World Apr. 18, 2008 - 03:30AM JST ( 2 )

JOHANNESBURG —

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader called for South Africa’s president to stop mediating in the crisis-torn country Thursday and said a war crimes tribunal may be the only way to halt spiraling violence.

After the Harare regime accused Morgan Tsvangirai of “treason” by allegedly courting ex-colonial power Britain to intervene militarily, the opposition leader said Zimbabwe faced its darkest hour since independence almost exactly 28 years ago and urged greater pressure on President Robert Mugabe.

Authorities in Zimbabwe have still to release the results of a presidential election held on March 29 in which 84-year-old Mugabe sought a sixth term.

Mugabe meanwhile said in an eve of independence day address that Zimbabwe must defend against British “imperialism.”

“We should not let our children down by dropping our guard against imperialism, British imperialism, which is surreptitiously and clandestinely weaving its way through our society, trying to divide us,” Mugabe told youngsters at a party in the capital Harare.

While South African President Thabo Mbeki was given the green light at the weekend to continue mediating between the opposition and Mugabe’s ruling party, Tsvangirai said it was time to recognise Mbeki’s efforts had proved fruitless.

“We want to thank President Mbeki for all of his efforts but President Mbeki needs to be relieved of his duties,” he said on a visit to Johannesburg.

Tsvangirai said he had made a request to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, current chairman of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), to begin a new mediation effort.

Tsvangirai’s comments come after Mbeki said at the weekend he saw “no crisis.” Mbeki has been widely taken to task for his failure to publicly criticize his northern neighbor under a policy known as quiet diplomacy.

Even his own ruling African National Congress party has described the situation in Zimbabwe, where inflation is running at over 165,000%, as dire and his cabinet issued a statement after a meeting Thursday for the results to be released as soon as possible.

Mwanawasa hosted a weekend summit to debate the Zimbabwe crisis where Mbeki is understood to have argued against making any public criticism of Mugabe in a final communique.

International frustration over the stance of regional leaders is boiling over, with U.S. President George W Bush saying he wanted to see the African Union and United Nations become more heavily involved.

“What kind of election is it if you not let the will of the people be known?” Bush said as he met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“I appreciate those in the region who have spoken out on this issue—appreciate the fact that some in the region have spoken out against violence. More leaders in the region need to speak out.”

In an address to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Brown said “no one thinks” Mugabe won against Tsvangirai.

That intervention brought an angry response from the Zimbabwean government with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa alleging Britain was colluding with Tsvangirai to bring about regime change.

The state-run Herald newspaper printed a letter which it said showed the opposition leader begging for military intervention and a letter from the British leader to Tsvangirai.

“It is clear from the correspondence that Tsvangirai along with Brown are seeking an illegal regime change in Zimbabwe and on the part of Tsvangirai this is treasonous,” Chinamasa told the government mouthpiece.

Britain hit back, saying the correspondence was a hoax. “No such letter or wider correspondence exists,” the embassy in Harare said in a statement.

Reports of violence have increased in recent days with a coalition of Zimbabwean doctors saying its members have seen and treated more than 150 patients who had been beaten and tortured since the elections.

The opposition claims at least two activists have been killed by Mugabe supporters and there have been other reports of unrest, including several invasions of white-owned farms.

For his part, Tsvangirai said that a U.N. war crimes tribunal may be the only way to halt the violence.

“I think the current wave of violence against the people must stop and the only way to stop is that those who are committing those crimes must know they will be answerable one day,” he said.

AFP