"I insist to President Mugabe that he accept the postponement of the elections so that diplomacy can get under way with the support of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) to find a solution," Wade said in a statement sent to AFP. Dakar - Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade on Monday asked Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to postpone the second round of presidential elections after the withdrawal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

"Today he (Tsvangirai) has taken refuge at the Dutch embassy and nothing guarantees that the soldiers will not attack this embassy to grab him as it would not be the first time that forces had violated the diplomatic immunity of an embassy," Wade said.

He added that he had written to African Union Commission Chairperson Jean Ping and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking for immediate measures to ensure Tsvangirai's safety. "I will speak on the phone right away with President Mugabe to give him the same request," said Wade, 82, who has been in power since 2000.

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party, quit the presidential election second round run-off on Sunday, saying increasing violence had made a free and fair election impossible. "This development and the increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second round of the presidential election are a matter of grave concern to the AU Commission," a statement from Jean Ping's office said on Monday.

An African Union summit to be held in Egypt on June 30-July 1 will be preceded by a ministerial meeting that starts on June 27, the day the second round of Zimbabwe's presidential election has been scheduled.

Senegal's Le Quotidien newspaper asked on Monday: "Where is the UA in this deep political crisis?

"One cannot rely on the continent's heads of state who are unable to intervene politically with efficiency in this kind of situation".

Tsvangirai, who took refuge at the Netherlands embassy in Harare on Monday, failed to clinch an outright majority in the first round that took place in March, according to official results. The opposition says more than 80 of its supporters have since been killed and thousands injured in a campaign of intimidation led by Mugabe's regime ahead of the vote.

The UN Security Council on Monday condemned the violence and intimidation against the opposition in Zimbabwe and urged that the presidential run-off vote not be held on Friday as planned. After hours of haggling, the 15-member council unanimously adopted a watered-down, non-binding statement that "condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round" of voting.

Zimbabwe's UN Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, who attended the council meeting, said afterward that as far as his government was concerned, "the election (on Friday) goes ahead." - Sapa-AFP


From zimgreats.com