DATE=03/14/02

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=ZIMBABWE ELECTION REACT

NUMBER=6-125605

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: To the surprise of virtually no one in the international observer corps, Robert Mugabe, the scion of post-colonial Zimbabwean politics has been re-elected. He won an additional six-year term to add to his 22 years as president, beating back his strongest challenge yet by Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgtan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader.

There are widespread cries of "foul" echoing around the world, both from political leaders and from some of the globe's biggest daily papers. We get a short and early sampling of reaction to this week's election in Southern Africa now from V-O-A's _______________ who joins us with this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Before the election campaign began in earnest, Mr. Mugabe was being widely criticized for forcing white farmers off their commercial farms so that landless black peasants could farm them. Several white farmers were killed or wounded during attacks by roving bands of men described as veterans of Zimbabwe's war of independence from Britain. But their real identity was often questioned.

In addition, the economy of the once-prosperous nation was worsening by the day, as unemployment grew, and many foreign nations complained of the increasingly autocratic Mugabe government in Harare. Closer to the election, foreign observers and journalists were expelled, opposition political rallies raided by police, and resentment among many Zimbabweans grew. Now, amid widespread charges of cheating, Mr. Mugabe has won another term. But the world's press is anything but pleased. We begin in Zimbabwe itself, where Harare's Daily News comments:

VOICE: As he rides off into the sunset the winner of the most controversial election in Zimbabwe's history, President Mugabe, must wonder what his victory will do to the immediate future of his beleaguered country… The West, accused by [Mr.] Mugabe of campaigning for his ouster from power, will not touch Zimbabwe with a barge pole, not after an election so riddled with violence and chicanery only countries with hidden agendas will endorse it as free and fair…

TEXT: Turning to the weekly Financial Gazette, we read:

VOICE: Zimbabweans who voted in their millions to try to make a difference to their harrowing lives and to rescue their country from its rapid descent into the abyss were bound to be disappointed and angered, but that is now water under the bridge. They will fight another day. Unfortunately ..…the..…result spells much more pain and suffering because, from now on, the entire international community will great this country as a pariah which it is…

TEXT: Lastly from Harare, from the government-controlled Herald, which ran a special edition, there is this front-page editorial excerpt, encouraging people to turn their:

VOICE: "..… swords into ploughshares" and "rally behind" President Robert Mugabe in rebuilding the nation after..… the most bitterly fought election since independence… His win was comfortable and decisive… Having overcome the biggest challenge of his political career, the president faces the daunting task of bringing together a divided nation that has for years existed under a façade of racial harmony…

TEXT: Turning to South Africa, The Star in Johannesburg editorializes solemnly:

VOICE: History will judge the third day of voting in Zimbabwe's crucial election as the defining moment. It will also harshly judge Robert Mugabe as having botched it... The task for the independent observer team sent by South Africa to Zimbabwe seems easy. We expect them to praise Zimbabweans for a largely peaceful elections but to say that the dirty tricks employed by [Mr.] Mugabe's henchmen makes it impossible for them to render the elections as having been free and fair.

TEXT: To Western Europe now, where in London, Britain's Financial Times has its own harsh judgement of the outcome.

VOICE: The greatest losers [in] the Zimbabwean..… elections are obviously the people of Zimbabwe itself… The resulting majority - - thanks to gross intimidation and blatant ballot-rigging - - is a travesty and a tragedy... Stealing elections is a guarantee of instability, or massive repression, or both.

TEXT: As for the Daily Telegraph, the assessment is equally glum.

VOICE: Mr. Mugabe remains in power, but at a huge cost. That is felt most acutely by Zimbabweans… But it spreads outwards, first to southern Africa, then to the continent south of the Sahara as a whole, and finally to the Commonwealth… The prospects for the Commonwealth are equally bleak. The legitimation [legitimize] of the election by South African observers..… suggests that the organization will be unable to reach a consensus on suspending Zimbabwe…

TEXT: To Germany's financial capital, where the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung suggests:

VOICE: After counting the votes, it becomes clear that it was a mistake for the Commonwealth not to join the E-U [European Union] and the U-S which imposed sanctions on…. Zimbabwe. If Zimbabwe's membership in the Commonwealth had been suspended before the elections, it could have demonstrated to Zimbabwean voters that even 'non-white' foreigners are worried about the situation… [Mr.] Mugabe pretends that he is not interested in international criticism. But Zimbabwe's economy depends to a considerable part on South Africa.

TEXT: In Scandinavia, Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet suggests:

VOICE: Sweden must send a clear message to those countries with which the Social Democratic government traditionally holds strong relations. Should their support for democracy in Zimbabwe fail, Sweden's assistance to those countries also should be withdrawn…

TEXT: Moving on to the Southern Pacific, we check in with Australia's big Sydney Morning Herald [3-15] where this dispatch from Harare describes the mood.

VOICE: As a sullen silence descended on Harare following news of president Mugabe's bitterly controversial re-election..… observer missions from three African states were already claiming that they saw nothing seriously wrong with the poll. Western governments were joining local independent monitors, the foreign and independent media and Zimbabwean human rights groups in impotently condemning the poll, but observers from South Africa said the result was legitimate and should be respected by the world.

TEXT: And lastly from New Zealand, in Auckland's New Zealand Herald, a report from Harare quotes a Zimbabwean political science professor Masipula Sithole as saying:

VOICE: This is election fraud most foul. Every nation that respects democracy must not recognize [Mr.] Mugabe's Government. … Tell me anywhere in the world where a president who ruins his economy to 117 percent inflation, 60-percent joblessness, mass starvation and empty grocery shelves can ever win an election.

TEXT: Lastly to North America, where Canada's Toronto Star puts its view right in the headline. "..… election stolen by [Mr.] Mugabe."

VOICE: The Canadian government can't hope to reverse Zimbabwe's tainted election. But we don't have to meekly accept its discredited result. President Robert Mugabe mugged democracy this past week and he and his political thugs should be unwelcome in Canada as long as they cling to power. That is one way Ottawa can keep faith with opposition figures… Canada should urge that [President] Mugabe's regime be suspended from the 54-country Commonwealth of Nations for subverting Zimbabweans' rights to be heard in free and fair balloting.

TEXT: Across town, The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that:

VOICE: The British government has refused to accept that..… Robert Mugabe was legitimately elected in presidential polling last weekend. "Zimbabweans have plainly been denied their fundamental right to choose by whom they are governed," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told Parliament Thursday [3-14]. … Britain's decision comes amid mounting pressure on Mr. Mugabe.

TEXT: In the Canadian west, there was a local angle, as The Calgary [Alberta] Herald reports on a local man Bill Warden, a director of the University of Calgary in Zimbabwe as an election observer. Says the Herald:

VOICE: Bill Warden, a veteran of 20 election observer missions, says the presidential election campaign and vote were marred by countless instances of torture, arrests and voting fraud. "Nowhere in any of these places ..…[acting as an observer] have I seen such a level of state-inspired violence and intimidation,"[Mr.] Warden told the Herald ... from ... the capital, Harare.

TEXT: On that gloomy view from Harare, by way of Calgary, Alberta, and The Calgary Herald, we conclude this sampling of early world media reaction to Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election victory. (Signed)

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