LONDON, Feb 5: Britain warned on Tuesday that the West might stop recognizing the Zimbabwean government if President Robert Mugabe fails to ensure the forthcoming presidential election is conducted fairly.

“If we (the EU, the US and the Commonwealth) believe the election in Zimbabwe is not free and fair, then stopping the recognition of its government is a possibility,” Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told parliament.

Asked whether British observers should have been allowed to oversee the March 9-10 presidential vote, he said it was not a major bone of contention.

“I made it clear that we are not going to get into a game with President Mugabe about who is in the observer team,” Straw said, while adding: “We will robustly monitor what is happening in Zimbabwe.”

Straw reminded his colleagues of the government’s objective “to work as far as we can to achieve a fairer environment in which elections can be held in Zimbabwe.”

Earlier the Commonwealth announced that an advance delegation had arrived in Zimbabwe ahead of an observer mission planned for next month’s hotly contested presidential election.

“I am pleased to have a team on the ground in Zimbabwe which will stay until the voting and counting in next month’s election has been concluded,” Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said.

Straw also said he had asked Zimbabwe for a full report on the circumstances surrounding the arrest of a journalist working for a British newspaper, which he would forward to the EU.

JOUNALIST HELD: Charges have been dropped against the Zimbabwean journalist who writes for Britain’s Independent daily after he was held overnight under the country’s new security laws, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Basildon Peta, 30, who is also secretary general of the Zimbabwean Union of Journalists (ZUJ), was freed Tuesday without going to court after charges against him were dropped, lawyer Tawanda Hondora told AFP.

Peta, a full-time special projects editor at Zimbabwe’s respected weekly, the Financial Gazette, had been expected to appear in court Tuesday, according to police spokesman Tarwirei Tirivavi.

He was charged with failing to notify the authorities about a demonstration last Wednesday by independent and foreign journalists against new media legislation which is yet to be signed into law by President Robert Mugabe.

Hondora said the attorney general’s office had declined to prosecute Peta on grounds that professional bodies are permitted to hold gatherings without police authorisation.

“The demonstration was organised by ZUJ, a professional body, and ... professional bodies may hold gatherings without police approval,” Hondora said.

Peta’s colleague, Sydney Masamvu, had earlier said: “He is accused of being the brains behind the demonstration last week.”

Peta told AFP after his release: “The attorney general has now conceded we have a right to organise demonstrations. It was a peaceful demonstration, it was not a political demonstration, there was nothing wrong with that.”

Peta, who was arrested shortly after his arrival Monday from South Africa where he had taken his child for medical treatment, said police treated him well during his detention.

“I was not badly treated, but I am instructing my lawyers to challenge the raid on my house because it infringes on my rights,” he said.

Peta left the country on Thursday last week, one day after the demonstration, and police raided his home on Saturday looking for him.

He described the raid on his house a “kind of harassment that will harden us (journalists).”

The new press legislation was pushed through Zimbabwe’s parliament on January 31 ahead of elections set for March 9-10, when Mugabe faces his strongest challenge since taking power in the former British colony in 1980.

Three journalists from the country’s private press were arrested during the Wednesday protest march. They were freed hours later without charge.

The new security act, which came into effect two weeks ago, makes it a crime to criticise or ridicule Mugabe, and calls for a death sentence or life imprisonment for anyone convicted of “insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism”.

The act, together with a government crackdown on the opposition, have drawn international condemnation, particularly from Britain, which has been pressing hard for sanctions against Mugabe’s regime.

Government media reported last week that the press bill “may take quite some time before it becomes law, if at all”, because of 11th-hour changes made to the legislation.—AFP