Call for African leaders not to punish Mugabe

Zimbabwe’s presidential spokesman called on African leaders not to punish him for the country’s troubles, repeating Robert Mugabe’s charges that the West was to blame.

“The solution is not to remove Mugabe,” George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman, said as African leaders began a two-day emergency summit today focused on the political turmoil in Zimbabwe.

“The solution is to get (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and his colleagues to remove the sanctions, which are not recognised by the United Nations.”

Former colonial power Britain and other Western nations have imposed targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and more than 100 of his top associates. They argue targeted sanctions don’t hurt most Zimbabweans.

Mugabe has been condemned for attacks on Zimbabwean dissidents and overseeing a government accused of corruption and ruining the economy. His African neighbours have been pressed to take the lead in pushing for reform.

Mugabe was taking part in the two-day meeting called by the Southern African Development Community, a regional economic bloc.

“The political and security situation in our region at the moment requires the attention and intervention of the summit as a matter of urgency,” said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the closed meeting.

“There are a few hot spots which demand our attention. However complex and difficult they appear, none of them is impossible to solve.”

Kikwete visited Zimbabwe earlier this month, after reports of a brutal police crackdown on the political opposition there drew renewed international attention to the long-running political and economic crisis. Tanzania is one of three Southern African nations appointed by SADC to try to address the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

The SADC meeting was also expected to address the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, more than 100 people died in fighting that broke out last Thursday between army forces and fighters loyal to a failed presidential candidate. Security forces regained control of Kinshasa the following day.