Britain Monday called for concerted international action against Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe had turned the whole world against him by fuelling the violence that caused the withdrawal of rival Morgan Tsvangirai from the run-off election. "This is Mugabe versus the world today. It is not Mugabe versus Britain," Lord Malloch-Brown, state secretary in the Foreign Office, said at a press briefing.
Britain was seeking to get the "widest possible condemnation" of Mugabe across the international community, which would include a deepening of international sanctions. The situation in Zimbabwe had now developed into a "test of will" between the government there and the international community, and the steps to be considered should include the possibility of preventing international companies from doing business with Zimbabwe, he said. However, it was necessary to ensure that any steps that were taken would "not hit the poor" of Zimbabwe.
Diplomats said the British government was "very disappointed" that South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki had still not added his voice to the growing round of African leaders who have criticised Mugabe. Britain was also keenly aware of the "sensitivities" of its involvement in the calls for tougher action, and also of the "difficulties" resulting from the positions of China and Russia on the UN Security Council.
"I believe there is a whole range of things that can be done which can bring this regime to heel in the sense of requiring it to bend to the will of the international community and allow political change," Malloch-Brown said earlier on BBC radio.
He said current sanctions against Zimbabwe's leadership were "fairly limited," with measures by the United States, the EU and Australia targeting some 130 of Mugabe's "immediate cronies." Wider international measures could now be used to put pressure on leading figures in the regime. "Each of them have global bank accounts, a network they have taken out of the country against a rainy day. Each of them wants to spend their money on their kids going to expensive graduate schools around the world and on having second homes in countries to where they could potentially go," said Malloch-Brown.
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