CRS-13 Zimbabwe was “in crisis.”56 MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai traveled throughout the region to advocate for intervention. The African Union joined the growing number of calls for the release of the election results on April 20. As the delay continued, media attention turned to focus on a Chinese arms shipment bound for Zimbabwe. In an April 23 speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, accusing the government of rigging the elections and calling the political situation “completely unacceptable.”57 The European Union (EU) maintains targeted sanctions against members of Mugabe’s administration, and EU sanctions already prohibit member states from selling weapons to the country. The United States, which also prohibits weapons sales to Zimbabwe and maintains targeted sanctions, has expressed support for Brown’s proposal, which has been included in a U.S.-sponsored draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution. Britain's Queen Elizabeth has also stripped Mugabe of an honorable Knighthood he received in 1994. The Southern African Development Community (SADC). Zambia’s President, Levy Mwanawasa, who is also head of the regional body SADC, convened an extraordinary meeting of the Southern African heads of state on April 12, 2008 to discuss Zimbabwe’s elections. SADC has remained largely silent in recent years as Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis has worsened. Mwanawasa, however, expressed public concern with the situation in Zimbabwe in 2007, calling the country “a sinking Titanic whose passengers are jumping out to save their lives.”58 He convened a similar emergency summit in late March 2007, following the beating and arrest of opposition officials earlier that month. Although the SADC leaders reportedly chastised President Mugabe privately at that time, they did not publicly condemn the regime’s actions and instead appointed South Africa’s President Mbeki to mediate between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition. During the April 12 summit, attended by Tsvangirai and Makoni but not Mugabe, the SADC leaders declined to call the situation in Zimbabwe a crisis. They did, however, publicly urge the government to release the electoral results “expeditiously,” allow opposition representatives to be present when vote tabulations were verified, and ensure that a runoff, if needed, would be held in a “secure environment.” The SADC leaders also called on Mbeki to continue his role as mediator.59 According to some reports, Mwanawasa asked the leaders to seek solutions that would allow “the people’s verdict” to be heard so that Zimbabweans could “turn [over] a new leaf in their history.” Zimbabwe civil society groups were supportive of SADC’s statements on the electoral results, but critical of its continued 56 The U.S. State Department declared the situation a “crisis” in a news briefing by State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack on April 15, 2008. 57 Statement made during the Prime Minister’s Question Time before the House of Commons, April 23, 2008, available at [http://www.number-10.gov.uk]. 58 59 “Zimbabwe ‘A Sinking Titanic,’”Financial Times, March 22, 2007. SADC Communique, “2008 First Extra-ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government Issued on 13 April 2008, in Lusaka, Zambia.”