PM wrong on elections: US

By Hebert Zharare ( 12/03/10 )

NO peacekeeping forces will be deployed in Zimbabwe to monitor elections and MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was wrong in suggesting such action as the Africa Union and Sadc will not sanction such a move, an American military expert has said.

Addressing journalists at the United States Embassy’s Public Affairs premises in Harare yesterday, the expert — a colonel in the American army — said a peacekeeping force had never been deployed to monitor elections in Southern Africa and Zimbabwe would not break that trend.

Mr Tsvangirai, who is Prime Minister in the inclusive Government, at the weekend told his supporters in Chitungwiza that a Sadc and/or African Union peacekeeping force should regulate Zimbabwe ’s next elections.

"The Prime Minister was wrong in suggesting the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Zimbabwe to monitor elections. I think he used wrong terminology," said the official who cannot be named for diplomatic reasons.

"Sadc will not agree on the deployment of such forces here. There has to be consensus . . . there are rules of engagement.

"Inasfar as I understand Sadc, there will be no such agreement. The presidents in Sadc would not like this precedence to happen in the region," he said.

The colonel added that in suggesting the deployment of peacekeeping forces, Mr Tsvangirai had not put into perspective the complexity of such operations.

Such forces, he explained, were deployed in countries at war after the warring parties have peace talks that culminate in cessation of major hostilities.

He said: "The peacekeepers are then deployed in between them (the warring forces) to act as a buffer zone. They do not give instructions, they just report on what is happening."

He gave examples of armed conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea , and in Sudan ’s Darfur region among other hotspots where deployment of the peacekeeping forces was necessary.

He said it would be difficult to deploy such peacekeeping forces in Zimbabwe .

"If you try to deploy the peacekeeping force, it will not be successful. The rules of engagement do not allow them to fight the two forces.

"They are not there to shoot, they are there to report. So the practicality will be difficult for elections," he said.

Commenting on Zimbabwe ’s military, the expert said the Zimbabwe Defence Forces continued to grow professionally.

In the past, MDC-T’s allies have called for military intervention in Zimbabwe .