In the strongest statement to date the United Nations Security Council has unanimously condemned the violence in Zimbabwe and declared that "free and fair elections" are impossible.
The statement, however, offers little solace to those under immediate threat. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's U.N. envoy has said the vote will go ahead as planned and observers say they fear for the Zimbabwean people.
"This is an absolute disaster and the international community is presently powerless," said Dr. Tanya Lyons, specialist in African studies at South Australia's Flinders University.
"They [Zimbabweans] thought they were getting free and fair elections, that things would change, and what now seems to be the case is that Mugabe was just finding out who his friends were."
The British-drafted U.N. statement condemning the violence is the first time that Russia and China, two of the five permanent members of the Security Council had agreed to criticise President Mugabe's regime. It was also a significant first for South Africa, a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
"The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on 27 June," the statement said.
Boniface Chidyausiku, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN, however, insisted that the vote would go ahead, the BBC reported.
"As far we are concerned, the election will take place on Friday," he said. "The legitimacy of any election comes from the people of Zimbabwe."
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been forced to seek refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare, pulled out of the election earlier in the week saying violence had made a fair vote impossible.
"Morgan Tsvangirai will not go into the statehouse over dead bodies, over maimed children and women, over thousands of people who have been displaced. I will not have a conscience for it," he said.
The violence, perpetrated by gangs of youths and ruling ZANU-PF militias, was unleashed after Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC), won the first round of voting in March.
The brutality has since intensified with the wives and children of MDC supporters mutilated and burnt alive. Dr. Lyons said she was struggling to come to terms with events and was sceptical of the UN's ability to do anything about it.
"I don't think the international community will intervene, only because there is no precedent to do so. There is no oil involved so the only reason is from the humanitarian point of view or from the moral perspective to protect the women and children."
Dr. Lyons said friends and colleagues in Zimbabwe have told of horrific stories within the country and now fears of further retribution are rising.
When the elections took place each village was supposed to put the results of their votes out the front, whether they were for the opposition or whether they were for Mugabe's party, Dr. Lyons explained.
"Now groups of thugs are going door to door writing down the names of everyone living in the houses, including all the youths," she said.
"No one knows why they are doing this, but most suspect that they are either to be targeted or to be conscripted into these youth gangs.
"That is the scary aspect of what is going on."
Dr. Lyons was also quick to point out that it was not only opposition supporters that were fearful. The gang's of youths and those in the military are also fearful.
Disconnected from international media and the majority without telephone connection many believe Mugabe when he rants about the threat of Western invasion.
"The gangs are also fearful they will be colonized, so they are fighting for what they believe is their lives."
The result of the scare tactic is that the more Australia, Britain and the U.S. try to put pressure on Zimbabwe, the more that feeds into Mugabe's conspiracy agenda.
African Union leaders, now suffering the consequences of their own inaction with thousands of refugees crossing their borders, may be able to bring Mugabe to the table for discussions, Dr. Lyons said.
However, she feared the situation in Zimbabwe may have deteriorated too far.
"The breakdown is more than just a result of poverty and economic desperation, there are certain boundaries that have been crossed," she said, referring to the mutilation of women and children. "There is no morality left, no rule of law."
Dr. Lyons said there were parallels with Rwanda in Zimbabwe's 10-year decline and international inaction, and she feared a humanitarian crisis on a similar scale.
"It is the moral question as we saw in Bosnia, Serbia and Rwanda where friends and neighbors became enemies. It is the darker side of humanity...a process of dehumanization."
"We need to ask the question, where is the humanity?" Dr. Lyons said.
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