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R/£ African support for Mugabe declining
February 16, 2007 Edition 1
Paul Fauvet & Peter Fabricius
Africa's solidarity with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe seems to be crumbling. French President Jacques Chirac has not invited Mugabe to his big Franco-African summit, which began in Cannes, France, yesterday because of the European Union (EU) travel ban on him.
But the Africans are not boycotting in solidarity with Mugabe. On the contrary, 43 heads of state or government are attending the summit, an impressive turnout from Africa's 53 states. This may have created a precedent for the proposed European Union-Africa summit that has been postponed indefinitely since 2003 because of disagreements over the participation of Mugabe.
According to diplomatic sources, France had suggested that Zimbabwe be represented by Deputy President Joyce Mujuru, whose name is not on the travel ban list. But Zimbabwe said it was Mugabe or no one.
The snub of Mugabe represents a marked change from the last France-African summit in France in 2003, when Chirac controversially waived the EU travel ban to allow Mugabe to attend.
The fact that African leaders are not showing solidarity with Mugabe is raising hopes that the long-postponed EU-Africa summit could go ahead. The summit is supposed to take place in Portugal. But the EU does not want Mugabe to attend because of the travel ban. The African leaders have so far refused to attend if Mugabe cannot, so the summit remains postponed.
Some EU officials and southern European states, especially, have been agitating for the summit to go ahead with Mugabe in attendance. They had contended that the policy of isolating Zimbabwe had not helped the Zimbabwean people.
But Chirac's refusal to invite Mugabe to the Franco-African summit, and the apparent acceptance of this by other African leaders, suggests that the pendulum in the EU is swinging the other way, against Mugabe.
This suggests the African leaders might agree to attend the EU-African summit without Mugabe.
Of all the speakers in the opening session yesterday, it was only the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who mentioned the crisis in Zimbabwe, denouncing the repressive acts committed by the government.
Although Chirac is hosting delegations from 48 African countries, including 32 presidents, two kings and five prime ministers, inevitably much attention fell on those who were not present, like Mugabe.
Another prominent absentee was Rwandan President Paul Kagame. When a French judge tried to implicate Kagame in the death of his predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, in a plane crash in 1994, the event was used as an excuse by Hutu supremacists to embark on the genocide of the Tutsi minority. Kagame reacted by cutting off all relations with France.
The reason given was that Mbeki had to stay at home to attend a rescheduled ANC National Executive meeting.
The Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is heading the South African delegation.
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