World Jun. 19, 2008 - 02:35AM JST ( 3 )

HARARE —

South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday made fresh efforts to mediate in Zimbabwe’s crisis ahead of next week’s run-off, as global outrage grew over mounting violence in the country.

Mbeki met Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe late Wednesday after holding talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai earlier in the day, while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed “profound alarm” over conditions before the June 27 presidential vote.

“The current violence, intimidation and arrest of opposition leaders are not conducive to credible elections,” spokeswoman Michele Montas quoted Ban as saying.

“Should these conditions continue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election outcomes would be in question,” Ban added.

Also on Wednesday, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed in the country to ensure proper elections are held.

“What we need in Zimbabwe is actually an international peacekeeping force so that ... proper elections can be held,” Odinga told reporters during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice meanwhile said it was time for African leaders to tell Mugabe to hold free and fair elections and stop intimidating opponents.

She said she wanted such a “strong message” to be delivered by African leaders when asked by reporters what she hoped Mbeki would tell Mugabe during talks in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo.

Mbeki left without commenting late Wednesday after his talks with Mugabe, who is facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year rule over the country in the election.

The South African leader serves as mediator between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition, having been appointed to the post by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party confirmed Tsvangirai met Mbeki, but declined to provide details.

Mbeki has often come under criticism over his quiet diplomacy approach to Zimbabwe, and Tsvangirai has previously called for him to be stripped of his role as mediator.

Meanwhile there were further signs of a pre-vote crackdown when UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour announced the expulsion of a Geneva-based UN desk officer.

The officer traveled to Zimbabwe on Sunday but was expelled on Tuesday, said Arbour, who denounced the move by Harare as “uncooperative” and “untimely.”

Human rights groups and Western governments have said the upcoming poll has already been tainted by violence, and while Mugabe has blamed the opposition, the UN has said the president’s supporters were responsible for the bulk of it.

A government suspension of all aid work has also provoked warnings of a potential humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country, and state media reported Wednesday that the ban on NGOs involved in food distribution and AIDS treatment would be lifted.

The state-run Herald newspaper cited the government’s acting welfare secretary as saying the recently imposed ban on all aid work would not prevent AIDS patients from “accessing drugs and therapeutic feeding from clinics and hospitals.”

Food programs would also be allowed since they do not “entail community mobilization by NGOs,” Sydney Mhishi said.

NGOs provide food and medicine to children and clinics, mostly in rural areas.

The government imposed a blanket suspension on all aid work earlier this month after accusing NGOs of siding with the opposition ahead of the run-off.

Charities, however, said Wednesday’s announcement would have little effect.

“It does not amount to much because there is still very limited access, especially in rural areas due to politically-motivated violence,” said Famdai Ngirande of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO).

A spokesman for CARE, which had planned to resume food aid for 100,000 people in Zimbabwe before the suspension earlier this month, said Wednesday’s news applied only to two groups that deliver HIV medicines to clinics.

“All field operations of all NGOs remain suspended,” said Kenneth Walker, speaking from Johannesburg.

Once seen as a potential breadbasket for the region, Zimbabwe’s economy is now in freefall with the world’s highest inflation rate and major food shortages.

Wire reports