The U.S. House of Representatives has called upon the government of Zimbabwe to "return to sanity, end state sponsored violence and address the needs of its people" in a resolution passed on the eve of the country's 27th anniversary of independence.
The resolution passed late Tuesday said the Harare government of President Robert Mugabe is "bent on a bitter and disastrous course that no sane or rational appeal from its own citizens or the community of nations has been able to reverse."
Introduced by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, called on the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to consult with the Zimbabwean government and pressure it to resolve its economic and political crisis. It urged Zimbabwe to respect its commitments as a signatory of the African Charter of Human and People's Rights.
Resolution co-sponsor Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyele of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that "there has to be a cessation of this brutality" against the Zimbabwean opposition by state security agents.