Smith wants S Africa to deal with Mugabe

(AAP) - Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will ask South Africa to take a stronger line with Zimbabwe, as he poured cold water on the prospect of foreign military intervention
against the brutal Mugabe regime.

Mr Smith is heading to Japan for a Group of Eight (G8) meeting where he will discuss
the troubles in Zimbabwe with foreign ministers from other industrialised nations.
But he again stressed the best chance for getting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
to end his campaign of terror against his homeland was through pressure from other
African leaders.

Mr Mugabe is vowing to press ahead with Friday's violence-marred presidential
run-off poll, accusing opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai of pulling out because he realised he would lose.
Southern African leaders are holding a high-level crisis meeting in Swaziland to
discuss Zimbabwe but the one man who may hold sway with Mr Mugabe, South African
President Thabo Mbeki, is not there.

Mr Smith repeated Australia's disappointment that South Africa had not yet played a
more "robust role" in trying to bring Mr Mugabe under control.
And he plans to speak to his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to
press the point.

"I'll be urging upon South Africa that South Africa take the same robust position
that Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana have been taking in recent times and urging South
Africa, together with the Southern African Development Community states and the
African Union, to put pressure to bear on Mr Mugabe," Mr Smith told reporters.

Canberra is seeking a full and open debate on Zimbabwe in the United Nations and has
asked Australia's UN ambassador, Robert Hill, to suggest to Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon that a special envoy be appointed.

Victorian Liberal Chris Pearce has suggested former prime minister Malcolm Fraser -
who played a significant role in promoting Zimbabwe's independence - may be one of
the international figures to whom Mr Mugabe would listen.
But Mr Fraser says African nations are best placed to deal with the crisis themselves.

"I think the Western world and the Commonwealth have made a mistake before believing
white faces can resolve this issue," he told ABC Radio.
"I think it's something that African states are going to need to resolve for
themselves."

For similar reasons, Mr Smith believes international military intervention is
unlikely to win support.

"The reason I've said I don't believe military enforcement action is feasible is I
don't think you'll get international community support for it and you certainly
won't get support for it in the area that counts most, namely Zimbabwe's
neighbours," he told Sky News.

However, a peacekeeping mission - comprising African nations - may have some chance
of success.

"There is, I think, some prospect realistically of thinking in terms of peacekeeping
but again I think in the first instance that would have to come from the African
Union states," Mr Smith said.