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KYOTO, Japan: Group of Eight foreign ministers said on Friday that they would not accept Zimbabwe's government as legitimate if it "does not reflect the will" of the people, as a controversial election got underway.
The industrial powers -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- said they deplored Zimbabwean authorities' "systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation."
"We will not accept the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people," they said in a joint statement after talks in Kyoto, Japan.
They said that the results of the first round of voting on March 29 -- in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai topped President Robert Mugabe but fell short of a majority -- "must be respected."
Tsvangirai pulled out of the election and holed himself up in the Dutch embassy, citing deadly election violence and threats.
"This kind of sham cannot produce a legitimate outcome," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a joint press conference.
"We will see what next step can be taken in the (UN) Security Council," she said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the election was "one-sided in every aspect."
"One-sided in brutality of the regime, one-sided in the publicity -- even one-sided in electoral organisation," he said.
"So it is very clear on the part of the United Kingdom -- there is no legitimacy for the government of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.
"The only people with any shred of democratic legitimacy are those who won the March 29 first round." –AFP/jk
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