HARARE: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe defied mounting pressure yesterday from both inside and outside Africa to call off Friday’s presidential election, saying he had a legal obligation to go ahead.
A British newspaper meanwhile said the UK had drawn up contingency plans for military action in Zimbabwe. But the government insisted military intervention is not being considered.
The Times reported that Britain’s Defense Ministry had a draft plan to deploy troops to resolve a humanitarian crisis. A second plan has been drawn up to evacuate British nationals and dependents, the newspaper reported.
Both Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and South African ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma said the presidential runoff must be postponed after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote and fled to the Dutch Embassy in Harare.
The UN Security Council issued an unprecedented and unanimous condemnation of violence against the opposition and said it made a fair poll impossible. The statement won support from South Africa, China and Russia, which have previously blocked such moves.
But Mugabe shrugged off the pressure. “The West can scream all it wants. Elections will go on. Those who want to recognize our legitimacy can do so, those who don’t want, should not,” Mugabe told a rally in western Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai’s party said that the chairwoman of one of its provincial organizations was seriously injured by alleged Mugabe loyalists who also looted her home in a northern region that independent human rights groups say has seen some of the worst violence.
The party also said the rural home of its national organizing secretary was attacked early yesterday by Mugabe loyalists. The party said the official’s 80-year-old father was beaten and two other relatives were shot in the legs.
The UN Security Council will consider further steps against Zimbabwe if Harare ignores its statement declaring a free and fair runoff impossible, said US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the current Council president.
