Robert Mugabe Stole Zimbabwe Election, Says Gordon Brown

By David Blair and Andrew Porter in New York
Last Updated: 2:23am BST 17/04/2008

Gordon Brown has tossed a verbal hand grenade into the United Nations Security Council by denouncing Robert Mugabe for "stealing" Zimbabwe's presidential election.

The Prime Minister spoke a few yards from Mr Mugabe's leading defender, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who chaired the special session in New York.

Gordon Brown remarks signalled his impatience with Thabo Mbeki's diplomatics efforts in Zimbabwe

This was the first time that Zimbabwe had been discussed by the Security Council, which has confined its debates to threats to world peace.

Mr Brown took advantage of a rare meeting where heads of government were present to attack Zimbabwe's leader, who has failed to announce the results of a presidential election held almost three weeks ago.

"No one thinks, having seen the results at polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election. A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all. The credibility of the democratic process depends on there being a legitimate government," the Prime Minister said.

"So let a single, clear message go out from here in New York: that we are and will be vigilant for democratic rights; that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe.

"And we stand ready to support Zimbabweans to build a better future." Mr Brown's words also amounted to an implicit rebuke for Mr Mbeki, who sat two places away from him, expressionless throughout.

The two had been due to meet yesterday but South Africa cancelled the appointment, pleading a scheduling difficulty. But the pair did meet briefly before the session.

The South African president later told reporters that only continued talks would resolve the impasse in Zimbabwe.

He also denied that he was taking a soft approach to Zimbabwe because he was blinded by Mr Mugabe's reputation in the fight against white minority rule in southern Africa.

"The fact we have a mediation process like this on the political side is because we say there are things that have gone wrong," he said. "There are many wrong things with the politics of Zimbabwe."

Mr Mbeki said the opposition MDC should be allowed to participate in the verification of the election results.

He denied press reports that he had refused to call Zimbabwe's problem a crisis.

"I never said any such thing," he claimed but declining to say whether or not the word "crisis" applied.

Britain has previously supported Mr Mbeki's diplomatic efforts to resolve Zimbabwe's political impasse. Although Mr Brown has now signalled his impatience, he did so in carefully chosen conditions.

By attacking Mr Mugabe at the UN he sought to lend international cover to his criticism. The Foreign Office is anxious to prevent Mr Mugabe from rallying African support by posing as the victim of a bilateral dispute with Britain, the former colonial power.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, helped Mr Brown by voicing his own concerns and implying that other African countries had not done enough to curb Mr Mugabe. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Britain could have tabled a resolution compelling Zimbabwe to release the election results.

Zalmay Khalilzad, America's ambassador to the UN, said Zimbabwe's regime must "allow the electoral process to continue unfettered".

Robert Mugabe's mobs invade last white farms

By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg
Last Updated: 2:18am BST 17/04/2008

More than half of Zimbabwe's remaining white farmers have seen their land invaded by mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the bitterly disputed election, it emerged yesterday.

Of the roughly 200 white commercial farmers who still survive in Zimbabwe, about 120 have had their land occupied, either in whole or in part. About 28 have been evicted, while the rest are either clinging on inside their homesteads or coming and going as the situation allows.

After spending days helping victims of the occupations, Trevor Gifford, the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, has been singled out himself. Supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have invaded his sheep and cattle farm near Chipinge, 220 miles south-east of the capital, Harare.

"My four top workers at the farm have been brutally beaten," he said. "I can't get on to the farm myself but they sent me messages. It is wild out there. They have been taking my animals and killing them and I have asked the police to attend."

Stock theft carries a possible 20-year prison sentence, but the police response had been mixed, he said, and Zimbabwe's abysmal phone networks were slowing the flow of information to the CFU.

Mr Gifford said: "I know that farm workers of some of the farmers who have been chased off are refusing to go back to work. The mobs have told them not to work for white men, which is quite serious for those harvesting crops."

The first area to be targeted was Centenary, and Mr Gifford said local farmers were "scared out of their wits".

A farmer in Masvingo province, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals, said his plight had worsened dramatically since the early invasions - which he described as "the good old days".

"We have had a neighbour abducted," he said. "Yesterday I had 20 Zanu-PF youths chasing my staff and trying to kill them. They are digging the farm and harassing the staff - unfortunately those poor chaps are in the front line of this."

He had been left with nowhere to graze his animals, which were being stolen. "They are throwing the livestock off my farm," he said.

He compared his experience with the farm invasions that followed Mr Mugabe's defeat in a referendum on a new constitution in Feb 2000. Those events also marked the start of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa's diplomatic campaign to restore calm in Zimbabwe. The farmer described that as a "bloody waste of time".

Mr Mbeki faced further criticism yesterday from the man who defeated him for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress. Jacob Zuma, who became ANC president in December, explicitly contradicted Mr Mbeki's statement at the weekend that there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe.

Addressing a business audience near Johannesburg, Mr Zuma said: "The region cannot afford a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. The situation is more worrying now given the reported violence that has erupted in the country. Ladies and gentlemen, we once again register our apprehension about the situation in Zimbabwe."

Around 50 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, including a newly elected MP, were arrested yesterday.

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