Violence mars Zimbabwe recount
UK urges arms embargo amid vote recount and claims of government attacks.
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The MDC was initially declared to have taken 109 seats against 97 for Zanu-PF in the 210-seat parliamentary chamber, but the party of Robert Mugabe, the president, will regain its majority if it can reverse the results in seven or more of the seats under review.
International pressure
World leaders are pushing for an end to the stalemate.
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, told parliament on Wednesday that he would seek a complete arms embargo against Zimbabwe and called on the whole world to show the Zimbabwe government that the situation there was “not acceptable”.
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After addressing parliament, Brown met Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa‘s ruling ANC party in talks dominated by the Zimbabwe crisis.
The African National Congress leader has been one of Mugabe’s most outspoken critics in Africa.
Zuma also called the situation “not acceptable” and said he and Brown agreed on the need for action and called for the election results to be quickly released.
“We call for an end to any violence and intimidation and stress the importance of respect for the sovereign people of Zimbabwe and the choice they have made at the ballot box,” they said in a joint statement after their meeting.
However, Zuma would not support Brown’s call for an international arms embargo on Wednesday.
Zuma, who has distanced himself from the “quiet diplomacy” of Thabo Mbeki, South Africa‘s president, over Zimbabwe, has called on African leaders to take action to unlock the stalemate.
Zimbabwe‘s neighbours, previously passive despite the collapse of the country’s economy, took a harder line towards Mugabe this week, refusing to allow a Chinese ship to unload arms headed for the landlocked country.
“They beat me, tore my clothes and said to me I was selling out the nation, and that I am MDC” Justin Chauke, attacked farm worker |
Justin Chauke, a farm worker, told Al Jazeera: “They beat me, tore my clothes and said to me I was selling out the nation, and that I am MDC. They kept beating me, and I started bleeding from my ears and nose.”
Zimbabwe‘s state-run newspaper has, meanwhile, urged regional countries to help Mugabe form a transitional government that can organise a fresh poll and write a new constitution.
The Herald, traditionally close to Zanu-PF, said in an editorial posted on its website on Wednesday that prevailing political tensions made it impossible to hold a free and fair presidential run-off.