Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai  is being urged to seek help from the United Nations (UN) to intervene in the Zimbabwe crisis, as efforts to force action from regional leaders again seem set to fail.

UK based political analyst and former diplomat, Clifford Mashiri, has written to Tsvangirai asking for a possible meeting, saying: “I am taking the initiative to express my personal wish that you as our Prime Minister and MDC President pay a visit to the UK so that I and hopefully other interested Zimbabweans can have a decent conversation with you on how to resolve the current crisis in our country.”

Mashiri told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that Tsvangirai is in danger of further isolating Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, by not making the effort to engage with them or give them the chance to explain how they believe the situation back home could be solved. Mashiri said that he is particularly concerned about the UK’s recent decision to resume deportations to Zimbabwe, and said this is partly Tsvangirai’s fault for insisting that all was well back in Zimbabwe.

Mashiri also used the letter to urge Tsvangirai to consider seeking UN intervention, saying: “The option we seek to discuss with you is seeking help from the office of the United Nations Secretary General to compliment what has been achieved so far by the SADC and the AU, and help map-out a realistic roadmap for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.”

Mashiri said on Tuesday that, although he was being diplomatic in his letter, he is “very unhappy with the foot-dragging by SADC.”

“I am not alone in this. Many people believe SADC has failed Zimbabweans. I am also not with South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and his mediation efforts,” Mashiri said. “What difference has it made? The situation is not getting any better as we can see by the selective application of the rule of law, political violence and the denial of different civil liberties.”

Tsvangirai last week returned from a brief regional tour, where he met leaders from Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. He told the leaders that SADC urgently needs to intervene in Zimbabwe, which he warned was on the brink of becoming a police state. But so far, the only regional reaction to Tsvangirai’s efforts has been for South Africa’s Zuma to promise a return of his mediation team to Zimbabwe this week.

Observers have commented that it is unlikely SADC, which has been dismissed as a ‘toothless bulldog’ will do anything to stop the ZANU PF violence and intimidation across the country, because they have never done anything meaningful in the two years that the unity government has been in existence

By SW radio