Zimbabwe opposition pleads at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Zimbabwe opposition's second-in-command urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to appoint a special envoy to help resolve the country's worsening crisis following last month's elections.

But the deeply divided council took no action.

The council president said it's up to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to decide whether to dispatch an envoy or fact-finding mission, and the U.N. political chief said Ban has not decided if it's necessary.

The response was frustrating for Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, who flew to New York hoping to address the U.N.'s most powerful body, with the results of Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election still in limbo.

The council heard a briefing on the situation in Zimbabwe behind closed doors, with no outsiders allowed, leaving Biti scrambling for appointments with the 15 council members. The United States helped out late Tuesday, organizing a meeting at its mission and inviting many council members, diplomats said.

Biti called the current situation "desperate" and said it was time for international action to help Zimbabwe, which he said has become "a war zone." He accused President Robert Mugabe of unleashing "systematic violence" against the people which has killed at least 18 people, and probably 50, since the elections.

"We would like the international community to intervene before dead rivers start floating" with bodies, Biti said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.

While the United States, Britain and France back sending a U.N. envoy to Zimbabwe, diplomats said South Africa, Russia, China and other members oppose any action now.

"We find that there are certain people and certain countries that have decided to play pingpong with our people," Biti said. "There is a humanitarian crisis. People are dying, and more importantly, there is an obvious -- such an obvious and embarrassing subversion of democracy."

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, said that "the only thing that the members seemed to agree with" is that the Southern African Development Community should push Zimbabwe's electoral commission to publish the results of the presidential race.

Beyond that, he said, "there was no agreement" on what to do next. E-mail to a friend

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