Zim PM calls for peacekeeping force

[Rudolph]

2010-03-08 09:10

Chitungwiza - Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/user/3575) on Sunday called for an African Union and regional peacekeeping force to ensure that general elections in the country will be peaceful.

"Let’s bring foreign observers for the (next) elections", Tsvangirai told party supporters at a rally in Chitungwiza, 30Km south of the capital.

"We want a peacekeeping force, so that we can have a free and fair environment for the election to keep our people free so that they can vote.

"We can use AU and Southern African Development Community forces for peacekeeping during the election period," he added.

Tsvangirai and longtime rival President Robert Mugabe (http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/user/3562) entered into a power sharing deal in 2008, known as the Global Political Agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the country must hold elections after 24 months.

"We agreed that within the next 18-24 months we go for elections, so far we have finished one year," he said.

"We still have some months to complete the GPA, we don’t want elections that are full of violence, we want free and fair elections."

Endless talks

Tsvangirai expressed concern about reports of persistent violence he said he was receiving from across the country.

He has tasked two home affairs ministers to investigate.

He added that his party wanted interparty talks to be wound up. "We are sick and tired of endless talks", he said.

"We shall take measures that there will be no more dialogue for dialogue’s sake. We are a country in a transition, so get ready for elections."

Last week, Mugabe told reporters that he would be his party’s candidate in the elections for which no date has been set.

In 2008, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of presidential polls. He later withdrew from the second round citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.


- SAPA

http://www.news24.com/Content/Africa/Zimbabwe/966/b242ca297ef84d9cb1b2c33344397cca/08-03-2010-09-10/Zim_PM_calls_for_peacekeeping_force


Unfortunately no first-world country will lift a finger... because they can get nothing from doing that other than doing the right thing. No self-rigtheous country feels the need to force democracy on Zimbabwe??

[rgjbloke]

I hope it happens but I bet Mugabe will never agree it. It would completely screw him up trying fix the election result.

[Flagg]

Well as I understand it from someone who had boots on the ground during the 1980 election that Mugabe won he was cagey enough to put a bunch of poser insurgents in the designated areas for media while his real bagmen were rampaging around the country in the rural areas to ensure election victory

[SoSo]

Unfortunately no first-world country will lift a finger... because they can get nothing from doing that other than doing the right thing. No self-rigtheous country feels the need to force democracy on Zimbabwe??

Prime Minister Tsivangirai is right, only the presence of foreign peacekeepers can ensure a fair election in his country. I have no doubt that Mugabe and his ZANU-PF goons will launch another campaign of intimidation, to terrorize the people and ensure he remains in power. In the last election, they openly scrutinized the voters as they cast their ballots; these thugs are so sure of themselves, they no longer even pretend to allow the Zimbabwean people to vote privately.
It's doubtful that President Obama will press for international monitors in Zimbabwe; despite the fact that he is adored throughout the continent, he's shown that he cares no more about African affairs now than he did as an Illinois legislator. But maybe other world leaders will take a stand, and force Mugabe to accept international supervision.
If foreign peacekeepers are sent to oversee the Zimbabwean elections, they should come from neither former colonial powers, nor from revolutionary regimes, but from impartial countries, who will favor neither Mugabe's ZANU-PF nor Tsivangirai's MDC.
I have to point out that my country did intervene in Haiti in 1994, to suppress a military coup and permit the newly-elected President Aristide to take office, and again in 2004, after we realized what a raving loon he was, to terminate his disastrous presidency. We didn't benefit materially from these actions, as Haiti has few resources to exploit; we did it solely because it was the right thing to do.
Zimbabwe, on the other hand, does have some valuable diamond mines.