HARARE (Reuters) - Angola's veteran leader has added his weight to appeals to Zimbabwe's government to end the political violence and intimidation that is threatening the legitimacy of its June 27 presidential run-off election.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, an old ally of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, sent a message urging him to "embrace a spirit of tolerance", Angola's state-run ANGOP news agency said late on Friday.

The new appeal came amid signs of growing African discontent over bloodshed that has escalated since Zimbabwe's March 29 general election.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says at least 70 of its members have been killed since that vote, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is considering pulling out of the run-off for president, a spokesman said.

"President Jose Eduardo dos Santos urged Zimbabwe's leader to embrace a spirit of tolerance and respect for democratic norms while at the same time appealing for an end to all acts of intimidation and violence occurring in that country," ANGOP said.

A number of African nations, the United States and former colonial power Britain have said they do not believe next week's run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai will be free and fair.

The new appeal to Mugabe carried particular weight coming from dos Santos, 65, who like the Zimbabwean leader, is a former liberation-era guerrilla.

Nearly 30 years in power in his former Portuguese-ruled territory, dos Santos has himself been at odds with the West, refusing to bow to demands that he make his government more transparent and democratic.

The 14-nation Southern Africa Development Community is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote. Zimbabwe has refused to admit Western observers and ignored Britain's request that international rights officials be allowed into the nation.

Mugabe's government has also slashed the number of Zimbabwean observers who will be on hand for the election, according to the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, which had nearly 9,000 observers for the March election.

"We only got invitations for 500 observers," Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, the national director of ZESN, said.

"A DAMN LIE"

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the March vote but fell short of the outright majority needed to avoid a second round, according to official results.

The MDC leader has been detained five times during his campaign and MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti remains in custody facing a treason charge and other offenses. Biti is accused of leaking results of the March elections prematurely.

He faces a death sentence if convicted.

Mugabe, 84, is fighting to cling onto power in the country he has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. Once prosperous, its economy is now ruined and millions have fled the political and economic crisis to neighboring states.

On Friday he denied that security forces were using brutal tactics against the opposition and accused the MDC of inventing reports of violence.

The political impasse threatens to make worse the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which is struggling with inflation over 165,000 percent, 80 percent unemployment and chronic food and fuel shortages.

Angola leader urges end to Zimbabwe poll violence | International | Reuters

The violence that most people on BN either don't believe in, or support because they think terrorsing blacks in the name of winding up the west is funny/pro african?

Clegg's wrong on Zimbabwe

Calling for military action risks dividing Africa just as its leaders appear to be uniting against Mugabe

Naturally despair is the primary emotion that will greet the decision by Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pull out of the presidential run-off against Robert Mugabe, which was due to have been held this Friday. With the election gone and no indication about when, or if, regime change will happen, the call for military action could develop from a low rumble into a roar. Such talk risks dividing Africa at the very time when its leaders, finally, appeared to be uniting against Mugabe.

Given its colonial past, Britain has a responsibility to think harder than most before talking up the prospect of war. Sadly, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg foolishly talked of military action on yesterday's BBC Politics Show, and also wants to ban remittances sent by people in Britain to their relatives in Zimbabwe. On both counts Clegg is profoundly and dangerously wrong.

To be fair to Clegg, he raised military action in the same breath as declaring that it would be "impractical", a clear case of having his cake and eating it. I want regime change in Zimbabwe as much as anybody. Half my family is from Zimbabwe and I have visited several times. In fact, a few months ago a cousin of mine was arrested and tortured for a week before being dumped, dazed and injured, in the bush. His crime was simply living in a Harare neighborhood that was viewed as sympathetic to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

With the economy having all but collapsed, many Zimbabweans depend on remittances from the estimated half a million Zimbabweans living in Britain. Without this vital lifeline, people will die. Clegg has clearly not done his homework on the issue of remittances. He claimed that remittances help fund Mugabe's regime. That is simply not the case. The cash goes straight from the sender to the receiver, with an international money transfer company (mostly Western Union) taking a cut. There is no evidence that cash sent to help relatives is being passed on to the government. Clegg seemed to suggest that remittances could be banned because Zimbabwe's rate of inflation meant that money sent quickly lost its value. Again, the Lib Dem leader is speaking out of ignorance. Most, if not all, transfers are in American dollars. His talk of a "petrol embargo" will surely be met with hollow laughter in the streets of Zimbabwe where petrol has been running increasingly scarce for the past two or three years. Zimbabwe's long-suffering population has already adapted to the shortage of petrol and high transport costs – they cycle and walk. Their answer to rampant inflation and collapsing economy is to trade in the black market. As a Lib Dem member, I am ashamed that Clegg has indulged in political opportunism over Zimbabwe, and appalled that he has embarked on this journey in such an amateurish way.

Now that Tsvangirai has abandoned the election, it is vital that the gathering momentum among African leaders continues. The leaders of Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa's Jacob Zuma have all joined the chorus of international opinion declaring that the presidential elections would not be free and fair. After years of procrastination for a host of self-interested reasons, this development carries with it genuine hope that Mugabe will at last read the writing on the wall. The west can spend its time comparing Mugabe to Hitler, but the real answer is African solutions to African problems.

British actions, from tying a compensation package for white farmers to "good governance" clauses in the Abuja Accord, to the imposing of so-called smart sanctions, has merely stiffened the resolve of Mugabe to resist. The diplomacy of Thabo Mbeki – wanting a graceful exit for Mugabe alongside a succession of a modern leader from within Zanu-PF ranks – has often been misinterpreted as Mbeki standing by a tyrant while failing to use the power South Africa wields to force change. The belief that the west can simply apply pressure on South Africa to turn off the lights of its neighbour, as Clegg suggests, does not recognise the dynamics of the region. Over the past decade Britain should by now realise that might and muscle will not bring Zimbabwe any closer to a solution. It simply feeds the Mugabe propaganda machine and isolates the very people who can bring their influence to bear – other African leaders. If Britain has a hung parliament at the next election and Clegg is offered a place in the cabinet I, for one, will pray he does not become foreign secretary.

A Good Post I only hope the Muppet reads it.

Was going to say the same in the thread on, ''what would you say to Mugabe?'' all the fool has to do is elect a new leader and take the pressure and focus off of himself. If they want to declare themselves as a dictatorship they'll need someone else to front it for them.

]I have issues with Mugabe.

Initially about five years ago, while in Zambia looking at all those currency sellers on the road side, ignoring Zimbabwe currency and hearing the stories of "Land Grab" my sympathies lay firmly on being anti Mugabe.

I don't know the in's and outs of the Country, but the issue of Land distribution was always so from the time Ceil Rhodes and his pals forged and forced Traditional illiterate rulers to sign over their lands to the British.

The Lancaster House agreement acknowledged this unfair distribution of Land and worked with Mugabe to resolve the issue. However Britain stopped the compensation to Zimbabwe around 1997 and this was instrumental to this Policy of "Land Grab" .

The spectere of White Farmers ( of which I had the pleasure of speaking with back then) being forced off the land because , Claire Short renaged (sp) on previous Governments pledges with the " We don't do Colonialism" forced Mugabe to be active in this area. This action brought about Labours policy of sanctions. And in turn economic hardship.

I am not a great fan of Democracy, and I do remember a White Zambian telling me that the reason African Leaders hold on to Power, more so than Western ones, is that in Africa the notion of a Traditional Ruler giving up Power within a few years is not part of our Culture. His views I might stress.

This leads me to explore the imposition of Parlimentary Democracy thrusted on newly African States at the time of "Independance" a sort of a One size Democracy fits all. Hence the problems.

Democracy, as Christianity used to be, is now the so called benchmark of Civilised society. But it is largely the product of an Industrialised nation. Also it playes beautifully in the hands of Neo Colonialists. In so far that if the main party in Power doe'snt abide by what the West tells it, then it will sponsor the opporisition party to change it, hopefully without much blood shed. The problems was that African countries were and are too underdeveloped to have Democracy policies that would be subject to change every 5 years, i.e Nigeria and the existing Presidents policy towards the Chinese proposed 8 Billion Dollar contract signed by the last Adminstration but suspended through this one!

This was a theory of mine until this year, when I was told by a Power that be prior to the election that they were actually going to do that, by supporting Makoni. As mentioned I did not pay any attention to this information until the aftermath of this election.

Let's look at the moral indignation of the West towards Mugabe and constrast it with the Machinations of Simon Mann and Mark Thatchers "Democractic" bid for Power over EQ!!!!! Fcuking Hypocrites

Mugabe's sin is that he is his own man, He is an anti-Colonialist of the old school, his 84, imagine what life was like back in 1944 for him? How was his people regarded by the ruling elite back then?

It is right that African nations under the umbrellia (sp) of the African Union seek ways to resolve the crisis. But let's be in no doubt the Crisiss in my opinion started with Britain, back in 1997 breaking it's Lancaster House pledges to Zimbabwe on compensation and redistribution of Land.

I am very suspectious (sp) of this "opporisition" Leader. From my understanding Simon Mann and Thatcher also were going to bring one along if their coup was successful. In whose interests will such a leader really serve ?

I am happy to be informed and enlightened by others views on the matter.

Great post.

I am not as informed as you guys on this subject, but i have the following views on the situation:

Mugabe is viewed by the west as a jumped-up black man who needs to be taught a lesson. They are outraged that he would have the audacity to voice a decenting opinion much less actually take action, and expell the white farmers from the land. These same white farmers who lived like kings while the people struggled.
The same ones who promised a renegotiaion of the vast amounts of wealth they were earning with the people, but put this off for SEVENTEEN YEARS, whilst they grew fatter and fatter.

I feel Mugabe's sentiments are correct. He knows that the opposition will simply put the same policies back in place, in order to appease their western pay masters and achieve the status quo for the populus, surviving, but not progressing. Constantly looking towards their "European saviors" to run their country, rescue them from famine and teach them how to be "cilivised", ...utterly sickening. Although i must be clear, i feel the violence is reprehensible and pray that it stops.

I agree democracy is like the new christianity, it is essentially contra to the African tradition and way of life. Africans are tribal, therefore the division of Africa by the west into demarked countries is entirely alien, because you have multiple ethnicities bunched together and told to call each other countrymen & I just don't think it works.

Dictatorship as a model is and always has been a successful form of governance, other than those propped up by the west and other factions during the not so cold war it works well for developing nations which is why they are all too quick to drop in and vilify on those nations that adhere to it.

Makes for an efficient program for fast and steady development, simply can't have people digging up problems and gathering people against an elected leader every four years, throwing money around with expensive marketing agendas and party supported speeches, doing so on a constant basis under economic pressures only makes for a nation of self concerned and pissed off peoples.

Ultimately plays on a hunger for power offering each and every man the chance to run a country so long as he has appeal and the, ''right'' people behind him... in this world of capitalism where the majority of rich people earn and maintain their wealth in ways that most would describe as immoral outside of its given context democracy as the west would have it can only lead to high level corruption something that suits them just fine no doubt.

***

You know this is really sad and it really infuriates me. You got some Heartless and Outright Evil people right here on BNV who condone the attacks and the killings of Opposition MDC Members solely because Mugabe is a their hero who stnads up to the West. So if Thousands of Africans are Killed, and millions more forced from their homes that were demolished to make way for a Chinese Development project so be it. Zimbabweans are forced to flee to South Africa where they face Xenophobic attacks and made to become beggers, and some BNV people see nothing wrong with that and they sleep very well at night, not to mention that they eat four meals a day in the UK and the USA plus refreshements, drinks, tea and biscuits on the side. So enjoy all these while it last and the shoe is not on you back.

These people who are reduced to beggers and beaten at Home in Zimbabwe and South Africa could have been our Mothers, Our Sisters, Brothers, and Fathers. Lucky Dube once said that "Not Every Black Man is my Brother", and it is here in BNV that it has been proven that some amongst us are not our Brothers and the only things we have in common is our skin color. The mayor of Harare had his wife abducted and murdered, just because he happens to be a member of the opposition. Now lets assume that the MDC Opposition was Misguided, Short Sighted and wrong on their policies, does that mean they deserve Death? Is there a law thats says a person who is misguided deserves to die?

Evil, just pure evil is what I have seen here on BNV. Pure Evilous souls here and we have nothing in common with these Evil people. Had we been in Africa some of those on BNV condoning the murders in Zimbabwe will have joined in to beat and murder fellow Africans, straight up without hesitation.

what pisses me off about this whole "get Mugabe" episode is the loss among a lot of our less thoughtful brothers and sisters of the basic that it is not Mugabe they are after. it can not be Mugabe alone that is the matter here. it is CONTROL that is at issue. it is about getting rid of those people who are running things, so that another group of people can be brought in who will run things, but then on behalf of somebody else. this is at base a racial campaign to give the land and resources back to one racial group at the expense of another, period.

i listened to that Sarkozy person tell the world he is ready to take military action in Zim. funny how some short people can talk so tall. aren't these the same leaders struggling to hide from their own people the reality of mass graves in Iraq, and how the numbers of their casualties do not make any sense? they have now turned away from mention of other justification for waging that war, like bringing democracy and justice, to the rapidly increasing number of dead not dying in vain: from noble cause to the inculcation of vengeance feelings in the psyche of their own masses... kind of similar to instigating tit for tat killings during divide and conquer manipulations, but this time it is done against their own people, or, shall we say, their own people are driven into a frenzy of hate for foreigners who initially they were supposed to have gone out to save... forget the Taliban mirage. how cheap can a mature man become of tactic?

they cannot even reveal to their own people that those pictures of brave soldiers wandering macho like surrounded by perplexed peasants are photo ops, because western forces are barracks based, buttressed buffered fortressed and immovable, afraid of IED's and the like? sitting duck like that just check how fast they will move when disadvantage swings completely their way, and change tact too like shake hands with everybody, including the Taliban and that Al Quaida..

if the Sarkozy guy thinks Southern Africa is some Ivory Coast scenario, then he will find out the hard way just why the colonialists fled this part of the world en masse back then. i should actually say to these war mongering types "bring it on!" i personally am tired of this life where the devil pretends to be the good guy while behind the scenes he causes mayhem, succeeding to convince a lot of our people (60%) that their suffering is caused by something else. all of that deception gets out of the way when it is truly on.

getting that deception out of the way is what the main article of this post is basically warning against.

that ... shouldn't happen at a pro black website where we are supposed to be deciphering the wiles of the devil, not providing better cloaking material.