President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe at an election rally in Banket on Tuesday. (European Pressphoto Agency)June 25th. (NY Times) - Despite an increasingly thunderous chorus of complaints that Zimbabwe's presidential runoff will be neither free nor fair, the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, rejected any outside diplomatic intervention in the matter on Tuesday, arguing that “any attempts by outside players to impose regime change will merely deepen the crisis.” The A.N.C. warned against international intervention a day after the UN Security Council took its first action on the electoral crisis in Zimbabwe, issuing a unanimous statement condemning the widespread campaign of violence in the country and calling on the government there to free political prisoners and allow the opposition to rally its supporters. But South Africa, the region’s powerhouse, is widely considered to play the pivotal role in bringing about change in neighboring Zimbabwe. And while the A.N.C. came out with an unusually strong condemnation of the Zimbabwean government on Tuesday, saying it was “riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights” of its people, the party also evoked Zimbabwe’s colonial history and insisted that outsiders had no role to play in ending its current anguish. “It has always been and continues to be the view of our movement that the challenges facing Zimbabwe can only be solved by the Zimbabweans themselves,” the statement said. “Nothing has happened in the recent months has persuaded us to revise that view.”
In what seemed a clear rebuke to the efforts of Western nations to take an aggressive stance against the Zimbabwean government, the A.N.C. included a lengthy criticism of the “arbitrary, capricious power” exerted by Africa’s former colonial masters and cited the subsequent struggle by African nations to grant newfound freedoms and rights. “No colonial power in Africa, least of all Britain in its colony of ‘Rhodesia’ ever demonstrated any respect for these principles,” the A.N.C. said, referring to Zimbabwe before its independence. Still, the statement’s blatant castigation of Zimbabwe’s government reflected the increasing frustration with the nation’s strongman president, Robert Mugabe. Amid the international outcry over his government’s handling of the crisis, Mr. Mugabe was reported Tuesday as hinting that he might be open to talks with the beleaguered opposition, but only after he won the election. His longtime rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from a runoff scheduled for Friday because of the widespread violence and intimidation facing his party and its supporters. Mr. Mugabe was quoted on Tuesday as insisting that the ballot would proceed as he has planned. But in a speech in western Zimbabwe, Reuters reported, Mr. Mugabe referred to comments by Mr. Tsvangirai offering talks if the violence ended. “He now says he wants to negotiate,” Mr. Mugabe was quoted as saying. “We say we won’t refuse to negotiate but for now there is only one thing for us to accomplish.” His remarks were the most explicit affirmation that he intends to go through with an election condemned as flawed and illegitimate from a growing roster of organizations, politicians and governments from the UN to South Africa. But the hint of readiness to talk was also the first indication that Mr. Mugabe might negotiate — as South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki has been urging him to — once he has secured what he could depict as a position of strength. Mr. Tsvangirai has been badly weakened by the widespread attacks on his top officials and foot soldiers alike, and has been taking refuge at the Dutch Embassy in the capital, Harare. On Tuesday, he said he would leave his temporary sanctuary there within 48 hours following moves by Dutch authorities to assure his safety.
The A.N.C. statement was not signed by any individual in the A.N.C. and seemed to represent a marked departure from Mr. Mbeki’s refusal to castigate Mr. Mugabe. The A.N.C statement was the first official response from South Africa since Mr. Tsvangirai’s withdrawal from Friday’s planned runoff and the Security Council’s conclusion late Monday that it would be “impossible for a free and fair election to take place” in Zimbabwe. The country, once one of Africa’s most prosperous, has been reeling from a widening campaign of violence and intimidation ever since Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president for nearly 30 years, came in second in the initial round of voting on March 29. In a radio interview on Tuesday, Mr. Tsvangirai said that the Security Council statement blamed the violence on Mr. Mugabe’s leadership. “I think it’s a very important resolution,” he told Dutch public broadcaster Radio 1. “It recognizes the people who are accountable for the violence, and it squarely placed that responsibility at Mugabe’s leadership. I am sure that he can no longer remain defiant to that international position.” Mr. Tsvangirai reiterated his decision to boycott the vote on Friday. “It’s ridiculous to go into an election of that kind,” he said. “It’s a one-man competition.” His spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, said Tuesday that Mr. Tsvangirai took refuge in the embassy after learning that soldiers were converging on his home, The Associated Press reported. “The moment you have soldiers coming your way, you just run for your life,” Mr. Sibotshiwe said. “The only way he can protect himself is to go to an embassy.” Dutch officials said Mr. Tsvangirai had not requested political asylum. Mr. Sibotshiwe, Mr. Tsvangirai’s closest aide, himself fled to South Africa on Monday as the police raided the opposition party headquarters, rounding up dozens of people, including women, children and those injured in recent political violence. Mr. Sibotshiwe arrived in Johannesburg, and in an interview shortly afterward said he saw four men armed with pistols approaching the door of his safe house on Sunday morning and only narrowly escaped capture.
On Monday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, sharply condemned the violence seizing the impoverished nation and took the unusual step of calling for the runoff to be postponed, saying a vote under the current conditions “would lack all legitimacy.” “It will only deepen divisions within the country and produce a result that cannot be credible,” Mr. Ban said of the runoff, adding that he had spoken with “a number of African leaders” and found a consensus that it would be wrong to proceed with the vote. “There has been too much violence, too much intimidation,” he said. The statement from the Security Council went through several drafts before it won the required unanimous acceptance of all 15 members. Britain led an effort, dominated by the West, to include the toughest language, while South Africa and allies including China and Russia pushed to dilute it somewhat.
Mr. Mugabe, however, has shown disdain for international criticism, so it remained unclear whether the Security Council’s statement would carry more weight in prompting his government to relax its oppressive measures than any previous condemnations from foreign leaders. Boniface G. Chidyausiku, the United Nations ambassador from Zimbabwe, said that neither the statement from the Council nor the call by Mr. Ban to postpone the vote would affect the timing of the elections. “The Security Council cannot micromanage elections in any particular country,” Mr. Chidyausiku told reporters. “As far as we are concerned, the date has been set.” He accused Britain and its allies of pushing for “regime change” and said Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision to drop out of the election was a ploy to attract international sympathy. He also said the opposition in Zimbabwe was exaggerating the violence. “These are M.D.C. tricks that should be seen for what they are,” he said in a speech, referring to the Movement for Democratic Change. “The British government’s hidden hand in all these political developments is evident and clearly visible.” Sir John Sawers, the British ambassador to the United Nations, expressed astonishment that Zimbabwe could so readily dismiss the opinion of the Council. “I find that incredible,” he told reporters. “The actions of this regime are unpredictable, and they will pursue only those courses of action which are in their own self-serving interests.”
Mr. Mugabe may also face increasing pressure from his fellow heads of state in southern Africa. Foreign ministers from a regional bloc of 14 nations known as the Southern African Development Community met on Monday in Angola to discuss the crisis. But the nations in the region have long been divided on the matter, and it is far from clear they will find enough common ground to act decisively. The president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, chosen by the 14-nation bloc as mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis, has long maintained a strategy of quiet diplomacy, pushing for negotiations between Zimbabwe’s opposition and ruling parties, without criticizing Mr. Mugabe publicly. In a significant show of support for Mr. Tsvangirai, however, the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions declared on Tuesday that it was “appalled at the levels of violence and intimidation being inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by the illegitimate Mugabe regime.” “The June 27 presidential election is not an election, but a declaration of war against the people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party,” the union group added. Urging a blockade of Zimbabwe, it said, “We call on all our unions and those everywhere else in the world to make sure that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere, including at airports, restaurants, shops, etc. Further we call on all workers and citizens of the world never to allow Mugabe to set foot in their countries.” Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia have also harshly condemned the repeated detention of Zimbabwean opposition leaders during the campaign, as well as the violence against opposition supporters. South Africa had resisted efforts to bring Zimbabwe’s political woes before the Security Council, contending that they were a domestic matter, not an international one. On Monday, the wrangling over the Council statement took most of the day. Opponents of a tougher stance by the Council succeeded in quashing an attempt to say that without a second round of elections, Zimbabwe should rely on the results of the first round in March. In that election, Mr. Tsvangirai won more votes than Mr. Mugabe, but, according to the official government count, less than the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Jendayi E. Frazer, the American assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said in an interview on Monday that adding a mediator whom Mr. Tsvangirai trusts would be helpful, but she said that Mr. Mugabe had voiced no interest in talks. “It’s going to require an international push to prevent a civil war,” she said.
By Alan Cowell and Celia W. Dugger
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