Zimbabwean opposition unites

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, right, and his former rival Arthur Mutambara talk at a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday. PHOTO: AP

Zimbabwe’s opposition movement healed long-standing divisions and declared that it had won control of parliament for the first time in history — and that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe must concede defeat.

They also asked the UN Security Council to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe and to warn Mugabe that mounting violence against opposition supporters was tantamount to “crimes against humanity.”

Putting months of bickering behind them, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara stood united to order Mugabe to step aside.

“Old man, go and have an honorable exit,” Tsvangirai said in a message on Monday to the 84-year-old autocrat who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

“In a parliamentary democracy, the majority rule,” Tsvangirai said alongside Mutambara at a news conference at a Johannesburg airport. “He should concede that ... he cannot be president.”

More than a month after the elections, results from the presidential race have not been announced. Tsvangirai says he won the presidency outright — although independent observers say he fell just short of the votes needed to avoid a runoff.

Tsvangirai reiterated on Monday that he would not take part in a runoff.

“The question about a runoff doesn’t arise. It doesn’t arise because of the simple fact that the people have spoken, the people have decided,” he said before boarding a plane for Tanzania, whose president takes over the African Union’s (AU) rotating presidency.

Former Malian president Alpha Konare, the outgoing AU chairman, urged the release of poll results.

“The election results must be released to stop the violence,” Konare said.

“We hope that the president of Zimbabwe accepts these results,” he said in a statement.

MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti was due at UN headquarters in New York yesterday when the Security Council was scheduled to discuss the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai said Biti was to ask that the Security Council first “stop the violence, and to communicate to the regime in Harare that its actions are tantamount to crimes against humanity.”

The opposition says hundreds of its supporters have been arrested, attacked or driven from their homes, especially in rural areas that used to be Mugabe strongholds but voted against him in the polls. It says that 14 of its supporters have died.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says more than 63 people were hospitalized in three days last week alone, and provided photos of injuries.

Tsvangirai said his supporters were powerless against the onslaught, which is allegedly perpetrated by ruling party thugs and youth militias, with support from the chief of the armed forces.