Mbeki to be greeted by sky-borne protest at UN (Extra)

Apr 15, 2008, 19:52 GMT

San Francisco/New York - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has already provoked controversy with comments over the weekend that Zimbabwe was not in crisis, faces even more criticism Wednesday in New York - this time of an airborne variety.

The Internet advocacy group Avaaz.org, aiming to raise international pressure for democracy in Zimbabwe, plans to sail a 300-square-metre message from the back of a plane proclaiming: 'Mbeki It's Time To Act: Democracy For Zimbabwe.'

The group says it has chartered a plane to fly the message over the United Nations building in New York as Mbeki chairs a presidential level Security Council meeting on Africa.

Avaaz, which calls itself 'the world's largest international online advocacy network,' has so far collected 130,000 signatures on a petition calling on Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe to respect the will of the people.

More than two weeks after presidential elections, Zimbabwe's electoral commission has refused to make public the results. Yet it has called for a recount of the results. The opposition says it has won the elections - an assessment shared by independent observers and non-governmental organizations.

Mbeki, under pressure for years in the international community over his refusal to criticize the deteriorating economic and human rights situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe, over the weekend said Zimbabwe was not in 'crisis'.

He made the comments as 14 African nations met trying to resolve the standoff over the March 29 elections.

'Global public opinion is loud and clear,' Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz, said. 'Thabo Mbeki's credibility as a global and regional leader is on the line.'

Patel said that Mbeki was in danger of 'betraying the principles of the worldwide movement that helped bring democracy to his own country.'

The petition was launched last week and has already collected signatures from people in 219 countries including 50 of the 54 African states, said campaign director Ben Wikler.

'It's very successful and there's a lot of interest from around the world,' he said.

Wikler acknowledged that the numbers don't come close to the 1.6 million signatures the group collected in support of democracy in Tibet.

'It's going viral as friends send the petition via email. But with Tibet there was a huge established organization and celebrities working on the issue for years so it was like a spark lighting a tinderbox on fire,' he said.

South Africa chairs the UN Security Council at present, and had not included Zimbabwe on its agenda of talks for Wednesday, which it wanted to focus on the role of African Union troops in peacekeeping on the continent.

But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday he would add it to the agenda.