Western nations get serious about Zimbabwe

Finally, the United States and European Union will recommend U.N. monitoring of this month's presidential campaign and runoff election in Zimbabwe. The Western powers plan to issue a communique tomorrow from a summit in Slovenia in an effort to stop violence directed at opponents of longtime president Robert Mugabe, according to the Reuters international news service. "We call on the government of Zimbabwe immediately to cease the state-sponsored violence and intimidation against its people that has occurred since the March 29 presidential and parliamentary election," says the text of the communique, which was obtained by Reuters. "We urge the United Nations Secretary General to send a team immediately to monitor human rights and to deter further abuses." Challenger Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change has been arrested twice since he returned to Zimbabwe to begin the campaign and his supporters have been subject to violent attacks. Tsvangirai officially received more votes than Mugabe in the March election but did not get the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff. The call for U.N. monitors comes the same day that the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch group said 36 people had been murdered and 2,000 assaulted or abducted by supporters of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. The group also urged the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to put pressure on Mugabe and send poll observers.