Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Innocent Gore
28 November 2007
Songo — SADC will not allow the forthcoming EU-Africa Summit, slated for Lisbon, Portugal, next month, to discuss Zimbabwe, Sadc executive secretary Dr Tomaz Salomao said yesterday as President Mugabe indicated that he would attend the meeting.
Dr Salomao said the EU-Africa Summit, scheduled for December 8 and 9, should focus on relations between Europe and Africa, and not on Zimbabwe.
"Sadc will not accept to go to Lisbon to discuss Zimbabwe because the summit is not about Zimbabwe, but about relations between the EU and Africa," he told The Herald here.
The Sadc executive secretary reiterated that sanctions were damaging Zimbabwe's economy.
"The sanctions are damaging the economy in Zimbabwe, although Europe does not want to accept that. They prefer to call them targeted sanctions, but for us they are sanctions and our approach has been to have them lifted," he said.
Dr Salomao said the regional bloc was still working out measures to help Zimbabwe's economic recovery as mandated by Sadc leaders at their summits in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in March and Lusaka, Zambia, in August.
He said Sadc Ministers of Finance recently met in Lusaka to map the way forward and find specific interventions to help Zimbabwe, after having being mandated by Sadc leaders to do so.
In August, Dr Salomao said Zimbabwe's economy was resilient and could speedily turn around once sanctions -- imposed after the Government embarked on land reforms to correct historical imbalances in the ownership of the resource -- were lifted.
His remarks on the EU-Africa Summit came as President Mugabe declared that he would be at the talks, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would not be there, but will send a representative.
Cde Mugabe told reporters on arrival at Songo Airport in Mozambique to witness the handover of Cahora Bassa Dam from Portugal to Mozambique that he would attend the EU-Africa Summit.
Asked about the summit, Cde Mugabe said: "Yes, I'm going." Sadc and the African Union have been fighting British demands for President Mugabe to be excluded.
Several African nations said they would stay away if Cde Mugabe was not invited.
Sadc chairman and Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa in September warned that the regional bloc would boycott the summit if Cde Mugabe was excluded.
He said President Mugabe's exclusion would not be in the best interests of dialogue and that he would lead a Sadc boycott of the meeting in the event that the Zimbabwean leader was barred from attending.
Mr Mwanawasa also said he believed dialogue was important to resolve any problems and that those with "a bone to chew" with President Mugabe have to meet with him to find a solution.
Britain, however, said it would not leave its summit chair empty.
Reports from London say although Mr Brown has ruled out himself or senior ministers from attending, the place could be filled by Britain's ambassador.
A decision on the matter had not yet been decided, said Downing Street.
No EU-Africa summit has been held since the first and only one in Cairo, Egypt, seven years ago, as several African countries rejected a summit which excludes Zimbabwe.
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I am really glad that African Leaders are standing up for the betterment of our motherland. I thank God that we are reaching to a point when western world will not detate how, where, and when we should live our lives and rule ourselves. They said Africa is free yet they always want to run our afairs. Every little problem and crisis we face in Africa today has it root cause from the western world. I want to thank SADC and its leadership for not giving in to western pressure. This kind of move is what we need to bring… [Read Full Text]