The Editor, Sir:

It is now over three weeks since the Zimbabwe elections, and, still, there is no publication of the presidential results. Yet, it is said that a recount of the votes is now underway. Why is there a recount when the first count has never been made public? What is the reason for this unprecedented procedure?

There is no doubt that the refusal of the Mugabe Government to release the original results has given rise to the suspicion that Robert Mugabe is bent on perpetuating his long-standing despotic rule.

Overwhelming evidence

It is, indeed, astounding that Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, believes that Zimbabwe is not in a state of crisis, although there is overwhelming evidence that the country is in grave social and economic difficulty, and is on the verge of outright civil unrest.

Mbeki is so intentionally unconcerned about the growing crisis in Zimbabwe that as chairman of a UN Security Council summit he did not see fit to put the current difficult situation in Zimbabwe on the agenda.

Shame on these African leaders who stand aloof with their deafening silence to the oppressive despotic rule of Robert Mugabe, while their racial brothers and sisters languish in abject poverty and unbearable misery without any signs of hope and change.

I am, etc.,

RUPERT JOHNSON

r.b.johnson@sympatico.ca

Toronto, Ontario

Canada, MIC 3M7