SOUTH African president Thabo Mbeki held crisis talks in Harare with Robert Mugabe yesterday in a fresh attempt to persuade the discredited Zimbabwean leader to form a government of national unity.
Mbeki, the under-fire chief regional negotiator on the Zimbabwe emergency, met Mugabe and the leader of an opposition faction for discussions. But Morgan Tsvangirai, the head of the main opposition MDC party, declined to attend.
The meetings came
as film smuggled to the UK graphically exposed the tactics used by Mugabe's supporters to rig the presidential run-off that handed power back to his regime last week.
Mbeki said afterwards that he hoped negotiations would now move "with speed", although he acknowledged that Tsvangirai had to be persuaded to take part. "We agreed that Tsvangirai has to be part of the negotiations, so we are hoping that the process will take place with them."
A spokesman for Tsvangirai said: "If we were meeting Mugabe as head of Zanu-PF there would be no problem, but not as head of state because we would have endorsed him. You know his position is in dispute."
Mugabe last week claimed 90% of the vote in the run-off – following a campaign of violence against opposition politicians by his Zanu-PF party activists – undermining international attempts to persuade him to relinquish control of his country or form a government of national unity.
The film, made in secret by Shepherd Yuda, a prison officer who last week fled Zimbabwe with his family, shows how he and his colleagues at Harare's central jail had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu-PF activists.
He also obtained footage of Zanu-PF rallies where voters were told to pretend to be illiterate so that officials could fill in their forms, supporting Mugabe, on their behalf.
Yuda decided to make the film after his uncle, an activist for the MDC opposition party, was murdered two months ago following the March 29 parliamentary elections, which Mugabe lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The run-off was held because Tsvangirai did not win an outright majority, and he pulled out of the run-off because of the violence aimed at his supporters.
Yuda described how he and his fellow prison officers had to fill in their ballots in the presence of Zanu-PF officials, who inspected them before sealing them in envelopes. He felt intimidated into marking his cross next to Mugabe's name. "This was the most difficult moment of my life," he said.
Yuda has now left Zimbabwe for a secret destination. He added: "I've lost my uncle, my father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. Please God, deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."
Last week, Mugabe's security forces and militias continued their murderous attacks on opposition supporters prior to this week's push by Britain and the US in the United Nations Security Council to force the Zimbabwean president to negotiate with the opposition.
The sanctions proposed by George Bush and Gordon Brown include an international arms embargo and punitive measures against the 14 people deemed most responsible for undermining the June 27 run-off through a campaign of deliberate violence.
Besides Mugabe, those targeted in the draft resolution to be subjected to an international travel ban and a freeze on personal assets include the chiefs of the various branches of the armed forces, the governor of the central bank, the head of the justice department and the presidential spokesman.
"We want to respond in a way that encourages a move towards resolving the legitimacy crisis without negatively impacting the people of Zimbabwe, who are suffering a great deal at the hands of the regime," said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN.
The Prime Minister, speaking in Parliament last week, made his call for intensified sanctions against Mugabe following news that London-based Anglo American is to go ahead with a £200m investment in a new platinum mine in Zimbabwe.
"Businesses and individuals who have any dealing with Zimbabwe must examine their own responsibilities and must not make investments that prop up the regime," said Brown.
The Security Council resolution will pose a dilemma for permanent member China, Mugabe's main political and economic supporter together with South Africa. China will have to decide whether or not to exercise its veto: if it does, it will raise fresh questions over China's commitment to human rights and cast a pall over the Beijing Olympic Games next month.
In Zimbabwe, concern is growing concerning the whereabouts of an MDC MP. Naison Nemadziwa, who was elected to the National Assembly on March 29, was abducted last Monday outside the Mutare High Court in eastern Zimbabwe by five armed men in army fatigues.
The MDC says more than half of its MPs are in hiding or have fled abroad. Among those in hiding is Ian Makone, the party's chief election organiser.
The full article contains 819 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
