The United States said on Friday that African nations “fell short” in putting pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and urged them to do more to end the veteran leader’s opposition clampdown. Washington had hoped African leaders attending a summit in Tanzania this week would act against Mr. Mugabe, but instead they rallied around him and ignored calls for tougher action. “We would have wished for something a little stronger and a more firm stance on what is going on in Zimbabwe,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the outcome of the Tanzania meeting.The special summit of the Southern African Development Community urged the West to drop sanctions against Mr. Mugabe’s government and appealed to Britain to “honour its commitments” to fund land reforms in its former colony. The summit came two weeks after Zimbabwean police arrested opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other members of his Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC. The arrests and beatings of detainees received international condemnation.
Mr. Mugabe calls the MDC Western “stooges” and police have accused party activists of a terror campaign aimed at removing Mr. Mugabe from office. The MDC denies the allegations. “Clearly, he (Mr. Mugabe) has become very intransigent in the face of a lot of international pressure. That does not mean that you let up on international pressure,” said Mr. McCormack.