ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWE'S NEIGHBOURS have closed ranks against Robert Mugabe as pre-election violence against opposition supporters intensified and spread to new areas of the country.
Pro-government militias were yesterday reported to be hunting supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) through the densely populated townships around Harare, which had hitherto escaped the worst of the violence.
The "heavily tortured" bodies of four opposition activists were found yesterday in the biggest Harare suburb, Chitungwiza, according to the MDC. Abigail Chiroto, the wife of the mayor-elect of Harare, and her four-year-old son were abducted from another township, Hatcliffe. Her body was found in nearby fields the next day and the boy was left at a police station. The MDC says that 70 of its supporters have so far been killed in the campaign for next Friday's presidential run-off vote.
"It's time really that we moved beyond calling this a campaign of violence. This is terror, plain and simple," a western diplomat in the region said yesterday.
Three of Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) turned decisively against Mugabe yesterday. "There is every sign that these elections will never be free nor fair," Tanzania's foreign minister Bernard Membe said.
He was speaking on behalf of his country and on behalf of Swaziland and Angola, who are leading a 380-strong SADC election observer mission.
At a press conference with French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris yesterday, British prime minister Gordon Brown called on Mr Mugabe to allow in more international observers as well as a UN human rights envoy. At the UN in New York, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the elections could not be free and fair under current conditions.
It is the turning of the tide in Africa, however, that is likely to have the strongest effect within Zimbabwe. Within the SADC, Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has long been critical of the Mugabe regime.
Kenya's foreign minister Moses Wetang'ula yesterday condemned the "roadblocks" hindering the MDC campaign and urged Mr Mugabe to hold a fair election.
"Anything less is an affront to the evolving democratic culture in Africa and unacceptable to all people in Africa," he said in a statement.
The most conspicuous voice missing from the regional chorus of disapproval has been that of South African president Thabo Mbeki, who has sheltered Mr Mugabe on the world stage, even questioning earlier this year whether there was a crisis in Zimbabwe.
Mr Mbeki travelled to Zimbabwe on Wednesday and had talks with both Mr Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, although Mr Tsvangirai has refused to accept Mr Mbeki as a mediator.
Mr Mbeki has said nothing, but South Africa's Business Day newspaper reported that he had tried to persuade both men to drop the second-round vote and form a government of national unity.
Amnesty International reported yesterday that 12 bodies had been found in various areas of Zimbabwe. Most of the victims appeared to have been tortured to death by their abductors. The victims were allegedly abducted by Zanu-PF supporters who, in some instances, were accompanied by armed men believed to be government agents.