| Home | Politics | Human Rights | Water | Economy | Education | Sci & Tech | Culture | Sport |
24 April, 2008
PRETORIA (AFP) - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won a clear victory over President Robert Mugabe in last month's disputed elections in Zimbabwe, the top US envoy to Africa said on Thursday.
"The most credible results we have today are a clear victory for Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round and maybe a total victory," US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told reporters in South Africa.
"According to what we know, Morgan won in the first round and there should be a change," she added.
The result of the presidential election held on March 29 is still to be announced. While Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was initially declared the winner of a simultaneous legislative election, that result is also now up in the air as officials stage a partial recount.
Frazer said that, given the delay, the United States would greet any results coming out of Harare with great scepticism.
"It is hard for us to accept that any result at this point would have any credibility," she said after talks with officials in the South African capital Pretoria.
"The Zimbabwean people voted for change and we feel the will of the people must be respected."
Frazer also said that Washington was "increasingly concerned about the violence and human rights abuses taking place in Zimbabwe after the elections."
"This has created a climate of intimidation and violence... We can't stand back and wait for this to escalate further."
Her comments come after an association of Zimbabwean doctors said its members had treated at least 323 patients who had been beaten and tortured since the elections.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation has accused supporters of Mugabe of rounding up suspected opposition supporters and then assaulting them in torture camps.
While the MDC claims 10 of its members have been killed, the Mugabe administration -- which has governed the ex-British colony since independence in 1980 -- denies its supporters have been involved in any violence.