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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

ZIMBABWE: Foreign ministers call for "constructive engagement"

JOHANNESBURG, 28 November 2003 (IRIN) - President Robert Mugabe warned on Friday that Zimbabwe could leave the Commonwealth if it was not treated as an equal, but failed to win the backing of a troika of Southern African countries meeting in South Africa, a diplomatic source told IRIN.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last year after controversial presidential elections. Excluded from next month's Commonwealth summit in Abuja, Nigeria, Mugabe has reportedly been looking for support in the form of a boycott from African member states.

"If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be readmitted into the Commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth, and perhaps the time has now come to say so," Mugabe said at a state funeral in the capital, Harare.

"Is it the African solidarity and sovereignty, the solidarity of those who are non-whites, or is it the strength, the power of the few whites in the Commonwealth that should dominate the view of the Commonwealth?"

Mugabe attacked "apologetic" African countries "who fear to be complete Africans, who hesitate to be in complete solidarity with us".

Foreign ministers from Mozambique, South Africa and Lesotho met in South Africa on Friday to discuss Zimbabwe's suspension and called for "contructive engagement" between the government and the opposition, a diplomatic source at the meeting said.

The meeting at Lesotho's High Commission in Pretoria to discuss Zimbabwe's absence from the Abuja Comonwealth summit was led by Lesotho's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohlabi Tsekoa, chair of the Ministerial Committee of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

The troika of Southern African countries was addressed by Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge, who told the meeting that talks were underway between the government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a statement that has been repeatedly denied by the MDC.

"The bottom line is that Zimbabwe will not be going to Abuja ... and the troika endorses negotiations by the Zimbabwean government with the opposition and appropriate stakeholders," the diplomatic source said.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

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