Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:46am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change hopes its withdrawal from the June 27 presidential run-off election will prompt "more serious action" from the United Nations, African Union and regional body SADC, an MDC official said on condition of anonymity.

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I don't know why he figures anyone will do anything.

New York Times, By Celia W. Dugger & Barry Bearak, June 22

JOHANNESBURG — Only five days before Zimbabwe’s presidential runoff election, the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai announced Sunday that he was pulling out of the race because armed forces backing President Robert Mugabe have made it clear that anyone who votes for Mr. Tsvangirai faces a real possibility of being killed.

At a news conference, Mr. Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or M.D.C., said he was unwilling to ask the party’s supporters to go to the polls on Friday “when that vote will cost them their lives.”

Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision came on a day when governing party youth militia armed with iron bars, sticks and other weapons beat his supporters as they sought to attend a rally for him in Harare.

It was the latest incident in a tumultuous campaign season in which Mr. Tsvangirai has been repeatedly detained, his party’s chief strategist has been jailed on treason charges most observers believe are trumped up, and rampant state-sponsored violence has left at least 86 dead and thousands injured, according to tallies by doctors treating the victims.

Zimbabwe opposition leader withdraws from runoff election

Morgan Tsvangirai denounces election as 'violent sham'

CBC, June 22

Zimbabwe's opposition leader has pulled out of Friday's runoff election against President Robert Mugabe because of mounting violence and intimidation against opposition candidates.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, announced his decision Sunday during a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

He also asked the United Nations "to intervene to restore the rule of law, peace, and the conditions of a free and fair election."

See Also (NYT): Assassins in Zimbabwe Aim at the Grass Roots

And from the CBC, March 31, this backrounder: Zimbabwe: A country in the midst of change.

CNN, June 22

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Robert Mugabe apparently retained his presidential post Sunday after the opposition candidate dropped out of this week's runoff because, he said, asking Zimbabweans to vote was asking them to risk their lives.

"The courageous people of Zimbabwe, of this country, and the people of the MDC have done everything humanly and democratically possible to deliver a new Zimbabwe and new government," candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said after a closed-door meeting of his Movement for Democratic Change.

A government official, however, said Tsvangirai dropped out only because he fears being handed a "humiliating defeat" in the runoff.

Tsvangirai was to face Mugabe in a presidential runoff Friday after neither candidate won an outright majority in the March 29 election.

"We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process," Tsvangirai said, adding that it would be dangerous for Zimbabweans to cast ballots.

Reuters (AlertNet) - Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai has gambled his political career by pulling out of an election run-off and he must now count on regional action as well as sympathy to have a hope of unseating President Robert Mugabe.

In a free election, the opposition leader would have been well placed to win next Friday's vote after beating Mugabe in the first round, but he announced on Sunday that political violence made a fair ballot impossible.

The announcement was hedged though -- with a plea to Africa and the world to intervene in the crisis. He also spoke of the need to work on a transition of power away from Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, suggesting a readiness for negotiations.

African countries have joined Mugabe's Western critics in voicing anger at poll violence -- the opposition says 86 supporters have been killed. Not long ago, regional states sat silent and gave tacit backing to Mugabe, seen by many as a hero of the struggle for independence.

In fact, southern African states show growing impatience with Mugabe and fear total meltdown in Zimbabwe. The crisis has driven millions of Zimbabweans into their countries, straining economies and creating tensions even in powerhouse South Africa -- where xenophobic violence exploded last month.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, also chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), showed understanding for Tsvangirai after the withdrawal. "Elections held in such an environment will not only be undemocratic but will also bring embarrassment to the SADC region and the entire continent of Africa," he said.

Most important of will be the role of South Africa.

President Thabo Mbeki has never shown much fondness for Tsvangirai, while the Zimbabwean opposition leader has openly criticised Mbeki's role as mediator in the crisis. But the MDC leader has a better relationship with the increasingly influential Jacob Zuma, head of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, who shares his humble roots. Tsvangirai is the self-taught son of a bricklayer who worked his way up through the union movement.

By withdrawing, Tsvangirai could also be moving towards a plan Mbeki has been said to favour by South Africa's press -- calling off the election to allow a national unity government.more at the link

_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}

African democracy.

You wanted Mugabe. You got him. Live with it.

Ian Smith was bad?

23 Jun 2008 13:18:22 GMT

Source: Reuters
(recasts with comments from briefing, prime minister's spokesman)

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Britain will push world leaders to declare that Robert Mugabe is no longer Zimbabwe's legitimate leader and will urge a broader package of sanctions against his supporters, the British minister for Africa said on Monday.

Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown said the former colonial power backed Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to pull out of a June 27 presidential run-off vote and Gordon Brown's spokesman said the prime minister was disappointed by the violence that forced his hand.

"Our objectives are to get in every forum possible a recognition that today President Mugabe no longer remains the proper rightful leader of the country," Malloch Brown told reporters.

"He has no claim under his own constitution for the presidency ... we do not accept the status quo, we do not expect the international community to accept the status quo," he added.

"I think we can look with reasonable confidence to broad- based action to make sure there's a resolution of this situation," he said.

Malloch Brown said the United Nations Security Council, which meets later on Monday, the European Union and the African Union should consider wider sanctions

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Reuters

"The police have just raided (MDC headquarters) Harvest House and, as we speak, they're taking in hundreds of victims of political violence who had taken shelter in the building." MDC spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said.

10:27am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has pulled out of a presidential election because of violence, sought refuge overnight in the Dutch embassy, officials of that country said on Monday.

what an ass

Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:47am BST

LONDON (Reuters) - A former British minister for Africa said on Tuesday that South Africa should cut power supplies to Zimbabwe, and African peacekeepers backed by the EU and United Nations should be ready to go in and restore order.

Peter Hain, a noted anti-apartheid campaigner who served as Africa minister under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, said it would also be essential to give Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe immunity from prosecution.

Hain told Sky News that Mugabe would never respond to "diplomatic niceties", so firm action was needed, starting with sanctions against the whole of his elite.

"Electricity supplies from South Africa, which have been going in for many years now, should be cut off. And that would hit the regime more than anything else because the people can hardly suffer any more than they have been already," he said.

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June 26, 2008

By ALAN COWELL

Queen Elizabeth II has stripped Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s strongman president for nearly 30 years, of his honorary knighthood as a “mark of revulsion” at the human rights abuses and “abject disregard” for democracy over which he has presided, the British Foreign Office announced Wednesday.

The rebuke showed the extent of international frustration over Mr. Mugabe’s insistence to go ahead with a presidential runoff on Friday, even though his sole opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out of race on Sunday because of the persistent violence and intimidation against him, his party and their supporters.

Mr. Mugabe’s government has had a long history of human rights abuses, but he was granted an honorary knighthood during an official visit to England in 1994 when, the foreign office contends, “the conditions in Zimbabwe were very different.”

But with the widespread attacks against the opposition, the foreign office said the honor could no longer be justified. Stripping a dignitary of an honorary knighthood is exceedingly rare. A foreign office spokesman could think of only one other time it had been done — in 1989 to the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu.

Mr. Tsvangirai, the beleaguered opposition leader, called on the United Nations on Wednesday to send a peacekeeping force to bring calm to the country and help pave the way for new elections in which he could participate as a “legitimate candidate.”

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Nelson Mandela has broken his silence on the Zimbabwe crisis to castigate the "tragic failure of leadership" in the violence-torn country.

The former president of South African did not issue any specific call for action, and did not criticise by name the 84-year old Zimbabwean President, a fellow activist from the days of the struggle against white minority rule.

But in his statement, read out at a fundraising dinner last night in Hyde Park for his 90th birthday, the statesman made clear the depth of his feelings on the matter. After speaking of his "sadness" about the conflict in Darfur, he said: "Nearer to home, we had seen the outbreak of violence against fellow Africans in our own country and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe."
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_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

By Daniel Howden in Bulawayo
Thursday, 26 June 2008

The ruling party in Zimbabwe has a detailed plan to murder opposition polling agents, bomb polling stations and march the electorate to the ballot box under armed guard to ensure an emphatic victory for Robert Mugabe in tomorrow's uncontested presidential run-off.

Minutes of a meeting of the regime's top security officials, the Joint Operations Command (JOC), seen by The Independent, outline the ruthless strategy which appears to be going ahead regardless of the withdrawal of the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from the race.

The notes, leaked from a JOC meeting late last week, include instructions to kill opposition MPs, for death squads to stuff ballot boxes in rural areas and the prevention of any rallies by the opposition. Detailed instructions were included on how to rig the vote: "Voters in a ward should surrender their IDs to the village head, and have their names taken down. On the day of voting, the respective village heads should queue outside the polling station with each member [voter] with a respective number. Each voter shall profess ignorance of the ability to write on his/her own... agents in the polling stations will be helping in marking X."

Many opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MPs have been forced into hiding and several more were seeking to cross the border last night after learning of execution orders given to death squads.

"War veterans have been instructed to kill all the MDC mps [sic] working in cahoots with the Army and the CIO [Central Intelligence Organisation]," the minutes recorded. "Every mp [sic] shall not tread the ground or the soils of his constituency."

The MDC's decision to boycott the presidential run-off in the hope of exposing the election-rigging and calming the terror campaign appears to have been ignored, raising fears that the violence unleashed to keep the present regime in office is out of control.

The terror campaign in Zimbabwe is already estimated to have claimed up to 500 lives and is being described as a "politicide" – a deliberate and systematic attempt to wipe out an entire political class. "This is the deliberate targeting of people in political structures, going to the extent of killing them," said the opposition senator and human rights lawyer, David Coltart. "This is systematic and widespread with an intent that goes beyond the election – to permanently cripple the MDC."

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* Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
* The Guardian,
* Thursday June 26, 2008

Nelson Mandela last night broke his silence on the political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, saying the country was suffering due to "a tragic failure of leadership".

The former South African president and political icon made the remarks at a dinner in London last night attended by Gordon Brown and Bill Clinton. Mandela is reported to be deeply troubled by events in Zimbabwe which have sent thousands of refugees into South Africa, but he has been careful not to create a rift with his successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, who has emerged as Robert Mugabe's most important protector on the African continent.

"We watch with sadness the continuing tragedy in Darfur. Nearer to home we had seen the outbreak of violence against fellow Africans in our own country and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe," Mandela said.

His speech came at a time of rising pressure on Mugabe as he attempts to stage presidential elections tomorrow, despite the withdrawal of his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, because of state-backed violence that left more than 80 opposition supporters dead. Three of Zimbabwe's neighbours yesterday urged Mugabe to put off the vote. Tanzania, Angola and Swaziland, responsible for security issues in the regional group, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) issued a statement saying Mugabe's reelection in such circumstances could lack legitimacy.

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