Tsvangirai won Zimbabwe election, says U.S. official
(CNN) — Zimbabwe’s opposition leader won the disputed March 29 presidential election, the top U.S. envoy to Africa announced on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer was speaking in South Africa at the start of a visit to increase international pressure on President Robert Mugabe, AP reported.
Zimbabwe is locked in a political crisis as the government refuses to release the results of an election that opposition leaders claim as a victory over Mugabe, who has ruled the country for 28 years.
We think in this situation we have a clear victor, Frazer told AP, responding to questions about whether a power-sharing agreement could resolve the election impasse.
Morgan Tsvangirai won and perhaps outright, at which point you don’t need a government of national unity. You have to accept the result.
There may need to be a political solution, a negotiated solution.
Meanwhile, a Chinese ship that drew international condemnation for attempting to deliver weapons to Zimbabwe amid the country’s political crisis is returning home without offloading its cargo, officials in Beijing said Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the vessel was being diverted back to China because Zimbabwe had failed to receive the cargo as scheduled.
The An Yue Jiang had attempted to make delivery to landlocked Zimbabwe — where violence continues in a dispute over election results — via South Africa, but was blocked by a court ruling preventing transport of the arms across the country.
The opposition, which says it is being targeted in attacks by government forces, claims that the weapons would have been used to intimidate voters in the event of a run-off election as Mugabe attempts to shore up his support.
As the ship left South Africa in search of another port, the United States had urged other southern African countries not to allow it to dock. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also called for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe.
Deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told CNN the United States did not think it was appropriate for anyone to provide additional weapons in Zimbabwe as they are going through a political crisis.
China on Thursday defended the arms deal, saying it was finalized a year ago before Zimbabwe’s current troubles escalated, and called Washington’s pressure unjustified.
There are some people in the United States who would like to pose as the world’s policemen, but they are not welcomed in the world, spokeswoman Jiang said. We have friendly relationship with African countries.
David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation, said last week that the shipment includes 3.5 million rifle rounds, small arms, mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades.
Another U.S. administration official said the ship’s cargo was bound for Zimbabwe’s security forces.
The ship also tried to dock in Mozambique, but was refused permission, the official said.
China is a major small arms supplier for several countries, but the U.S. official said the timing of this arms shipment is important given the instability in Zimbabwe. Tensions are high there as a result of the government’s refusal to release the results from last month’s presidential elections.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its candidate Tsvangirai won the election. The ruling party of Mugabe, ZANU-PF, claims the MDC engaged in election tampering.
The delay in releasing the results of the vote sparked violence and a government crackdown on opposition members, according to the opposition and human-rights organizations.
In an interview last week with CNN, Tsvangirai said he was concerned about the Chinese ship and feared that the weapons could be used to intimidate voters.
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