Former South African president Nelson Mandela and US President George W. Bush on Wednesday led mounting world outrage over Zimbabwe, where veteran leader Robert Mugabe is pressing on with what is seen as a “sham” presidential run-off vote.
As pressure on the octogenarian Mugabe ratcheted up, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for armed peacekeepers to be sent to the country to stop terror attacks on his supporters.
Mandela, the world’s favorite elder statesman and an African liberation icon like Mugabe, spoke of a “tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe” during a celebrity fundraising dinner in London to mark his 90th birthday.
“We look back at much human progress, but we sadly note so much failing as well,” Mandela said.
Mandela’s comments were the first he has made on the situation in Zimbabwe.
“Friday’s elections, you know, appear to be a sham,” Bush said, referring to Mugabe’s insistence to press on with the vote despite Tsvangirai’s withdrawal because of attacks on his supporters and intimidation.
“You can’t have free elections if a candidate is not allowed to campaign freely and his supporters aren’t allowed to campaign without fear of intimidation,” Bush said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s neighbors from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) held an emergency summit in Swaziland and urged for the vote to be postponed.
SADC chief Tomaz Augusto Salomao told reporters after the meeting that “elections under the current environment undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the outcome.”
He asked that the country “consider postponing the vote until a later day.”
Tsvangirai called for peacekeepers and emerged briefly from the Dutch embassy, where he has been holed up since Sunday after announcing his ballot withdrawal, to appeal for fresh regional efforts to resolve the crisis.
He said a negotiated settlement would provide the best answer, but warned that he was open to talks only if today’s run-off election did not go ahead with Mugabe as the sole candidate.
Reiterating his call for peacekeepers, Tsvangirai referred to his earlier comments in the Guardian newspaper that the UN had to go further than verbal condemnation of Mugabe and move to “active isolation,” which required “a force to protect the people.”
“I didn’t ask for any military intervention, but for armed peacekeepers,” he told reporters. “The people in the country can wait no longer.”
Tsvangirai indicated earlier in a television interview he would leave Zimbabwe if Mugabe claimed victory after today’s poll.
Western nations, including Britain and the US, have urged the world to isolate Mugabe and declare his presidency illegitimate if there is not a free and fair ballot.
The UN Security Council condemned the political violence and France on Wednesday joined other nations in saying it would not recognize “the legitimacy of the power that emerges from the rigged elections of June 27.”
Britain’s Foreign Office announced on Wednesday it was stripping Mugabe of an honorary knighthood bestowed upon him back in 1994.
“This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided,” a spokesman said.
“We can no longer justify an individual who is responsible for a consistent campaign of human rights violations and the disregard for the democratic process retaining an honor,” the spokesman said.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged businesses with interests in Zimbabwe to ensure they were not benefiting Mugabe’s government, and called for the Zimbabwe cricket team to be banned from touring England next year.
Mugabe, in his first direct comments on Tsvangirai’s withdrawal, defied international criticism and vowed that the election would go ahead, saying the opposition chief had pulled out because he was afraid of losing.
“Other people can say what they want, but the elections are ours and we are a sovereign state,” Mugabe told a rally north of Harare on Tuesday.
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