URGENT NEGOTIATIONS were under way last night between the United Nations, the African Union and southern African leaders on the creation of a mediation team to send to Zimbabwe in an effort to avert further bloodshed.
If agreement is reached, a joint team with representatives of the UN, the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would assume the mediator role until now played by the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, alone.
Britain and the US spent much of yesterday lobbying other world powers not to recognise Robert Mugabe's continued presidency after the withdrawal from Friday's run-off vote of his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, who took refuge in the Dutch embassy yesterday.
"The international community must send a powerful and united message: that we will not recognise the fraudulent election rigging and the violence and intimidation of a criminal and discredited cabal," British prime minister Gordon Brown told parliament. "The world is of one view: that the status quo cannot continue."
The UN Security Council was yesterday debating a joint statement criticising the Mugabe regime for the brutality of the election campaign, in which more than 85 people have died. In the next two days, the leaders of Angola, Tanzania and Swaziland, who take a lead role in security issues in the SADC, are due to meet in the Angolan capital, Luanda. The meeting suggests some of the group may be ready to act without Mr Mbeki.
The AU yesterday signalled that it was prepared to take action. The chairman of the AU commission, Jean Ping, said: "One of the preconditions is that this violence against the people must be stopped."
Mr Tsvangirai's withdrawal and "the increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second round of the presidential election are a matter of grave concern", Mr Ping said.
AU officials were seeking to agree a common approach before an African summit at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt this week. The joint UN-AU-SADC team being negotiated yesterday would seek to hammer out agreement between Mr Mugabe's government and Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for a national unity government, or for new elections.
Tanzania and Kenya suggest new elections could be overseen by AU or SADC peacekeepers. Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, who led a successful mediation mission to Kenya earlier this year, gave his backing for a similar initiative.
- (Guardian Service)