Undeterred by Criticism, Mugabe Joins Peers at African Union Meeting

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, center, was escorted past journalists by his security detail in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. (European Pressphoto Agency)
SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt: July 1st. (NY Times) — Unabashed by critics and challenging his peers to prove their own democratic credentials, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe went to an African Union meeting here on Monday, displaying his victory in a one-candidate election that his neighbors said did not “represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe.” The trip, his first formal act after being inaugurated Sunday to a sixth term, showed his determination to take his seat among African leaders despite international criticism. The rebukes included a pronouncement from southern African election monitors that last Friday’s presidential runoff was not free, fair or credible. The African Union’s own election observers concluded Monday that the vote “fell short” of the organization’s standards. But African leaders showed little appetite for public confrontation with Mr. Mugabe. Mr. Mugabe, 84, once hailed as a liberation hero, slumped in an armchair in a cavernous conference hall at this Red Sea resort, using a headset to follow speeches that, in part, demanded negotiations to end his absolute power.

Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary general, told the African leaders here that they had reached a “moment of truth. We are facing an extremely grave crisis,” Ms. Migiro said. “This is the single greatest challenge to regional stability in southern Africa, not only because of its terrible humanitarian and security consequences, but because of the dangerous political precedent it sets. Only dialogue between the Zimbabwean parties, supported by the African Union and other regional actors, can restore peace and stability to the country,” she said. That call for discussions was echoed in South Africa, the main regional power broker. Its Foreign Ministry urged Mr. Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to “enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges.” According to the official tally of Friday’s election, Mr. Mugabe won some 85 percent of the ballot. But his opponent, Mr. Tsvangirai, pulled out of the race days before the voting, citing widespread violence and intimidation. Mr. Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare five days before the election. Even in the closing stages of his campaign, Mr. Mugabe served notice that he “was prepared to face any of his African Union counterparts disparaging Zimbabwe’s electoral conduct because some of their countries had worse” election records, the state-run newspaper The Herald reported Monday.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, urged the meeting participants here to reject the results of the runoff and to appoint “up to three African envoys to work full time on the crisis until it is resolved.” At present, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is the sole mediator in the crisis. The statement repeated Mr. Tsvangirai’s claim that Mr. Mbeki was “too partial” toward Mr. Mugabe. One of the few African voices raised publicly against Mr. Mugabe on Monday was that of Raila Odinga, the prime minister of Kenya, where elections last December set off bloody confrontations until a power-sharing deal was brokered. Some have depicted that deal as a potential model for Zimbabwe. Speaking in Nairobi, Mr. Odinga urged the African Union to suspend Mr. Mugabe until new elections could be held.

Mr. Tsvangirai won 48 percent of the vote to Mr. Mugabe’s 43 percent in the first round of the presidential election on March 29. In parliamentary elections on the same day, the opposition party won control of the lower house. Each man wants any negotiations to be based on his own electoral arithmetic — Mr. Tsvangirai’s from March 29 and Mr. Mugabe’s from Friday. “Sooner or later, as diverse political parties, we shall start serious talks,” Mr. Mugabe said in a speech after his inauguration, The Associated Press reported. The African Union meeting was supposed to address developmental issues, but has come under the shadow of the Zimbabwean crisis. For Mr. Mugabe, his unchallenged presence among fellow African leaders offers what his aides depict as legitimacy.

Thokozani Khupe, the vice president of Mr. Tsvangirai’s political party, said in an interview here on Monday that the opposition wanted the establishment of a “transitional authority” based on the outcome of the March 29 vote, a formula that would give Mr. Tsvangirai the upper hand. “Zimbabwe is burning,” Ms. Khupe said. “It is on fire. It is important that the African leaders save it before it burns beyond recognition.” The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Monday that the United States might introduce a Security Council resolution this week to impose formal sanctions against members of the Mugabe government. Given that Mr. Mugabe flouted last week’s statement from the Council calling for an end to the violence surrounding the elections, the Council has to act in some manner, the ambassador said. “I’m pretty confident that the Council cannot remain silent on this issue,” Mr. Khalilzad told reporters. Although the 15-member Council passed a unanimous statement condemning the violence in Zimbabwe a week ago, an attempt to declare the runoff illegitimate on Friday sank after South Africa, one of the Council members, led the opposition to further criticism, saying Africans should resolve the issue. Mr. Khalilzad expressed confidence that the United States could muster the nine votes needed to push the sanctions through, but predicted that doing so would involve “tough” negotiations. “We are looking for focused sanctions on the regime itself,” he said. “Those who would oppose such action would have a lot to explain.”
By KENNEDY ABWAO and Alan Cowell
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