Mugabe rules out poll observers from U.K.

By M. S. Prabhakara

JOHANNESBURG, MAY 20 The Zimbabwean President, Mr. Robert Mugabe, has once again ruled out the presence of anyone from Britain in the Commonwealth observer/monitor missions for the forthcoming elections in his country.

According to a report in yesterday's The Herald, the state owned newspaper, Mr. Mugabe ruled out during a television interview in Mauritius where he is attending a summit meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the successor to the former Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Mr. Mugabe, who had agreed on allowing Commonwealth observer mission during his meeting with Mr Don Mckinnon in Harare earlier this week, had even then ruled out the presence of anyone either from Britain or the European Union in such a mission. He was even more categorical in his stand in his interview in Mauritius. ``We will welcome any observer team as long as they do not include a single Briton'', he said. Mr. Mugabe also maintained that his government ``will not move back, not an inch'' on the land issue. ``This is do or die for us. To be a man in Zimbabwe you must have land'', he said.

South Africa, which is very much a part of the Commonwealth, is sending a multi-party parliamentary delegation to Zimbabwe to ``observe'' the elections. According to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Frene Ginwala, the delegation will limit itself to ``observing'' the elections and will have no ``monitoring'' role.

This careful definition of the function of the proposed South African parliamentary delegation only underlines the sensitivities on the issue on both sides of the Limpopo. In contrast, both the main Opposition in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change, and Britain, have in the past insisted that the elections in Zimbabwe have to be held under ``international supervision'' to ensure that they will be free and fair.

This is also the refrain of the report and analysis in the South African media. Indeed, the fine distinctions between ``supervision'', ``monitoring'' and ``observing'' of the elections by teams promise to provide fruitful ground for further controversy.

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Section  : International
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