Pressure mounted on Tuesday for President Robert Mugabe to call off a June 27 election after the UN Security Council issued an unprecedented condemnation of violence against opposition supporters. Both Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and South African ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma said the presidential run-off must be postponed after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote and fled to the Dutch embassy in Harare. Wade said in a statement that Tsvangirai took refuge after being tipped off that soldiers were on the way to his house. “He is only safe because, alerted by friends, he left in a hurry a few minutes earlier,” Wade said. Zuma, who rivals President Thabo Mbeki as South Africa's most powerful man, called for urgent intervention by the UN and regional body SADC (Southern African Development Community), saying the situation in Zimbabwe was out of control. “The ANC (African National Congress) says the run-off is no longer a solution, you need a political arrangement first ... then elections down the line,” Zuma said. The 15-member Security Council echoed mounting international concern over Zimbabwe's political turmoil and economic meltdown, blamed by the West and the opposition on Mugabe, 84, who has held uninterrupted power for 28 years. South Africa, China and Russia, who have previously blocked discussion of Zimbabwe in the Security Council, joined in a unanimous condemnation of the bloodshed. Tsvangirai, meanwhile, has not requested asylum but spent a second night in the Dutch embassy on Monday. He told Dutch Radio 1 on Tuesday that his refuge was temporary and that the government had assured the Dutch ambassador that he would not be hurt. He said he could leave in the next few days and Mugabe could no longer defy international opinion.
