Zimbabwe opposition leader urges South African president to help resolve crisis

Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Monday called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to help resolve the crisis in the neighboring country, where the government has cracked down on dissent while consolidating power.

"It is critical that President Mbeki act quickly and decisively to halt the suffering of millions of Zimbabweans. There is no time to waste," said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He was in Johannesburg to seek medical care after he and other activists were brutally attacked last month while in police custody.

There were concerns that Tsvangirai, whose eye was bloodshot and his face bruised, suffered a fractured skull.

Police had broken up a prayer meeting that Tsvangirai and other opposition figures were attending, and there has been widespread international condemnation of President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on dissent. Despite the criticism, police have continued to detain, assault and abduct activists.

"Mugabe's crackdown on our people leaves a trail of broken limbs, rape victims, torture victims and dead bodies," Tsvangirai said.

Mugabe, 83, is under growing pressure to step down as leader of the country he has ruled since independence in 1980. Tensions are said to be rising in his party over his succession, and the opposition blames him for the country's corruption and acute shortages of food, hard currency and gasoline.

But Mugabe was buoyed by an endorsement Friday by Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party as its candidate in next year's presidential elections as well as the public backing by the Southern African Development Community meeting in Tanzania on Thursday. The election would allow Mugabe to stay in power until 2013, when he would be close to 90.

Tsvangirai said the party welcomed Mugabe's decision to abandon plans to extend his term of office to 2010 and called for Mbeki to negotiate for next year's elections to be held under free and fair conditions.

"Mugabe has a last opportunity to show goodwill by allowing the people of Zimbabwe to express their democratic rights," he said. "All forces inside his party and outside are demanding he should exit from power. Hopefully this election will be a willing exit on his part."

Tsvangirai said he hoped the South African leader, who was appointed by regional leaders last week to mediate, would approach Zimbabwe with a "new perspective."

Mbeki has been criticized at home and abroad for his insistence on quiet diplomacy in his approach to Zimbabwe. Previous attempts by South Africa since 2002 to bring Mugabe and the opposition to the negotiating table have been short-lived and there are doubts that Mbeki will be successful in the face of Mugabe's endorsement Friday and new assaults on activists.

"This is not a personal issue. Whether people have doubts about Mbeki is immaterial. This is a new initiative that is not South African-driven but regional driven," he said.

He said he had had no contact with Mbeki yet.