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Harare: South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe to discuss the run-off election next week as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on African leaders to press for a fair ballot.
The leaders met late yesterday in Bulawayo, southwestern Zimbabwe. Mbeki came to "satisfy himself'' that systems are in place for the June 27 election, the state-run Herald newspaper cited George Charamba, a presidential spokesman, as saying.
The ballot won't be credible unless the government's harassment of the opposition ends, United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.
"It is time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election,'' Rice said in Washington yesterday. "You cannot intimidate opponents, you cannot put opponents in jail, you cannot threaten them with charges of treason, and be respected in the international community.''
Mugabe faces Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, in the run-off election that will determine whether the 84-year-old leader will extend his 28-year rule of Zimbabwe.
During his visit, Mbeki also met with Tsvangirai, 56, who won the first election in March without garnering the 50 percent of votes needed to be declared president. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa declined to give details of the discussions, the Herald reported on its Web site.
Leaders arrested
The MDC says Tsvangirai has been arrested and released five times this month and accuses Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front of organizing attacks against opposition supporters that killed at least 65 people.
Mugabe threatened two days ago to arrest opposition leaders, alleging they are behind a wave of violence that has swept across Zimbabwe since the first election. Tendai Biti, the deputy leader of the MDC, was arrested June 12 and may face treason charges, which carry the death penalty.
"Should these conditions continue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election outcomes would be in question,'' Ban said in a speech to the UN General Assembly. "It is of utmost importance that the violence is stopped immediately and that humanitarian assistance is facilitated, not prevented.''
Rice is scheduled to host an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on events in Zimbabwe today. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said discussions will focus on how the UN can resolve the political crisis.
Regional support
"We're trying to support the efforts of regional organizations to ensure free and fair elections,'' Rice said before a meeting in Washington with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. "It's very difficult when you have the kind of intimidation that is going on now in Zimbabwe.''
Odinga, who two days ago called on Mugabe to step down, said before meeting with Rice that Zimbabwe is an "eyesore on the African continent,'' according to a State Department transcript.
"You cannot have free and fair elections when opponents are being beaten up, when the secretary-general of the opposition party is in detention, possibly to be charged with treason,'' Odinga said. "The time has come for the international community to act on Zimbabwe, the way that it did in Bosnia. What we need is an international peacekeeping force so that eventually proper elections can be held.''
Food supplies
Ban in his speech called on Mugabe to rescind restrictions on delivery of food to 2 million people. The government on June 6 ordered all international aid organizations to stop distributing food in the southern African country after accusing them of meddling in politics.
Zimbabwe's government lifted a ban on some nongovernmental organizations distributing food aid, the Herald reported, citing a statement from Sydney Mhishi, acting secretary of the Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Ministry.
More than 5 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity in the next nine months, an assessment mission of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Programme said in a report.
"The mission estimates that 2.04 million people in rural and urban areas will be food insecure between July and September 2008, rising to 3.8 million people between October and peaking to about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009,'' it said.
Zimbabwe's population is estimated at about 12 million, according to the UN.
The Security Council will hold a formal meeting on Zimbabwe next week, US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said on Wednesday. It will be held in part to learn the results of envoy Haile Menkerios's visit to Zimbabwe where he met with Mugabe and Tsvangirai, the UN said.
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