5 Million Still Need Food Aid in Zimbabwe

The United States has called for the building of a "coalition of the willing" to push for regime change to end the crisis in Zimbabwe. The new American ambassador to South Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said quiet diplomacy pursued by South Africa and other African countries in its dealings with the Zimbabwe president needed a review because there was no evidence it was working. She said her country would be willing to be part of a coalition if invited.

The US could not act on its own, "put the boot on the ground" and give President Robert Mugabe 48 hours to go as requested by beleaguered Zimbaweans but the US would be willing to work in a coalition with other countries to return Zimbabwe to democracy.

Ms Frazer, in a meeting with journalists in Johannesburg yesterday, said: "There is clearly a crisis in Zimbabwe and everyone needs to state that fact. The economy is in a free fall. There is a continuing repressive environment. There needs to be a return to democracy."

She said the US believed that South Africa could play a positive role in returning Zimbabwe to democracy and that it had the means to do so. "It [South Africa] has the most leverage probably of any other country in the sub-region and should therefore take a leadership role," said Ms Frazer, a protege of President George Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Ms Frazer's expression of a more aggressive US line towards the Mugabe regime came the day before the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, arrives in South Africa for series of bilateral meetings with the Mbeki government during which he intends to raise the question of Zimbabwe.

The International Parliamentary Union (IPU) released a report yesterday accusing the regime of doing nothing to stop its violent youth militias from persecuting and torturing parliamentarians of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The report was released after the IPU's three-month mission to Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe has approved new legislation that will ban foreign non-governmental organisations working in the human rights field in Zimbabwe and the banning of foreign funding to Zimbabwean NGOs. Churches have warned the proposed law would hinder their efforts to feed hungry Zimbabweans.

Ms Frazer said it was particularly important to have Zimbabwe returned to democracy because the New Partnership for Africa Development talked about Africa's responsibility for democratic governance across the continent. "The African Union (AU) and South Africa had already accepted the responsibility to promote democracy and they should do so specifically in the case of Zimbabwe," she said.

She noted that repression in Zimbabwe had worsened and was making it impossible for the opposition to operate ahead of elections next year.

"So we have got to re-look at the approach, that South Africa is taking in terms of quiet diplomacy ... It's not evident that it's working at this point

"We have always talked about building coalitions of the willing and I, for one, believe that the coalitions of the willing are going to be the new force in global affairs ..."

Instead of quiet diplomacy, Ms Frazer suggested an open admission by regional countries that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe. That was an important first step followed by pressure to force Mr Mugabe to return the country to democracy.

The anti-Western bashing that was carried out by SADC leaders at their summit in Mauritius last week would not help change President Mugabe, she said. The Tanzanian President, Benjamin Mkapa, had lashed out at the West saying it cannot lecture democracy to African countries which it oppressed through a policy of colonialism in the first place.

Zimbabwe's main opposition party ruled out taking part in elections yesterday unless President Robert Mugabe's regime complies with tough new rules established by regional leaders to ensure free and fair polls.

The decision by the Movement for Democratic Change comes at a time of heightened repression by Mr Mugabe's government, which has introduced legislation banning all foreign charities working in the human rights field and preventing local human rights groups receiving foreign funds.

Analysts described the MDC's decision as the most important step the party has taken since it was formed in 1999. They said the MDC's participation in past elections, which have been marred by violence and ballot-rigging, had served no purpose other than to legitimise his brutal regime.

Even after Mr Mugabe closed polling stations and ordered police and troops to teargas people queueing to vote in the MDC's urban strongholds in the 2002 presidential elections, the party participated in subsequent by-elections and local government polls. But the use of violent youth militias and other state resources to harass voters worked against the MDC, which has lost five by-elections to the ruling Zanu-PF.

Regional leaders in the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Mauritius last week agreed on a new protocol on ensuring free and fair elections. The South African President Thabo Mbeki said any member violating the protocol would be expelled from the SADC - although many doubt his sincerity. Mr Mugabe accepted the protocol, albeit grudgingly. For instance the protocol requires member countries to accept election monitors and establish independent commissions to oversee the elections. Mr Mugabe has agreed to establish an "independent" commission subject to one condition - that he will appoint all its members. He has also vowed never to admit European monitors.

"Until there are tangible signs that the Zimbabwe government is prepared to enforce SADC protocols on elections, the MDC national executive has decided to suspend participation in all elections in all forms in Zimbabwe," an MDC spokesman, Paul Nyathi, said.

Two by-elections are planned next month and parliamentary elections are due in March next year. Mr Mugabe has called them "the anti-Blair elections".

Mr Nyathi said the MDC - whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is awaiting the verdict of his trial on charges of treason, which carries the death penalty - would not participate in any elections "until the political space has been opened up and a legal, institutional and administrative framework for elections has been established that harnesses acceptable levels of transparency and fairness in the electoral process".

Mr Mugabe introduced draconian security laws which require the opposition to seek police permission before holding rallies. Dozens of opposition rallies have been banned over the past few months using these laws."A very brilliant move," was how the University of Zimbabwe political science professor John Makumbe described the MDC's decision to quit all polls. Mr Mugabe must now sit with the opposition to agree on acceptable conditions for free and fair elections and his regional peers must hold him accountable if he refuses, Professor Makumbe said.

The MDC said it had also withdrawn from Harare City Council, where it controls all but one of its 40-plus seats. The party has failed to run the city because Mr Mugabe fired its elected executive mayor Elias Mudzuri more than a year ago. Mr Mugabe has also been dismissing elected councillors who disagree with his policies.

It wasn't that long ago that Mugabe was a darling of The Left.

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