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Peacekeepers Urged for Zimbabwe
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In an interview Wednesday night, Zimbabwean Security Minister Didymus Mutasa dismissed the idea of an African Union force, which would take weeks, and perhaps months, to assemble and could not be deployed without explicit approval from Mugabe's government.
"We have said that this is not necessary at all because Zimbabweans are not at war," Mutasa said.
Zimbabwe has been locked in political stalemate since the March 29 election in which the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, won control of parliament and Tsvangirai outpolled Mugabe. Electoral officials, after withholding results for a month, said Tsvangirai narrowly missed an absolute majority, setting up the runoff vote scheduled for Friday.
Even as the crisis has captured the world's attention, conditions within the country continue to deteriorate. The world's worst inflation strains the government's ability to measure it. Ruling party youths patrol many towns and cities. Torture, beatings, arson and false arrests are common. Many of Tsvangirai's key party officials are in jail, in exile or dead.
With global criticism building, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain -- Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler -- stripped Mugabe of ceremonial knighthood, a title he received in 1994 when he was still perceived as a symbol of African liberation. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa called on Mugabe to resign and likened him in an interview to "a kind of Frankenstein."
But frustration at the slow pace of international action has focused on South African President Thabo Mbeki, traditionally the region's diplomatic leader but widely perceived here as coddling Mugabe.
More than 100 opposition activists, many of whom fled their homes in recent weeks because of ruling party attacks, demanded refuge from the South African Embassy in Harare on Wednesday. As the cold Southern Hemisphere night fell over the city, they were wrapped in blankets in the parking lot, waiting for food or shelter.
"Mbeki is the one who is saying things are okay. We want him to see that his negotiations are not working," said Melody Nhamburi, 34, who was sitting outside the mission with her baby, who she said was filthy and hungry after days of hiding from police.
Mbeki "is busy negotiating while people's homes are being destroyed," she said. "People are being beaten and people are being killed. We want him to see that the situation is desperate."
