Calls for African observers to monitor violence in Zimbabwe

Johannesburg - Southern African leaders preparing for yet another round of crisis talks on Zimbabwe were urged Wednesday to immediately send observers to the country to investigate reports of fresh political violence. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have been summoned by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to Mozambique's capital Maputo to discuss a way out of their three-week impasse. The latest initiative by the regional political bloc comes a week after a SADC team of ministers met with the rivals in Zimbabwe last week but failed to end the deadlock. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has been in government with Mugabe's Zanu-PF since February, is boycotting cabinet meetings over Zanu-PF's refusal to to fully share power and implement reforms. Several human rights organizations have warned the country risks slipping back into the violence that characterized last year's presidential election. The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) on Wednesday called for the immediate deployment of a delegation to monitor the situation. The Johannesburg-based democracy-building foundation said it had reports of 'increasing military build-up in Zimbabwe, particularly in the Mashonaland provinces'. Elsewhere, the MDC has reported several cases recently of its members being intimidated by police and arbitrarily detained. OSISA also called for the deployment of a 'comprehensive, standing presence of SADC' to be stationed in Zimbabwe until a new constitution had been passed, and free and fair presidential and legislative elections held. Such a mission should be complemented by a Western-backed fund for education, health care, water sanitation and food, OSISA recommended. Ultimately, if SADC did not ensure the full implementation of the power-sharing deal that it brokered, 'there is the real prospect of a return to crisis and more suffering for Zimbabweans,' Sisonke Msimang, OSISA executive director said. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a United Nations expert on torture have all expressed similar concerns. Manfred Nowak, UN rapporteur on torture, was barred by Zimbabwean authorities last week from entering the country on a fact-finding mission.