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CRAWFORD, Texas - The White House on Saturday called for election and UN human rights monitors in Zimbabwe to ensure an end to violence against opposition leaders and their supporters in a presidential run-off.
"If this is going to be a successful run-off, obviously that's the first thing that has to happen: opposition leaders and their supporters must be able to freely campaign free of violence," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"We'd like to see election monitors come in, we'd like to see UN human rights monitors come in and ensure that we have a safe electoral process there," Johndroe said as US President George W. Bush prepared here for one of his daughter's wedding on his Texas ranch.
He spoke after Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he would return home to face Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff poll despite the risk of "more violence, more gloom, more betrayal."
Tsvangirai had previously refused to say whether he would take part in the runoff -- even though failure to do so would have handed victory to Mugabe -- amid evidence of a campaign of terror against his supporters.
The former trade union leader, who beat veteran incumbent Mugabe in a first round of voting in March, set international peacekeepers, election monitors and an end to violence in the country as conditions for the ballot.
- AFP /ls
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