbabwean authorities and the opposition are responsible."

New Focus On South Africa

The failure of the U.S. campaign for international sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders returns the focus to South African efforts to end the deadly political crisis and to questions about whether President Thabo Mbeki is the right mediator.

South Africa made the link itself during deliberations at the United Nations that ended Friday with Russia and China vetoing the U.S.-proposed sanctions.

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said meetings mediated by Mbeki were under way between Mugabe's party and its opposition. Kumalo pleaded with his colleagues on the Security Council to "give space" to that dialogue.

South African officials say the goal of the talks is forming an inclusive government in Zimbabwe. Both Mugabe and Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai say they are willing to share power, but they differ on who should lead.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF wants Mugabe at the head of any coalition government, something the opposition and Mugabe's critics in the West have rejected. Tsvangirai bases his claim to leadership on the first round of presidential voting, in which he beat Mugabe and two other candidates, but did not win the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff against second place finisher Mugabe.

Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the runoff because of a campaign of violence against his supporters, has accused Mbeki of bias in favor of Mugabe, and called for a second mediator to be brought in.

Nicole Fritz, head of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, an independent human rights group that has closely followed the Zimbabwean situation, worried that without the pressure of sanctions, Mbeki would be able to make little headway as mediator.

The failure of the sanctions resolution "buys Mbeki time," she said. "My sense is that buying Mbeki time is not going to do us any good."

In a statement Saturday welcoming the defeat of the resolution, South Africa said it believed "imposing sanctions would indeed have impacted negatively on the current dialogue process among Zimbabwean political parties."

The process is at a very preliminary stage - Tsvangirai argues it cannot even yet be labeled talks.

Tsvangirai is not alone in questioning Mbeki's mediation, which began more than a year ago at the request of the main regional body, the Southern African Development Community.

Mugabe, accused of a brutal crackdown on political dissent and ruining a once vibrant economy, has repeatedly praised Mbeki. That has not helped the South African leader's case among critics here and abroad who have likened Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" to appeasement of Mugabe.

During a visit to South Africa earlier this week, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called for another "high profile" African mediator to join Mbeki in trying to find a solution for Zimbabwe. Sirleaf is an admirer of Mbeki - she noted he had helped broker the agreement under which Liberian war lord Charles Taylor went into exile in 2003, opening the way for peace in her beleaguered country, and said she hoped he could do the same for Zimbabwe.

South Africa also has won praise as a mediator in Burundi, Ivory Coast and elsewhere on a troubled continent. But in Zimbabwe, Mbeki is accused of showing too much loyalty to Mugabe out of respect for the Zimbabwean leader's past as an anti-colonial hero, or out of shared skepticism about African trade union movements. Tsvangirai is a former labor leader, and South Africa's trade union movement has long presented a powerful challenge to Mbeki from the left when it comes to setting economic and other priorities here.

Mbeki "is now Mugabe's champion," said Tiseke Kasambala, a Zimbabwe specialist at Human Rights Watch who expressed frustration Saturday at the failure of the U.N. sanctions resolution. "He's no longer a neutral mediator."

Mbeki argues that confronting Mugabe could backfire. And his supporters have said he deserves credit for a first round of presidential voting, which was seen as relatively free and fair. Thanks to an agreement Mbeki helped broker, results of that first round were posted at individual polling stations, an innovation that made rigging difficult.

Now, Mugabe is staking his claim to rule on the victory in the June 27 unopposed runoff, which his state-run media lauded Saturday for its "crushing result and its permanence."