ZIMBABWE: FREE AND fair elections in Zimbabwe are impossible while President Robert Mugabe controls the electoral process and rival Morgan Tsvangirai is in and out of jail, Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga said yesterday.
Mr Odinga, in Washington for talks with US officials and global lending agencies, said South Africa should speak out strongly against Mugabe and the international community should insist he step down.
"You cannot have free and fair elections while one party controls completely and monopolises the instrument of power and . . . Tsvangirai is in and out of police cells almost on a daily basis, when people are being arrested, people are being beaten up and homes are being burnt," Mr Odinga told reporters.
Mr Tsvangirai defeated Mr Mugabe in a March election but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a run-off.
Mr Odinga disputed the victory of Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki in elections in December, which led to post-election violence in which 1,300 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes.
The two former rivals for the presidency formed a coalition government in April to end an impasse over the election.
Mr Odinga said the situation in Zimbabwe was an embarrassment to the continent's efforts to promote democracy and is a problem that needs to be dealt with by African governments.
"Gone are the days when African leaders used to misrule their people and the rest of Africa was quiet under the guise of what was called non-interference," Mr Odinga told a packed room during a speech at Washington's Centre for Strategic International Studies policy think tank.
South African president Thabo Mbeki has been criticised for failing to intervene in Zimbabwe and take a hard line against Mr Mugabe, who aided Mr Mbeki's African National Congress in its struggle to end apartheid rule.
Mr Odinga said he had been declared "public enemy No 1" in Zimbabwe since he branded Mr Mugabe a dictator earlier this month.
He said Mr Mugabe may have led the independence struggle in Zimbabwe but that did not "give him the title that he owns" the country. - (Reuters)