Britain Says Zimbabwe Needs New Government

By Tendai Maphosa

London

30 June 2008

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the African Union totell Zimbabwean President Mugabe the troubled African country needs anew government. Tendai Maphosa has the details in this report fromLondon.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call was directed at theAfrican leaders gathered for an AU summit in the Egyptian Red Searesort of Sharm el Sheikh.

Mr. Mugabe is attending the summitand arrived just hours after he was hastily sworn in for a sixth termin office in Harare on Sunday. He won a runoff election Friday inwhich he was the only candidate and which has been widely condemned.

Prime Minister Brown said African leaders and the rest of the international community must now take a strong stand.

"Iwould hope that the African Union with the United Nations will make itabsolutely clear to Mr. Mugabe that there has got to be change, a newgovernment has got to be brought in and that when democracy is restoredin Zimbabwe we will prepared to help the Zimbabwean people end thepoverty and the deprivation and the famine that exists in some parts ofthe country," he said.

The European Union also dismissed Mr. Mugabe's election victory as "an exercise in power-grabbing" that must not be recognized.

Ina statement, the organization's Development Commissioner Louis Michelcalled for the African Union to seek a political solution. Michel saidthat given the conditions in which the presidential election runofftook place, it is not possible to recognize the legitimacy of theresult.

Friday's presidential runoff election became a one-manrace after the withdrawal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ofthe Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai said he waswithdrawing because of harassment and violence against his party and supporters.

Mr. Tsvangirai won the most votes in thepresidential election on March 29, but the Zimbabwe ElectoralCommission said he did not gain an outright majority, thus requiring arunoff. Mr. Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party also lost control ofparliament in the March election to the MDC for the first time sinceindependence in 1980.

The opposition win triggered a violentcampaign by supporters of Mr. Mugabe's party that has left dozens ofMDC supporters dead, hundreds maimed and thousands displaced.

AlexVines once lived in Zimbabwe. He now heads the Africa program atChatham House, the respected London-based research center. He tells VOAthat public condemnation of Mr. Mugabe by his fellow leaders in Egyptis unlikely.

"I think privately a number of heads of state aregoing to tell Mr. Mugabe about their concerns, but I do think that theAfrican Union will look to encouraging some sort of additionalmediation, some sort of compromise," said Vines. "And indeed, Mr.Mugabe is quite isolated within the region and within the African Unionthere will not be tremendous sympathy for what has just occurred andthe condemnation of the electoral process for the presidential runoffby three sets of different African monitors makes it quite difficultfor Mr. Mugabe."

Vines added that while the West has been morevocal in condemning Mr. Mugabe, the solution to Zimbabwe's worseningpolitical and economic problems lies in pressure for change, which hesaid has to come from within the country. Vines also underscored thatZimbabwe's neighbors can play a crucial role in resolving some of these problems.