Britain is asking the United Nations and African leaders to reprimand Zimbabwe for its human rights failures. Correspondent Peter Heinlein reports from U.N. headquarters in New York. The British U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones-Parry, urged the Security Council Wednesday to step up its criticism of Zimbabwe and its president, Robert Mugabe. "We believe that the United Nations and specifically this council should accelerate action on Zimbabwe to match that of the African Union and other regional organizations such as SADC," he said.
| Boy howdy, a reprimand: that'll show Bob, now won't it. |
SADC, the Southern African Development Community, is discussing recent developments in Zimbabwe at a summit in Tanzania. Leaders of the 14-nation group called the meeting after Zimbabwean security forces detained and beat opposition leaders, including Movement for Democratic Change head Morgan Tsvangirai.
Ambassador Jones-Parry called on the regional grouping to take the lead in condemning the deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe. "We hope that summit will send a strong message about the human rights and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe where daily the news seems to get worse," he said.
The U.N. Security Council will hear a closed-door briefing on Zimbabwe Thursday at Britain's request. The briefing will be given by a senior U.N. humanitarian affairs official. |