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US encourages Zim intervention
24/04/2008 16:29 - (SA)
Washington - The US would welcome the intercession of Nigeria or any other African nation with influence in Zimbabwe into the southern African nation's electoral impasse, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said on Wednesday.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai met briefly on Monday with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo seeking his intervention in the election that Tsvangirai feels venerable Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is trying to steal from him.
"As for Nigeria or any other African state's role in bringing a resolution to the current political crisis in Zimbabwe, we would encourage those who have some leverage with the government to use that leverage to bring about a peaceful resolution to what is a very deep political crisis," McCormack said.
Tsvangirai's opposition party is widely thought to have defeated Mugabe's followers in the March 29 balloting, but the government has not released the official vote count and has recounts under way. Officials floated the possibility on Wednesday of a coalition government headed by Mugabe.
International arms embargo
As president of Nigeria in 2003, Obasanjo co-operated with an international effort to entice Liberia's warlord president, Charles Taylor, to accept exile in Nigeria. Liberia now is a democracy, and Taylor is on trial for war crimes in an international court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The US and most of Zimbabwe's Southern African neighbours have been encouraging the region's richest country, South Africa, to intervene. SA President Thabo Mbeki has refused to press Mugabe, however, on the theory that subtle pressure would be more effective.
McCormack was asked about a suggestion of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of an international arms embargo against Mugabe's government.
The US spokesperson said he was unaware of details of Brown's suggestion, but endorsed the idea in principle.
"We believe that it is prudent for any state that is contemplating export of arms to the Zimbabwean government to reconsider those exports," McCormack said.
He noted a recent case in which members of unions, churches and other organisations in neighbouring states refused to allow a shipment of weapons brought by a Chinese freighter to be transported across their territory to the landlocked country.
"These, we believe, are prudent steps, given the current political situation in Zimbabwe," McCormack said.
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