Miliband calls for Zimbabwe clarity

The decision of the Zimbabwean people in recent elections must be "revealed and properly respected", the foreign secretary has said.

In a statement to the Commons on Wednesday, David Miliband criticised the delay in announcing the outcome of Saturday's voting, with official figures indicating the two main parties are running neck and neck.

As yet, he told MPs, there was no news on the result of the presidential elections which could unseat leader Robert Mugabe.

Describing the situation as "fluid", he said: "We stand with [the people of Zimbabwe] at this moment of opportunity for this country and we share their demand for a democratic future."

"The international consensus is that the will of the Zimbabwean people must be revealed and properly respected," he said.

The delay in announcing the outcome could "only be seen as a deliberate and calculated tactic", he said, describing the circumstances leading up to voting as "shocking" and far from free and fair.

Describing a choice between "democracy and chaos", he said the government stood ready to contribute to the "massive rebuilding task" needed in Zimbabwe.

"The people of Zimbabwe have suffered for too long, and every honourable member and every British citizen will yearn with them for that suffering to end, and to end now."

'Dangerous'

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said there was a "golden hour" in which efforts could be made to rehabilitate the country.

He said he supported the call for election results to be published, adding that it was a "crucial but dangerous" time for the Zimbabwe.

The combination of brutality and oppression for many years, along with a decades-long stifling of opposition, "creates the circumstances of a political pressure cooker", he said.

Mugabe was the "author of his country's catastrophe", Hague said, but it would take more than his departure for the country to recover.

Harriet Harman, standing in for the prime minister as he attended the NATO summit in Bucharest, had earlier told MPs that the whole House wanted to express its solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

She said four million people had been forced to flee the country, the average life expectancy had fallen to 34 and the economy "is in ruins".

"Today the eyes of the world are on Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe stands at a turning point. Robert Mugabe must respect the decision of his people," she said.