World Jul. 05, 2008 - 05:51AM JST ( 12 )

HARARE —

A defiant Robert Mugabe ruled out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe’s political crisis Friday unless they acknowledged his victory in a one-man presidential election.

Speaking to thousands of supporters after flying home from an African Union summit, Mugabe said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should not “delude” himself into thinking the result of the June 27 poll could be expunged from the record books and should renounce his claims to the presidency.

“I am the president of the republic of Zimbabwe and that is the reality,” he said at Harare airport where some 4,000 supporters had gathered to welcome him back from the AU summit in Egypt.

“Everybody has to accept that if they want to dialogue. If they agree on that, and we are satisfied, then we shall go into dialogue and listen to them by way of ideas, but those votes can never be thrown away.”

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party denounced the pre-condition as a joke.

“This is an unrealistic precondition and we are not going to accept it,” said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

The run-off election, boycotted by Tsvangirai after deadly attacks on his supporters, was widely denounced as a sham by Western governments.

However, 84-year-old Mugabe, the continent’s oldest leader, escaped serious censure from his peers at this week’s summit which instead ended with relatively bland calls for the formation of a national unity government.

Although Botswana reiterated a call Friday for the Mugabe regime to be suspended from the AU and the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), the chances of the region taking a hard line are receding with his biggest critic, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, fighting for his life.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, SADC’s chief mediator on the crisis, has been fiercely criticised by the MDC over his consistent refusal to publicly criticize his Zimbabwean counterpart.

Mugabe said “we are happy that Mbeki continues to be the facilitator,” adding “he has done nothing wrong.”

His comments further puncture hopes of a breakthrough between Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and the MDC which has proclaimed Tsvangirai as the rightful president after he won the first round of the presidential election in March.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off after the killing of scores of his supporters in attacks he blames on pro-Mugabe militias and after he was detained by police on five occasions while campaigning.

The opposition said Friday that post-election violence had claimed the lives of 103 of its supporters and some 5,000 were missing after being abducted by Mugabe’s ruling party. The previous death toll stood at around 90.

Following the rubberstamping of Mugabe’s victory, Tsvangirai made clear he would not recognize his old rival as the rightful head of state and also dismissed the AU’s calls for a national unity government as such an arrangement would not reflect the will of the people.

Tsvangirai instead wants talks about setting up a transitional authority which would draw up a new constitution that would lead to a fresh elections.

His stance received backing on Friday from the European Union which called for new polls as soon as possible.

“Only this can provide a long-term response to the serious difficulties currently being faced in Zimbabwe, which are threatening regional stability,” a statement from Brussels said.

On Thursday, the United States pushed for a U.N. travel ban and an assets freeze on Mugabe and 13 of his cronies in protest at the presidential runoff vote. The Security Council is expected to vote on the proposal next week.

Botswana is keeping up regional pressure on Mugabe with its foreign minister urging the region not to recognize his re-election for a sixth term.

“As a country that practices democracy and the rule of law, Botswana does not, therefore, recognize the outcome of the presidential run-off election, and would expect other SADC member states to do the same,” Foreign Minister Phandu Sekelemani told reporters.

A team of observers from Botswana, part of a SADC mission which oversaw the poll, issued a report saying the vote was marked by atrocities against opposition supporters.

“The atrocities have been corroborated and constitute the necessary evidence to conclude that the credibility and integrity of the election process was compromised,” it said.

Wire reports