Africa News
Lift sanctions or we'll bar observers, Zimbabwe tells West (Roundup)
By DPA
May 12, 2008, 13:30 GMT

Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe's government said Monday it would only invite Western countries to send observers to a presidential run-off election if they lifted sanctions targeting mainly President Robert Mugabe and other members of the ruling elite.

Reacting to a demand from opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said: 'We will not allow them (Western observers).'

'We will think favourably of them if they lift sanctions,' the government-controlled daily The Herald quoted Chinamasa as saying. 'Until they do that, there is no basis to have any relationship with them.'

The European Union and the United States slapped dozens of top Zimbabwean officials, including Mugabe with travel bans and asset freezes in 2002. Zimbabwe is also under an EU and US arms embargo.

Tsvangirai at the weekend announced that he would enter a second round of voting for president against Mugabe under certain conditions, including that the runoff be held by March 23.

Mugabe, 84, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, is seeking a sixth term in power. The MDC had initially resisted a runoff, saying their man beat Mugabe outright in the first round on March 29.

Official results however gave him 47.9 per cent against 43.2 per cent for Mugabe - below the 50-per-cent-plus-one-ballot threshold needed for a direct victory.

As a condition for his participation, Tsvangirai called for international observers, including United Nations observers to be allowed monitor the polls, as well as free media access.

The government barred most Western journalists and election observers from witnessing the first round of voting.

He also called for the Southern African Development Community to send peacekeepers to halt post-election violence, for the state- controlled election body to be overhauled and for the run-off to be held within three weeks of the results being announced on May 2.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission replied that it would 'likely' extend the run-off period beyond the legally-mandated three weeks.

Despite his conditions receiving short shrift from the state Tsvangirai is set to return to Zimbabwe this week to begin campaigning.

The MDC leader had been expected to return Monday but was still awaiting guarantees on his security from SADC, according to his spokesman George Sibotshiwe.

'They (SADC) are working on it,' Sibotshiwe said.

Tsvangirai has been based in South Africa and Botswana for the past month, during which the MDC says over 30 of its members have been killed and hundreds of supporters injured by pro-Mugabe militia and soldiers as retribution for their vote.

The economy is seen as Mugabe's Achilles heel. The government's populist policies are blamed for inflation of over 165,000 per cent and a Zimbabwe dollar that is worth around one-200-millionth of the US currency.

But there was praise for Zimbabwe from one quarter Monday. The African Development Bank on Monday tipped its cap to Mugabe's government for managing to repay 700 million dollars in debt to the bank. Most of the sum was paid on April 14.

The payments were 'testimony of the government's determination to live up to its international financial obligations,' the bank said in a statement.