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ZIMBABWE
Fair Vote Called Unlikely
With three weeks until a presidential runoff, a human rights organization said Monday that the African Union must push Zimbabwe's longtime leader, Robert Mugabe, to end political violence.
"If current conditions are maintained, there is no possibility of a credible, free and fair poll," Human Rights Watch said in a report.
The group said it had documented 36 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries at the hands of militant Mugabe party members backed by the police and army, but added that the real figures could be much higher.
The rights group also said hospitals had been told not to treat victims, dozens of opposition activists had been arrested, and homes and businesses of opposition supporters had been looted.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe and two other candidates in the first round of voting March 29, but according to official results did not win the absolute majority needed to avoid a runoff, scheduled for June 27.
A senior Bush administration official confirmed that a joint declaration to be issued at the U.S.-European Union summit Tuesday in Kranj, Slovenia, would include a call for the United Nations to have election monitors in Zimbabwe for the runoff.
SOMALIA
Peace Accord Is Signed
Somalia's government signed an agreement Monday with an opposition alliance calling for an end to violence and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, whose presence has stoked an increasingly bloody Islamic insurgency.
It remains to be seen whether the deal will be respected by hard-line members of the opposition who denounced those taking part in the U.N.-led talks in Djibouti.
Under the accord reached late Monday, both sides agreed to "end all acts of armed confrontation" within 30 days and to act within 120 days to remove Ethiopian troops once a U.N. peacekeeping force is deployed.
YEMEN
