Joseph Banda
6 June 2008
Ndola — ZIMBABWE'S continuing smear campaigns alleging that President Mwanawasa's Government has been hired by Britain to press for a speedy regime change in Harare are unwarranted.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Kabinga Pande, said in Lusaka yesterday that because of Zimbabwe's sustained campaign against Zambia through the media, a protest had been lodged to that country.
"We have lodged in a note-verbal, which is a diplomatic communication to the Zimabwean government to protest over the sustained malicious campaign against Zambia," Mr Pande said.
Speaking at a joint Press briefing with chief Government spokesman, Mike Mulongoti,
Mr Pande said he had also spoken with the Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister, but the attacks had continued.
He said Zimbabwean government officials had lately intensified a smear campaign that Zambia and other African countries were engaged by Britain to press for the removal of the current leadership of that country.
Mr Pande said it was sad that Zambia had continued to receive scathing attacks from Zimbabwe despite its heavy sacrifices during the freedom struggle of that country.
He said contrary to the wild views that President Mwanawasa was given money to host the Lusaka summit on Zimbabwe, the Zambian leader was only interested in free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
He said it was good that from June 2, election observers had started going to Zimbabwe and Zambia had already sent a 12-man mission led by the high commissioner to that country.
Mr Mulongoti described as malicious statements that leaders in Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and other countries were engaged to push for a regime change in Zimbabwe.
He dismissed statements in the Herald newspaper that some Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state and government quashed President Mwanawasa's attempt to convene a special meeting to review the situation in Zimbabwe during the last Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) meeting in Japan.
He said Dr Mwanawasa convened a SADC consultative meeting on the sidelines of the TICAD meeting to review the political developments in Zimbabwe before the presidential run-off elections on June 27.
In attendance were King Mswati III of Swaziland and the presidents of Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa.
The prime ministers of Lesotho and Angola as well as foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe also attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Dr Mwanawasa, as the SADC chairperson, reminded the SADC heads of state and government who were present about the resolutions passed at the extraordinary summit held in Lusaka on April 13.
Mr Mulongoti said President Mwanawasa was not wrong to raise the matter of sending a SADC observer mission to Zimbabwe without further delay.
He said it was unfortunate that during the meeting some leaders concentrated on a procedural debate with the Zimbabwe foreign affairs minister, referring to the Dar-es-Salaam organ summit where South African president, Thabo Mbeki, was chosen as a mediator.
Instead of giving an update on the electoral process in Zimbabwe as expected, the meeting appeared to be delayed by bureaucratic considerations that derailed efforts at finding a solution to the political problems in Zimbabwe.
Mr Mulongoti said the procedural debate was counterproductive and an indication that some members did not want the situation in Zimbabwe to be discussed during the consultative meeting.
"President Mwanawasa found it difficult to reconcile with his conscience when some heads of state and government spoke at length, deliberating on the procedural debate and consequently ended the meeting inconclusively," Mr Mulongoti said.
He said it must be realised that Zambia, through President Mwanawasa, was among the countries that were against isolation of Zimbabwe by the Western world.
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