Obama speaks to Tsvangirai on Zimbabwe crisis

By Lance Guma
25 June 2008

United States Presidential candidate Barack Obama has spoken to MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai and shared his deep concern for the way the MDC supporters are being targeted by Mugabe’s regime. Obama also expressed his admiration for Tsvangirai’s efforts to ensure that the will of the Zimbabwean people is respected. The Democratic Party nominee demanded US and African action on the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Obama welcomed a unanimously backed statement from the UN Security Council, condemning violence in the country. The US senator also called on Mugabe’s regime to postpone Friday’s election. Obama said, ‘The United States and the international community must be united, clear and unequivocal: the government of Zimbabwe is illegitimate and lacks any credibility.’

He added that if fresh elections prove impossible then regional leaders had to, ‘pursue an enforceable, negotiated political transition in Zimbabwe that would end repressive rule and enable genuine democracy to take root.’