The BBC has the story:
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to pull out of the presidential run-off on 27 June, party officials have told the BBC.
The decision, taken at a meeting of the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare, means Robert Mugabe will remain as president.
The MDC says the decision comes after at least 70 of its supporters have been killed in the run-up to the poll.
Earlier this week, Nick Clegg wrote in The Times about how the UK should respond to events in Zimbabwe:
In view of the extreme circumstances facing Zimbabwe, I urged Gordon Brown two weeks ago to warn Mugabe that unless his Government met the basic minimum standards for a free and fair election on June 27 we would work with our allies in the region and the wider world to do the thing that his regime fears: cut off access to the foreign currency that keeps them in power. This step could be taken straight away by Britain using the powers of the Exchange Control Act 1947.
You can read Nick’s full piece here.
UPDATE: This just in from Nick Clegg:
Britain must now work with the EU and the UN to draw up immediate measures to force President Mugabe out of power. We must liaise closely with Mozambique and South Africa to restrict electricity supplies into Zimbabwe, to impose a possible petrol embargo and a temporary halt of foreign currency remittances.
While these measures will hit ordinary Zimbabweans too, they might, if implemented swiftly, succeed where all else has failed to force Mugabe’s regime out of power.
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One Comment
I believe Nick Clegg is fundamentally wrong to call for remittances to Zimbabwe should be stopped in order to put pressure on Robert Mugabe’s regime.
As a half-Zimbabwean I hear on a daily basis how people are suffering there; in fact my cousin was tortured for a week before being dumped, injured and dazed, in the bush so I feel as passionate about the need for regime change as anyone.
But stopping relatives, such as myself, sending remittances to their folks in Zimbabwe could literally be fatal. Such is the state of the economy that people will die if they are denied assistance from abroad. Clegg’s plan to stop remittances will have no effect whatsoever on Mugabe.
I am appalled that Clegg appears not to have done his homework. Remittances do not fund the regime, the go straight from the sender to the reciever, with an international company (mostly Western Union) taking a cut.
No money, other than taxes paid for shop outlets, goes to the Mugabe regime from this process, and I very much doubt than any cash sent to help relatives are being passed on to the government; there is certainly no evidence of this.
Clegg’s raising of the idea of military intervention, before dismissing it as impractical in the next breath, is also another example of political ineptitude. Talk of military action can only aid the Mugabe propaganda machine. Clegg’s whole approach to Zimbabwe is a disgrace.