G8 Leaders Agree on tougher Sanctions Against Mugabe and Associate

Thabo Mbeki's diplomatic efforts at the G8 Summit in Japan were less successful as his work at the AU summit last week in Egypt. As Larry Elliot and Patrick Wintour report for the Guardian [UK], British PM Gordon Brown used a graphic photo of the charred body of MDC activist Joshua Bakacheza to get the point across to the other leaders that it was time to take a tough stance against Mugabe.

Elliot and Wintour report:

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The backing for Britain's tough stance came after Brown handed photographs of the charred body of Joshua Bakacheza, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, to G8 and African leaders at the talks in Hokkaido.

A Downing Street source said: "Joshua is just one of the many innocent people murdered by Mugabe's thugs in recent weeks, but by highlighting the way he was brutally murdered while helping a widow and her children, the prime minister was telling other world leaders that this is a tragedy which is going on right now as they sit talking, and every day we wait to act, more innocent people will suffer."

Bakacheza was stopped on June 25 by three unmarked trucks, then seized by 16 men armed with AK-47 rifles. He and his companion, the widow of a murdered MDC activist, were taken to a farm. He was questioned on his involvement in the MDC then shot three times. His body was found three days later. Another MDC activist, Tendai Chidziwo, was also shot but survived.

The G8 decision brings Russia into agreement for UN action against the Mugabe regime, and rules out the possibility that Moscow will use its veto to block action at the security council in New York in the next few days.

If agreed, sanctions would be imposed worldwide on Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean government officials, leading to the freezing of their overseas assets and a ban on their travelling abroad."

Now the sanctions debate moves to back to New York and the UN. If Russia is now allegedly supportive of the idea, how will China vote? The idea of gaining access to Zimbabwe's platinum will have to be weighed against any fallout a month before the Olympics begin in Beijing.