China has defended its decision to veto proposed UN sanctions against Zimbabwe's government saying they would "complicate", rather than ease, conflict in the troubled African country.
China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to impose international sanctions on key members of Zimbabwe's government, damaging diplomatic efforts to isolate the regime and inflicting a historic defeat on the Council's Western members.
The British-backed resolution would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and financial and travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and 13 other officials, and authorised a United Nations special envoy for the southern African nation.
But although nine countries, including America, Britain and France, backed the proposals, five countries voted against, including Russia and China, which both enjoy powers of veto as permanent members of the Security Council.
The defeat marks a shift in power at the heart of the UN, as Russia and China learn to flex their diplomatic muscle after years of Western domination since the fall of the Soviet Union.
"The people of Zimbabwe will not understand the Russian and Chinese veto," said the foreign secretary David Miliband, adding that he was "very disappointed."
China's decision to block the sanctions may bruise relations with Western powers weeks before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games. China also faces international pressure over Sudan, where international prosecutors are pursuing arrests for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Liu Jianchao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman, was quick to defend the veto as right for Zimbabwe.
"Under present conditions, passing a sanctions resolution against Zimbabwe would not help to encourage the various factions there to engage in political dialogue and negotiations and achieve results," he said in a statement on the Ministry's Web site.
"On the contrary, it would further complicate conditions in Zimbabwe."
The sanctions were proposed after Mr Mugabe was "re-elected" in a one-candidate election that was heavily criticised because of the violent tactics that forced the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw.
More than 100 people, mostly opposition supporters are said to have died in the attacks.
Diplomats at the UN are normally aware of their colleagues' intentions before a vote is taken, and in the circumstances it is perhaps surprising that the US, which proposed the resolution, pressed it to a decision.
The result will be seized on by the propagandists of Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe's ruling party, who insist that Zimbabwe's economic travails – inflation is estimated at over eight million per cent – are due to Western plots, rather than Mr Mugabe's mismanagement.
Some UN officials had argued that a parallel mediation process being led by the South African president Thabo Mbeki should have beengiven a chance to succeed without imposing stronger measures.
But without new international pressure, Mr Mugabe will see little need to make concessions to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the talks.
The defeat follows the failure of the African Union to condemn Mr Mugabe, despite observer missions criticising the election. Some leaders on the continent even made a point of overtly supporting him.
The veto leaves Mr Mugabe looking ever more secure in office, despite the blood shed for his 're-election', and demonstrates the difficulty of ensuring concerted international action – which would have been necessary to enforce the sanctions even if they had been passed.
Both Russia and China have questionable human rights records of their own, and have long been reluctant to support international intervention in what they see as other countries' internal affairs.
The Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had given ambivalent indications about his country's intentions at the G8 summit in Japan earlier this week. And China is one of Mr Mugabe's oldest allies and arms suppliers, a link dating back to the war against Ian Smith's regime, when it backed his Zanu guerrilla movement.
South Africa, Libya and Vietnam also voted against the resolution while Indonesia abstained.
It is the latest example of South Africa failing to support action against repressive rulers, despite the ruling African National Congress' own backing for sanctions when it was leading the struggle against apartheid.
Last year the country voted against a resolution calling for the Burmese junta to stop attacking ethnic minorities and engage in substantive dialogue with the democratic opposition.
Earlier yesterday Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate, expressed frustration that some leaders on the continent had not condemned Mr Mugabe.
Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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