Brown targeting Mugabe through U.N.

LONDON, April 27 (UPI) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government should be the target of an arms embargo by the United Nations, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says.

Brown has asked the U.N. Security Council to consider taking action against Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union -- Patriotic Front party for alleged human rights violations in his African country, The Independent reported Sunday.

"The whole international community must speak up against the climate of fear in Zimbabwe," Brown said Saturday.

Brown also pledged to help Zimbabwe recover "once democracy returns" to the country, where the U.N. council will meet Tuesday to discuss the country's growing political crisis.

The Movement for Democratic Change won the country's March 29 parliamentary election, but members of the party have since been attacked or arrested by government-supported forces.

The results of the March 29 presidential election have yet to be formally announced, but reports have MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai soundly defeating Mugabe, the British newspaper said.