HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe came under threat of further sanctions Saturday as President Bush said the U.S. was working on ways to punish longtime leader Robert Mugabe and his allies after the widely denounced presidential runoff election.
Earlier Saturday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. plans to introduce a U.N. resolution seeking tough measures against Zimbabwe.
“We will press for strong action by the United Nations, including an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and travel ban on regime officials,” Bush said in a statement issued while he spent the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
The European Union said it would not rule out taking sanctions against “those responsible for the tragic events of recent months,” according to an EU presidency statement.
The runoff election Friday was widely condemned by African and other world leaders. Mugabe was the only candidate, and observers said the few Zimbabweans who went to the polls did so only out of fear.
According to human-rights groups, at least 86 people died and about 200,000 were forced from their homes in the lead-up to the election. Most of the violence was blamed on police, soldiers and Mugabe militants. There were reports of victims being beaten for hours and bodies mutilated. When the main targets could not be found, relatives — elderly parents, young siblings — were attacked.
“The international community has condemned the Mugabe regime’s ruthless campaign of politically motivated violence and intimidation with a strong and unified voice that makes clear that yesterday’s election was in no way free and fair,” Bush said.
The U.S. already has financial and travel penalties in place against more than 170 citizens and entities with ties to Mugabe, said White House spokesman Emily Lawrimore. The Bush administration is considering punishing the government of Zimbabwe as well as further restricting the travel and financial activities of Mugabe supporters, she said.
In Zimbabwe, deputy chief election officer Utloile Silaigwana announced on state television that counting had finished in most wards and that the electoral commission was waiting for results from a few outstanding wards. Results would still need to be verified by the national command center before being released.
Earlier, Justice Minister and senior ZANU-PF member Patrick Chinamasa said the party was expecting results either Saturday or today.
“From the information filtering in, it looks like a clear win for our president,” he said.
An announcement of the result is expected before Mugabe leaves for Monday’s African Union summit in Egypt.
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South Africa deports 450 Zimbabweans
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa deported about 450 Zimbabweans overnight from a border detention center to a homeland beset by political violence and uncertainty, an international aid group said Saturday.
The deportations were “unacceptable” and “in violation of international as well as South African law, which guarantee the right to seek asylum,” said Rachel Cohen, head of the South African branch of the aid group Doctors Without Borders.
The organization said one of its teams visited the center Friday — the day a widely criticized presidential runoff was held in Zimbabwe — and found more than 450 men, women and children there saying they had crossed the border in recent days, “fleeing instability and political violence.” When the aid team returned Saturday with supplies, it found the center empty, the agency said in a statement. It said South African authorities had confirmed all the Zimbabweans were sent back.
Siobhan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, told The Associated Press on Saturday that foreigners caught at the border are screened to determine their status.
“I don’t know the particulars of this case; my assumption would be that they would be in the country illegally and do not qualify for refugee status and therefore were returned to Zimbabwe,” McCarthy said.
As many as 3 million Zimbabweans are in South Africa. Most Zimbabweans who cross the border are considered economic migrants, not refugees. Few apply for asylum, in part because that could make it difficult to return. The Associated Press
