Spotlight turned on Zimbabwe at UN council

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western states joined the United Nations in urging action to ensure a fair outcome from Zimbabwe's elections but most African nations avoided the issue at a Security Council-African Union summit on Wednesday.

"No one thinks, having seen the results of polling stations, that President (Robert) Mugabe has won" a March 29 election in Zimbabwe, said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

No results have so far been announced from the presidential vote in the southern African country, a former British colony.

"A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all," Brown told the summit. "Let a single clear message go out from here in New York that we ... stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe."

South Africa, current president of the Security Council, scheduled the summit to discuss cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union. It did not include Zimbabwe on the agenda but Western countries had pledged to raise it.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who chaired the summit, has insisted that the situation in Zimbabwe is not a crisis and can be resolved through the Southern Africa Development Community, which has avoided a tough stand.

Without mentioning South Africa or the SADC by name, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon indicated to the gathering that he was not satisfied with this approach.

"The Zimbabwean authorities and the countries of the region have insisted that these matters are for the region to resolve but the international community continues to watch and wait for decisive action," Ban said.

INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS

One of two African speakers who did mention Zimbabwe was Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, whose country chairs the AU. He praised the SADC for doing a "tremendous job ... to ensure that the will of the people of Zimbabwe is respected."

Last week the SADC decided not to adopt a tough stance on Zimbabwe but Kikwete said it would meet again soon.

Only one of some two dozen other African speakers mentioned Zimbabwe -- Senegal's Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.

"We should make better use of preventive diplomacy ... as for example with regard to the situation in Zimbabwe, and previously in Kenya during the electoral period," he said. "Unfortunately we as Africans once again answer with a deafening silence which can be heard everywhere."

Reporters asked U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad why he had insisted on raising Zimbabwe. "You cannot have a meeting about Africa and not talk about the crisis of the day," he said.

Like Brown, he said he backed Ban's call for international observers to be deployed in Zimbabwe if a second round of presidential elections were to be held. He suggested that a joint AU-U.N. mission go to Zimbabwe. Italy, France, Belgium and Croatia also expressed concern.

Mbeki, who has drawn heavy criticism in his own country for downplaying the situation in Zimbabwe and his insistence on sticking to "quiet diplomacy" in dealing with Mugabe, did not talk about the issue. Instead he focused on a broad need to boost cooperation between the AU and Security Council to improve African peacekeeping operations.

The Security Council is not expected to take any action on Zimbabwe because of South Africa's resistance and that of some other council members. But any discussion of the issue helps to ratchet up the pressure on Mugabe, Western diplomats say.

Kikwete highlighted an important issue for Africa -- how to finance the peacekeeping burden the AU has been forced to assume in regions like Darfur in western Sudan, where conflict has been raging for five years. Virtually every African speaker complained about the ad hoc funding approach.

Khalilzad said the United States opposed using the central U.N. budget to permanently finance AU-U.N. peacekeeping operations as some Africans proposed, though he supported Ban's plan to appoint a panel to study the problem.

Brown, Khalilzad and Ban called for more action to ease the crisis in Darfur, where only 9,000 of the required 26,000 U.N.-AU peacekeepers are deployed.

International experts estimate around 2.5 million people have been displaced and 200,000 have died in five years of violence in Darfur. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

(Writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Chris Wilson)