World Condemnation Of Zimbabwe Grows
Zimbabwe plunged deeper into international isolation before a widely derided presidential runoff, as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stripped Robert Mugabe of his knighthood in the most high-profile rebuke to date of his regime of terror.
Nelson Mandela spoke Wednesday in London at his 90th birthday celebration and lamented "the tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe" - a stunning indictment of his old friend Mugabe, reports CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric.
President Bush said Friday's run-off elections "appear to be a sham," and a meeting of Southern African regional leaders normally strongly sympathetic to Mugabe said the runoff should be postponed.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Mugabe on Thursday against declaring victory in what she said would be an illegitimate run-off vote.
With the opposition boycotting Friday's election due to ruling party violence and intimidation, Rice said no outcome would be acceptable and that Mugabe must allow a legitimate government to take power.
"Clearly, no run-off election that doesn't have the participation of opposition... can be considered legitimate, no outcome can be considered legitimate," she said in Kyoto, where she was attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Tougher sanctions, sporting bans, even economic boycotts could be next - and world support may build for Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's pleas for U.N. peacekeepers.
Tsvangirai made the call for peacekeepers in a commentary published in British newspaper The Guardian Wednesday. Asked about that at a news conference later in Harare, Tsvangirai said: "What do you do when you don't have guns and the people are being brutalized out there?"
He stressed he was not calling for military intervention.
Deploying peacekeepers requires an international consensus that can be hard to build, and efforts can be blocked by governments expected to host contingents. South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad noted Wednesday that efforts to deploy an AU-UN peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur have been stalled.
The international community, though, has been considering, and taking, other actions on Zimbabwe.
The unusual move from Queen Elizabeth puts Mugabe in the company of the late Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu, who was stripped of his title in 1989 at the height of the Balkan nation's revolution. The queen acted on the advice of her Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has pointed to widespread violence and intimidation of the southern African country's opposition ahead of the presidential runoff in which Mugabe was the only candidate. Scores of opposition activists, including high-ranking party members, have been attacked or killed.
Mugabe was made an honorary knight in 1994, when he was considered an anti-colonial hero.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said sanctions against Zimbabwe are under review, but said Britain wanted to guard against hurting the population.
"We are mindful of the humanitarian impact on Zimbabwe, but we would not want to see anything that would prop up the regime in any way," Ellam told reporters on Wednesday.
European Union leaders last week threatened Zimbabwe with more, unspecified sanctions. Brown said then that could include more targeted sanctions against members of Mugabe's regime.
European Union nations already have in place an arms embargo against Zimbabwe, in addition to a suspension of development aid and an assets freeze and travel ban against Mugabe and more than 100 other top government officials.
The England and Wales Cricket Board on Wednesday severed all bilateral ties with Zimbabwe's cricket authorities after Brown insisted Zimbabwe's team should be banned from entering the country. Earlier, Cricket South Africa imposed sporting sanctions on Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, there are increasing calls to try to force South African President Thabo Mbeki to take a tougher stand on Zimbabwe. Some ask whether a country seen as appeasing a dictator should be hosting the 2010 soccer World Cup. South Africa could face a public relations disaster similar to the criticism China has faced over Tibet as it prepares to host the Olympics.
Companies with Zimbabwe links are under pressure. After British media raised questions about its mining interests in the southern African country, Britain's Anglo American issued a statement Wednesday expressing "deep concern" about Zimbabwe and condemning violence there.
In a measure of the continuing tension, opposition leader Tsvangirai returned to the Dutch Embassy in Harare following a news conference Wednesday. Tsvangirai first fled to the embassy on Sunday following his announcement he was withdrawing from the runoff. He sought refuge after getting a tip that soldiers were headed to his home.
At Wednesday's news conference, Tsvangirai, seen at left, called on African leaders to guide negotiations to end the crisis. The goal of the talks would be to form a coalition transitional authority in Zimbabwe.
He said discussions could not begin until there was an end to attacks on his supporters. Tsvangirai also wants a release of "political prisoners," including the MDC's No. 2 official Tendai Biti, who has been jailed since earlier this month on treason charges that can carry the death penalty.
Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga reacted with derision: "Is he out of his mind?"
Matonga said the government and Mugabe's ZANU-PF were focused on the election. Tsvangirai was to be on the ballot, electoral officials said Wednesday, saying his withdrawal came too late to be valid.
"There will definitely be elections on Friday," Matonga said.
Tsvangirai said he was asking the African Union, whose heads of state hold a regular summit in Egypt next week, to take over mediation, which so far has been in the hands of South African President Thabo Mbeki and a southern African regional group.
Tsvangirai had previously called on Mbeki to step aside, accusing him of bias in Mugabe's favor and saying his "quiet diplomacy" was not working. Mbeki has refused to publicly denounce Mugabe - Friday, South African government spokesman Themba Maseko once again refused to refer to Zimbabwe as being in "crisis."
Regional heads of state, meanwhile, met in Swaziland in hopes of finding a solution for Zimbabwe. Their meeting ended with a call for the runoff to be postponed until conditions permitted a free and fair vote.