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Zimbabwe: Hands Off Country, UN Told
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008
Zvamaida Murwira
Harare
British and US attempts to place Zimbabwe's elections on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council meeting flopped yesterday with African Union chairperson Mr Jakaya Kikwete saying Sadc was managing the situation.
Western media had reported that Britain and US would raise Zimbabwe's electoral issue at yesterday's joint UN and African Union Peace and Security meeting.
But Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, described the hype in the run-up to the meeting as a non-event as the global body did not include Zimbabwe on its agenda.
In a telephone interview from New York last night, Ambassador Chidyausiku said United Nations Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-Moon had expressed concern about the delay by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in releasing the March 29 presidential election results.
Mr Kikwete, who is Tanzania's president, was the second to speak and pointed out that Sadc was taking care of the situation in Zimbabwe.
South African President Thabo Mbeki also later insisted that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, effectively sealing off the case.
"So the hype was a non-event. Zimbabwe was not the focus of the meeting. People just digressed to discuss about it, but Tanzanian President Mr Jakaya Kikwete had already made a pre-emptive statement, saying Sadc was taking care of the situation in the country.
"Mr Kikwete told the meeting that Sadc was already seized with the matter and was handling it," said Ambassador Chidyausiku.
"The UN Security Council will not come up with any position on Zimbabwe because it was not on the agenda. We had, however, prepared to appraise the world body if they had included it on the agenda."
Ambassador Chidyausiku said the UN Secretary-General had urged ZEC to release the presidential election results expeditiously, adding that the world body was prepared to assist should there be any need for a run-off.
"The UN Secretary-General said the run-off should be held under the observation of international organisations, including the UN, but for the UN to come we are saying it should first be invited," said Ambassador Chidyausiku.
British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown said nobody believed President Mugabe won the election, an assertion that was immediately rubbished by Zanu-PF.
Chairman of the Zanu-PF media sub-committee Cde Patrick Chinamasa said the ruling party had never claimed to have met the legal threshold in terms of the electoral law which requires the winner of a presidential election to get 51 percent of the valid votes cast.
"Our position as Zanu-PF is that on the basis of the V11 forms posted at the 9 108 polling stations countrywide and which are common knowledge not only to Zanu-PF but to the MDC-T, MDC, police and observers, no candidate in the first stage of the presidential election was able to achieve the legal threshold of valid votes cast.
"The unofficial results collated point to a run-off between President Mugabe and Tsvangirai," said Cde Chinamasa.
He said Mr Brown continued to treat Zimbabwe as a colonial appendage of the British empire.
"We tell him clearly and without any ambiguity that we are not a colony of the British. We are not a member of the Commonwealth. Brown has no legal standing to speak authoritatively on the results of the Zimbabwe elections. In speaking in the manner he has done at the Security Council is in order to promote nefarious British interests undermining Zimbabwe's due processes and misleading the international community."
Cde Chinamasa said false victory claims MDC-T has been peddling were nothing but machinations of the British intelligence services to destabilise Zimbabwe.
"As Zanu-PF our expectation is that ZEC be allowed to complete the electoral process free from external pressure and intimidation. Zanu-PF will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that every vote cast for our President is put on the President's heap. We do not desire any votes cast for the President's opponents and they have no right to benefit from votes cast for our President. Zanu-PF is also saying to ZEC 'bring to justice and without fail all those that ZEC employed to run the elections who were corruptly paid British pounds to tamper with the electoral process'," said Cde Chinamasa.
The Minister of Information and Publicity, Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, yesterday said efforts by Mr Brown to smuggle the Zimbabwean issue onto the UN agenda were a sign of his desperation to ensure that MDC ascends to power via the back door.
"Brown's theatrics at the UN show that he has forgotten that Zimbabwe is no longer a British colony and he should be reminded that Zimbabwe is aware of his efforts to reverse the gains of the hard-won independence.
"Efforts to smuggle the Zimbabwean issue on the agenda of the UN are uncalled for and as a Government we will remain steadfast in ensuring that the people of Zimbabwe remain respectable for what they are and the country they fought for," he said.
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He added: "Brown lied about the situation in Zimbabwe yet President Mbeki, who is our neighbour, knows better than Brown, who is far away."
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