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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SOUTHERN AFRICA: SADC security organ meets

JOHANNESBURG, 3 April 2003 (IRIN) - The foreign ministers of several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries gathered in Zimbabwe on Thursday to attend a ministerial committee meeting of the SADC Organ on Defence and Security.

A statement from South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs said that among the issues to be discussed was a review of international developments and their impact on the SADC region.

The ministers would also evaluate relations between SADC and cooperating partners, with particular reference to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU).

USAID and the EU have contributed to alleviating the southern African humanitarian crisis, which has severely affected millions of people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) this week issued statements urging SADC ministers "not to turn a blind eye to the crisis" in the country and warned that the recent police and military crackdown on participants in a two-day anti-government stayaway were creating the conditions for civil war.

Gibson Sibanda, the MDC vice-president arrested earlier this week, did not obtain bail at a hearing on Thursday afternoon and was told he would have to remain in custody until his hearing on Monday. Sibanda was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order and Security Act for his part in organising the 18 and 19 March stayaway. The MDC said that at least 500 of its members were arrested during the protest.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

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