Mugabe has stolen poll win, Brown tells UN
Gordon Brown has abandoned his policy of tiptoeing around Mugabe and has come right out and said that Mugabe has stolen the recent election.
He made these comments in front of the ineffectual Mbeki, who - for once - appeared to say something which could be construed as unhelpful to Mugabe.In a hardening of British rhetoric, the prime minister used an address to the UN security council to say Mugabe was thwarting the will of the Zimbabwean people. "No one thinks, having seen the results at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election," Brown told a special UN debate on Africa. "A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all.
"So let a single clear message go out from here that we are and will be vigilant for democratic rights, that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe, and we stand ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future."
Brown's remarks, to a meeting chaired by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and attended by other African leaders, were stronger than Britain's recent interventions.
"The very fact that we have a mediation process like this on the political side is because we say there are things that have gone wrong," Mbeki said. "There are many wrong things with the politics of Zimbabwe."I am sure Mbeki is saying this because his own ANC party have made public statements deriding his own earlier comments which amounted to, "Crisis? What crisis?"
Now even the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is calling for "decisive action" from Zimbabwe's neighbours.
A second round will be a waste of time as Mugabe has already dispatched his thugs to intimidate the locals into voting "the right way"."The situation could deteriorate further with serious implications for the people of Zimbabwe," the UN secretary general said. "The Zimbabwean authorities and the countries of the region have insisted that these methods are for the region to resolve. But the international community continues to watch and wait for decisive action. The credibility of the democratic process in Africa could be at stake here."
He indicated he was not keen on a second round for fear it might be used by Mugabe to produce the result he failed to secure in the first round. But the UN was prepared to send monitors to ensure "a fair and transparent" election.
There can no longer be any doubt that Mugabe is not interested in the democratic process but is only interested in producing a result which keeps himself in power. Mbeki and the other African leaders must desist from playing this game with Mugabe as they only provide a fig leaf of legitimacy for the old tyrant. The world has lost it's patience with Mugabe, it's high time Mbeki and the other African leaders lost theirs.
"Quiet diplomacy" has blatantly not worked, it's time for very loud and very public disagreement.
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