Mugabe may face international trial over election atrocities

Robert Mugabe may face the International Criminal Court over violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe.

As the president's African allies deserted him, a Western diplomat suggested that criminal prosecutors could be called in. 'Mugabe needs to know that he is moments away from an ICC indictment,' the diplomat said.

The warning came after the bodies of 12 murdered activists were discovered and a continued campaign of torture and killings against the wives of opposition leaders.

Any remaining African support for the 84-year-old leader seemed to be falling away as Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland and Angola spoke out against his regime.

South Africa called on Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to scrap next Friday's poll and Rwanda's president Paul Kagame described the electoral process as 'a joke'.

Tanzania's foreign minister Bernard Membe said: 'There is every sign that these elections will never be free nor fair. We have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence."

But the brutality continued as opposition activists from the Movement for Democratic Change were targeted by thugs and army veterans loyal to Mr Mugabe.

The secretary-general of the MDC, Tendai Biti, was formally charged with treason for claiming his party had won the first presidential election in March.

He was arrested last week as he returned from South Africa and now faces the death penalty if convicted. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was also denied a passport yesterday after holding talks with South African president Thabo Mbeki.

Any attempt to bring Mr Mugabe before the ICC court in The Hague faces considerable obstacles.

The court has charged 11 Africans  -  two from Sudan, four from Uganda, one from the Central African Republic and four from the Democratic Republic of Congo  -  but it has no jurisdiction over Zimbabwe.

On trial: Zimbabwean opposition number two Tendai Bit gets out of a prison van in Harare yesterday

The matter would have to be referred to the court by the 15-nation UN Security Council, which is so split that US officials are struggling to organise a seminar on the Zimbabwe violence.

In New York Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, called a crisis meeting of the UN.

She said: 'By its actions, the Mugabe regime has given up any pretence that the 27 June elections will be allowed to proceed in a free and fair manner. We have reached the point where stronger international action is needed.'

At least 65 activists from the MDC are said to have been murdered, with four young people found dead in the suburbs of Harare this week.

The killings, arrests and firebombings are seen as an attempt by Zanu-PF  -  under orders from the top  -  to cow voters into choosing Mr Mugabe.