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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

AFRICA: Mugabe slams political interference

ADDIS ABABA, 4 February 2003 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has urged African leaders to resist attempts by the international community to interfere in the continent's domestic politics.

Speaking at the opening on Monday of a two-day African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Mugabe said Africa was becoming more united and looked forward to the day of a United States of Africa.

"We want to see these countries firmly united and recreating a United States of Africa – that is what we want to see and that is what is coming," Mugabe said.

"The institutions are now evolved," he said during a break in the Heads of State meeting at the UN Conference Centre where the talks are being held.

As Mugabe spoke Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, went on trial for treason. Tsvangirai and two senior colleagues in the Movement for Democratic Change pleaded not guilty to treason charges over an alleged plot to kill Mugabe.

The Addis Ababa talks, the first extraordinary summit of the AU, was called to resolve constitutional sticking points among leaders after the birth of the organisation in Durban, South Africa, in July 2002.

Mugabe, a veteran nationalist and vocal critic of colonialism, warned that Africa must still fight for its economic freedom. "We have decolonised the continent and that political position of the sovereignty of the African states and the greatness of Africa has got to be maintained," he said.

"We have got to prevent any interference in the domestic affairs of African states," Mugabe added. "But we must work also for our economic development – that is where we are still backward."

Mugabe urged a common market for the entire continent adding that it would help lift Africa out of poverty.

Themes: (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Governance

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