HARARE—The United States criticised Africa for lack of action on Zimbabwe on Thursday and South Africa expressed concern for the first time over a long delay in issuing election results.
As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a tough statement calling for more vigorous action, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki must stand down as a mediator and make way for a new initiative.
"It is time for Africa to step up," Rice told a news conference in Washington. "Where is the concern from the African Union and from Zimbabwe's neighbours about what is going on in Zimbabwe?"
African reaction has been subdued to events in Zimbabwe, where a 19-day delay in issuing results of a presidential poll has fuelled fears of violence, although regional leaders called last weekend for the outcome to be announced quickly.
The continent has largely taken its cue from Mbeki, who has been fiercely criticised for insisting on a softly softly diplomatic approach to President Robert Mugabe, despite the catastrophic collapse of Zimbabwe's economy.
Tsvangirai said on Thursday he had asked Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to launch a new initiative. "President Mbeki needs to be relieved from his duty," Tsvangirai told a news conference in Johannesburg, adding that Mugabe had "unleashed an orgy of violence against the people" after the election.
Mbeki led failed SADC mediation last year and has played down the gravity of the post-election deadlock.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), suggested there may need to be a special United Nations tribunal to judge crimes committed in Zimbabwe.
"I think the current wave of violence against the people must stop and the only way to stop is that those who are committing those crimes must know that they must be answerable one day," he said.
Policy Shift
The South African government made a major policy shift, calling for the results to be issued rapidly and saying it was concerned by the delay. "The situation is dire," government spokesman Themba Maseko said on Thursday in Cape Town. "When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern."
Mbeki had previously said the electoral process must take its course and there was no crisis after the elections. His stance was seen as backing Mugabe over the delay.
Although Mugabe's ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time in the vote, no results have been released from a presidential poll.
"The Zimbabweans need to be informed about those reasons for holding the results. But the most important thing is that the results need to be verified and released as soon as possible," Maseko said, briefing reporters on a Wednesday cabinet meeting.
The government of regional power South Africa had previously hesitated to echo international concern about the delayed result of an election which the MDC says Tsvangirai won.
But ruling party leader Jacob Zuma, who toppled Mbeki from the head of the African National Congress last December, has made several statements calling for release of the results.
Mbeki is under wide criticism for his insistence on quiet diplomacy in dealing with the crisis in Zimbabwe, where the economy has collapsed, bringing hyper-inflation, shortages of food and fuel and 80 percent unemployment. Millions of people have fled to South Africa.
The election outcome has now become embroiled in several legal cases that are further delaying a result. A court in Harare adjourned until Friday its hearing on an MDC challenge to a recount ordered for Saturday in 23 out of 210 parliamentary and presidential election constituencies.
The MDC said on Thursday hundreds of supporters had been seriously injured in attacks by ZANU-PF since the election. The opposition says Mugabe is using militias to intimidate opposition supporters and help him rig victory in an expected runoff election against Tsvangirai.
The U.S. ambassador to Harare, James D. McGee, in a Zimbabwean independence day message to the public on Thursday, said hope was fading after the election.
He said there were many reports from the countryside of violent retribution against communities for voting in favour of the opposition. "We have disturbing and confirmed reports of threats, beatings, abductions, burning of homes and even murder, from many parts of the country," he said.
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