Thabo Mbeki blocks UN Zimbabwe agenda

HARARE: The horrors of Zimbabwe's political violence will not feature on the agenda of the UN Security Council meeting overnight after South African President Thabo Mbeki blocked an attempt to put the crisis on the program.

The Security Council will now discuss only the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, separating it from the ongoing political violence in the lead-up to the presidential runoff.

Critics said it was hard to divorce the humanitarian crisis from the political violence as the deliberate displacement of thousands of people, the militarisation of food aid and the ban on international aid agencies were all political tactics that had greatly deepened Zimbabwe's suffering.